What position did you play?
-
@MiketheSnow said in What position did you play?:
Second Five (Inside Centre) at senior level
Migrated to Openside by the time I finished.
Done by 29. Fucked knee.
Quitter.
-
I was thinking about a similar thread to this the other day - thinking we should do a poll first to guess what position other posters play, then see how well the projections match reality.
But like most other things I think of, I couldn't be bothered getting around to it.
-
First five / Fullback all throughout club and college, too many concussions so gave the game away in my mid twenties.
-
@voodoo And you haven’t added anything meaningful to this thread either. Well done, top skills.
-
@Catogrande said in What position did you play?:
@voodoo And you haven’t added anything meaningful to this thread either. Well done, top skills.
A suitcase, if you will. Blindside flanker it is then...
-
@NTA said in What position did you play?:
Going back onto the field this weekend after the heart scan produced no problems. Sure, Mrs TA isn't thrilled, but maybe she should spend less time worrying about my injuries and more time massaging me after games and admiring my manly pursuits?
Any of the front row positions, though even I consider hooker a bit mental. I did a bit of second row (no lineout jumping tho I won a few here and there) and flanker but second row is too much anaerobic and flanker way too much aerobic.
What I love about the level of rugby I'm playing now is the other blokes very rarely know what they're doing, so it is a field day by and large. Happy to swap tips during or after the game, depending on how fast they learn
Who were you playing against ? Leprechauns?
-
I thought I was a first-five, as I could kick, and pass really well. To my left. I had also perfected the kick and regather ala Kieran Crowley vs Scotland in 1990, after thousands of practices at the park, unopposed. First played at 16, in trials for the 1st XV. Ended up in the 6th XV, and hidden out on the wing as I literally had no idea what I was doing. Never attempted a kick and regather, which is also how I treated tackling. Almost needless to say, that was my one and only seasons as a schoolboy.
At around 21 I emerged from retirement - to much fanfare - in Division 5. By now I was large enough to play in the loose forwards, but had ZERO other attributes. Unfit, unkmept and largely unwilling (except when it came to the social aspect), I made as bad a flanker as a first-five, and was again shuffled out to the wing although this time I was even slower. My acceptable passing was recognised though as I often trained at half-back and occasionally 10. Retirement again came after a little more than two seasons in the team, on top after scoring my one and only career try (thanks to the slope on a South Hagley Park field helping me careen miraculously over the line in a corner) and a career-defining solid training just the week before. My team mates will best remember me for my nickname and appalling end of season trip antics.
-
Centre mainly. A little fullback. Some flanker. Now centre / first five (mainly due to lack of better alternative). Palagi "power winger" when playing for parliament. 😂
-
@Catogrande I'm nothing if not consistent...
My playing career only started started at Uni - I played soccer and basketball as a young fella, then was all about basketball at High School where our coach wouldn't let us play rugby in senior years
So I played at Uni then subbies in Sydney and some club stuff in London until early 30's. Played 12 and 13, was never great as I'm slow and didn't have those fundamentals you get as a wee kid. But I loved tackling and running straight - no outside break, every step was back into the forwards, and you wouldn't want to have been playing outside me 😬
I really should have been playing 6 but I hated mauling. Cnts standing on your toes, bloody hurts!
-
Wing as boy, center through my main years playing as a teenager.
My coach one year asked me to play lock as I was the tallest in the team - after one half he asked me what my real position was - if I had one
Went straight back to 13.
Went to 12 when I came to Japan and didn’t have the speed to defend the outside break against the little fast bastards here, then 6 for the last two years jumping at 2 and not doing much else forwarding.
All done with that by 30, and was in the process of getting back into it for a presidents grade type thing when I had my stroke at 35.
-
Was tall so was always in the forwards as school and when I started club rugby.
Played club rugby for a couple of years and it was only in the second year I switched to 2nd 5/8 which was my best position. I could often beat a man and make a break, set up 2nd phase or occasionally pass. By then I'd discovered motorcycling and basketball so rugby pretty much stopped.
Was never really good at sport (unlike my wider whanau which has a number of sports stars) - just enjoyed playing and participating.
-
@Catogrande said in What position did you play?:
@MiketheSnow said in What position did you play?:
Second Five (Inside Centre) at senior level
Migrated to Openside by the time I finished.
Done by 29. Fucked knee.
Quitter.
Beginning of my ski career
Still going strong at 53
3 days before Lockdown
Soul turns on Hokkaido
-
As a midget with a decent turn of pace, wing through my early childhood.
Hit secondary school and as a midget with a turn of pace, played wing until 15 when I spent the off season teaching myself to pass/kick off both hands/feet, then the next coach took a punt on me at fullback. Where I showed I was a running fullback.
Club rugby at first was mostly fullback, where as a skinny bones I learnt it hurt less to tackle the massive polys than pretend to tackle. When I hit prems I was mostly wing/fullback with the odd trot at centre in the reserves. Season of U85s before coming over here where I was a centre who covered blindside at a pinch.
Over to the UK and was thrust into the hard running and tackling 12/13 mainly as no-one knew how to run lines or hit hard. Would cover wing/fullback but had lost any sense of kicking skills by then.
Onto vets where half the time I would end up being an absolutely shit 10, or a mediocre centre. But man could I shout at people.
-
@MN5 said in What position did you play?:
@NTA said in What position did you play?:
Going back onto the field this weekend after the heart scan produced no problems. Sure, Mrs TA isn't thrilled, but maybe she should spend less time worrying about my injuries and more time massaging me after games and admiring my manly pursuits?
Any of the front row positions, though even I consider hooker a bit mental. I did a bit of second row (no lineout jumping tho I won a few here and there) and flanker but second row is too much anaerobic and flanker way too much aerobic.
What I love about the level of rugby I'm playing now is the other blokes very rarely know what they're doing, so it is a field day by and large. Happy to swap tips during or after the game, depending on how fast they learn
Who were you playing against ? Leprechauns?
One of the better scrummaging second rows
-
Wing/centre through college and early years of club rugby. Stocky power winger... Inga was my childhood hero lol. Then I got fat after uni and for a number of years was one of the quicker props you'd see in reserve grade in wellies. Ah, the cape of faint praise and self deprecation still fits 😁
Wish I'd drilled more skills younger though, average tackler but loved contact 🤷♂️ knew I didn't have the mongrel for higher grades... ah or the talent!Great thread btw! 👍
-
Prop through highschool and just shuffled over one to hooker for club in uni, mainly due to the size of the props I was playing with so had a crash course in line out throwing in preseason
Gave up club whilst at uni, didn’t feel I could work, do uni and commit to playing
Played pick up games or social since
-
@MiketheSnow Nice. the second vid reminds me a bit of those trains going through the snow in Siberia. Not sure they know quite where they're going sometimes too!
-
@Catogrande said in What position did you play?:
@MiketheSnow Nice. the second vid reminds me a bit of those trains going through the snow in Siberia. Not sure they know quite where they're going sometimes too!
Yep, I've had to drop anchor plenty of times especially in the trees.
The snow is so light and deep you can be out of vision for a couple of turns.
And if you don't get the breathing right it's like trying to swallow a piece of coal.
-
Left wing mainly but I played in every other backline position at least once, apart from 1st 5, at schoolboy level.
I gave up rugby at uni and played more cricket (indoor and outdoor) at that time.
I've been playing Sunday league football for the last 18 years. Much easier on the body but playing against kids less than half your age makes it interesting. I was marking a guy that was in the Wellington Phoenix Academy a few weeks back.
