22nd September 2009

I didn’t realise how long ago it was that I wrote last! Oops!

Anyway. Rugby. So much to talk about!!

Six Nations 2009!
Well that was a surprise result for us English. I was thinking 3rd or 4th, but 2nd was rather nifty. Was about time Ireland won the Grand Slam, had been a while, my parents weren’t even born when Ireland won it last. Lol.

Good on them though. Was a disappointing finish for Wales though, ending up fourth. I had an awesome last weekend of the 6 Nations. A group of us went up to Twickenham and found a pub to watch all three matches in. Was amazing. We had all the home nations represented in our group, and our two Welsh girls, both who are not the biggest of people, managed to out sing the rather large group of Irish supporters there! Some new stars coming to the forefront as well.

Guinness Premiership.
Newcastle managed not to get relegated! Woohoo. I didn’t get to see much of the premiership this time round unfortunately, but have definitely heard enough over the recent months about various goings on. Drugs in Bath, Blood gate at Quins and the mass exodus of nifty players from the Falcons: Jonny gone, May gone, Noon gone…. Fingers crossed for this season.
Good to hear that Mr.Wilkinson is coming back into his own over in France though. Fingers, legs, toes and everything crossed that nothing goes wrong.

Grass Roots.
Managed to finish last season without a massive injury, which is an achievement in my book! Had an awesome players dinner, with the aftermath being well photographically documented….
The Ladies team at Beckenham have made a sensational start to their season, winning their first two league games by massive amounts! Unfortunately, uni has meant I can’t play there this season, but I wish them the very best of luck, and hope it continues! Bring on next season!!

Very brief summary of the end of last season I know, but there is a lot to look forward to this season, which has already started with a bang. Autumn internationals coming up very soon, some great domestic competitions to watch, 6 Nations…. Plus 2010- Women’s Rugby World Cup, right here in the UK, 2015 RWC, again in the UK. Will be awesome.

On a separate note. Spent my summer hols in Australia this year, and caught a fair amount of rugby league, and what they showed of the union. League shorts out there are something to behold. I don’t think I’ve seen shorts quite that short since the Carling, Underwood era over here in Union. Was beautiful to behold. It’s definitely the adopted code over there, with Union taking a back seat in almost all of the States. I still don’t understand Aussie Rules though, just seems like a bit of a free for all. Shall just have to go back and learn the rules! Hehe

Oh! I’ve managed to get my first black eye, complete with egg shaped lump and concussion! Training incident funnily, collision with someone’s shin! Ouch. Was a pretty impressive shiner at its best, has lasted at least 3 weeks. I was rather impressed after the headaches went. I don’t recommend concussion, nasty. Make sure you go down to A&E as soon as you do something like that, I didn’t, kept training and the doctor told me off when I went down there 2 days later….. was rather embarrassing.

TTFN, and enjoy the rugby season. xx

11^th February 2009!

HELLO!

It has been a long time. Really should organise myself better!

Happy New Year by the way, didn’t realise that September was the last time I wrote a blog. Poor form there.

Autumn internationals….. Let’s leave those shall we. Although I was fortunate enough to get tickets to the Pacific Islands match as that was the match that the stone I was bought was unveiled in the Walked of Legends…. Am just under Martin Corry.

Anyway, I scored my first try of the season the other weekend. I backed myself and ran round the opposition to score near enough under the posts… ok, I did loose my feet and basically fell over the line, giving up my ability to breathe to make sure that the ball went down, but it was a try and that’s what counts.

So, the 6 Nations has begun, I reckon it’ll be pretty tight, although given England’s performance over the weekend we better buck up our ideas if we have even the faintest hope of beating Wales in Saturday. We need some Fizz. I can’t believe Johnson hasn’t started Tait when he managed to attempted to create something for the short amount of time he was on. Tis a massive blow that Care is injured as well. We really needed someone who would take the game by the scruff of the neck and try things, get some fast ball!!!

And finally, as the news would say, something a bit more girly. I have found recently that every time I travel into Central London from the Northern parts of the lovely city, I am confronted by the new Dolce and Gabana men’s underwear adverts. Clearly there was someone very clever involved with that advert because it would not have been the same if it had used footballers. My goodness girls, although not much could be said for the Italian rugby team’s game on Saturday, a lot can be said for their modelling credentials….. especially their Captain, Sergio Parisse. Not only did he try and take on England single handed in the 1^st half of the match and almost succeed, he also looks very very good in Dolce and Gabana pants! Hehe.

Lizi

13th September 2008
 
Well, I have found out for definite that the career of a sports photo journalist is not for me. Firstly I haven't got the attention span to actually take decent photos of the match as I get far to engaged in what is going on, either that or I completely miss the vital moments as I'm either shouting or jumping up and down too much!
I have done the best I can though.
 
I was planning to do a match report, hoping that our lads would win and crossing my fingers that I would take in every bit of info and be able to remember exactly how the match went. Neither of those two things occurred! Lol

Beckenham, unfortunately didn't show their full potential, which was a shame, although they did show their brand new tight fit shirts, which will take a few more matches for me to decide whether I like them or not. I have a congratulated Dover for a good game, ever the sports women, and for giving us supporters (mainly of the female variety, or maybe just me) something to do when it got a little bit slow, so big hand to the Dover no.9. ;) lol. Oh and so that my loyalty to Beckenham is not questioned, our lads are all far better to look at...............luv ya lads.xxlol

(Note from Ed - Here we go Lizi - Ben (Dover 9) was one of the grass root boys who launched RFTG in 2005.)

Anyway, sensibly, it was in parts a bit of a scrappy match with both teams dropping passes and infringing on the odd occasion. There were some good pieces of play  with a fabulous line being run from one of the Dover players for either the first or second try of the match, and an awesome run from one of Beckenham's wingers to score our lads only try of the match. The score at the end was 29-7 (I think....). Beckenham can only go onwards and upwards from here and I'm sure they'll look forward to the match at Dover.
 
So that was the diplomatic and sportsperson like write up! That's not what was said by me or the other Beckenham supporters during the match...... we tend to get a tad passionate! Hehe.
 
I have my first league match of the season which I am apprehensively looking forward to. Hopefully should be a good'un. Oh and Sunday also sees the well awaited return of Jonny Wilkinson. I don't hold my breath for a win from the Falcons boys but I sit in hope....
 
Oh and have added the piccies that weren't taken..... the few that I managed to get!
Lizi.xx"
 

And so the season starts! OUCH!
We won our first game at the weekend. Was a friendly, but we won it 10-0 and feel all the better for it. Although we did get a beasting at training and did a hell of a lot of fitness. I do not recommend doing training when you feel ill already, it just makes you feel a whole load worst!
Anyway, our lads have started off as well, not sure on scores so far, but their first league game ( I think, may be their second, but am not very up to date with things!) is this Saturday coming, against the RFGT favourites, Dover Sharks. I shall take some piccies and if I get any good'uns I'll send em! Hehe
 
Premiership: Started off last weekend, not too many shocks really, although I am disgusted by one thing..... Jonny Wilkinson's hair. The boy is amazing, and obviously this is just one floor, but! Lol. Hopefully once he's back playing sense will be knocked into him. Hehe.
 
Can't think of much else really, but am sure as the season progresses there will be more rantings and ravings!

9th July 2008
 
So, the season over here has finished and the Tri-Nations beginnings.
 
I saw snippets of the New Zealand vs. South Africa match, which from what I saw looked like a giant scrap more than anything else. It'll also be interesting to see how the ELV's change the game. I'm still not very clued up on the changes, but it'll be interesting to see if the game develops from here on.
I didn't particularly want to mention it, but the controversy out in NZ during the England tour has now been sorted by the sounds of it. No formal complaint has been made and the RFU are looking into it.  Done and dusted. Let's just hope nothing like that happens again!
 
Premiership fixtures are out, pre-season matches have been announced and transfers are happening. I'm hoping the Newcastle can find their form this season, although the loss of Tait and Flood is going to be a blow.  I'm a little worried by the number of over seas players that are starting to come in. If we're not careful there's going to end up being a bit of football syndrome happening and that's going to hamper England as our up and coming young stars aren't going to get a look in when it comes to Premiership rugby, which they need to be able to move onto the next level. I just hope that the rugby boards recognise this before it's too late.
 
Pre-Season training has started and my fitness is not where I want it to be! Lol. I am being proactive and going for runs and doing sessions in between training at the club, so hopefully when our full pre-season starts I won't die in the first session!  We've got more matches organised this time, which will hopefully mean that our season will get off to a good start. We're also in the process of organising a pre-season tour up to Newcastle (hehe, can't wait for that one! :)). This should all mean that we gel more as a team, which will help our game as a whole.
 
I have also found out that our 1st XV have a friendly with an RFTG favourite. Dover Sharks!  Could be a good one, and will definitely be going down to watch that one. I will attempt to put up my very own match report, but I wouldn't hold your breath as I tend to get too into the game and then don't remember the stats of it all, but will attempt to make some notes in between the yelling and the drinking. Hehe.
 
Enjoy pre-season and the Tri-Nations.
Xx

7th June 2008

 
CLUB DINNER!!! What a great night that was.
 
We had a brilliant night last night at BRFC. Good laugh, socialising and of course drinking. True to form the ladies team tables got through the most bottles of wine! All the girls looked fabulous and out shone the boys obviously!
Best bit of the evening was our guest speaker. Jason Leonard. How cool is that! Lol!
The club had supplied him with a few pints by then I think. He's such a lovely guy, very approachable, but shorter than I expected!  I myself am rather proud of the fact I could still walk in my 4 inch heels at 3.30 this morning and was the last of the ladies side to leave the club! Brownie points for me I think!
I am thinking of starting a collection of photos..... possibly try and get photos with all of the 2003 world cup final team..... I now have a piccy of me and Jason to add to the one of me and the gorgeous Mr. Wilkinson. (See Gallery)
 
Bit of a rest from the rugby this weekend, but it will all start up again soon. England start off their tour to NZ, summer training at the beginning of July (ouch!), and I know Ireland and Wales have already started their tours (can't remember if Scotland have), but I was asleep this morning during the Ireland (well, getting up to watch that after last night wasn't going to happen was it!), and I had a snooze during the Wales match ( well after very little sleep a girl needs to catch up on her beauty sleep!lol), I shall definitely be tuning in to their next matches and supporting the rest of the home nations.
Xxx

1st June 2008

Ok, so the season didn't finish quite as well for the ladies team as we had hoped, although both matches were great fun! The Dutch side who some of us met while playing Beach rugby in Belgium last summer, came over on tour and although we did not win the match, it was a god match and even better post match! I did remember all that I said and did, but did feel a little worse for wear the next morning!
The lads played in the Kent Cup final. Unfortunately they lost, but it was a great day out for supporters, and a big night out after..... again I can remember everything I did and said, even though some of it was highly embarrassing.  Uni the next day was an interesting one. Was a good thing it was a sunny day..... it gave me an excuse for wearing sun glasses! :) Last major event of the season is this Friday, the annual players dinner, which I am rather excited by seeing as our after dinner speaker is the one and only Jason Leonard!!!!!
 
The premiership is over for another season. Newcastle were disappointing and have now suffered some big blows with losing Matt Tait to Sale (am not happy about this considering am probably going on tour to Newcastle in the summer..... tis just inconsiderate on his part me thinks! Lol), Floody possibly to Leicester and now Matt Burke has retired after injury! I shall have my fingers, toes and everything else for next season.
Wasps did it again, and wish I'd put money on it. Grrr. Didn't catch the match which was unfortunate, but I hear from friends that it was a good day out for supporters!
England vs Barbarians. I am going to look at the positives, which are Matt Tait....think he showed Brain Ashton why he should have been included, and the lineout at the beginning of the match. There were some other positives, but am not going to make judgement yet as we have a long way to go. It was good to see Danny Care on the pitch, starting to settle into the role of an international scrumhalf. I hope to see him grow into this role and make it his own, as England could do with a quick, nippy, scrumhalf who isn't going to spend half his time chatting to the ref! Bring on the tour to NZ.
 
That's it for this week I think.  Hope you all enjoy the summer rugby and a little break from training for those who play. TTFN!Xxx

14th April 2008
 
Well the seasons almost over, but the rugby is still great. Premiership is look set to have some real fights towards the close. England travel to NZ and the Lions tour schedule announced for next year. Oh so much to look forward to.
 
Right where shall I start......
 
Premiership: Quins seem to have got their form just at the right time and with a young squad could be a force to be reckoned with come play offs. Gloucester are looking steady, while Wasps seem to need a bit more consistency, although they definitely can't be written off. Leeds seem to be certain to go back down for next season being replaced by an unbeaten Northampton side.
 
Grass Roots:
BRFC ladies are looking to finish off the season with hopefully two wins, with a friendly this week and our last league game a home game. The 2nds deserve a BIG congrats after winning their league. Well Done boys. 1sts have their last league game at home on sat and have got through to the final of the Kent Plate AGAIN, all be it slightly easier than anticipated! Overall has been a good season for BRFC and can hopefully only get better next season.
 
Can't think of much else at the moment, but will update this soon hopefully.
All the best and enjoy the rest of the rugby.
Xx
Oh and enjoy the piccies of some of our lads I have added to my gallery.


Happy New Year!!!!!

Oh so much to catch up on, it’s hard to decide where to begin!

Think I’ll start with grass roots this time. It hasn’t been a good start to the New Year for BRFC. The 1^st are having a bit of trouble as are the ladies side,but hopefully after the Christmas food has worn off everything will pick up!

On the bright sideI got a copy of our calendar photo shoot….

The Ladies Teamphotos are fab and have added a few. The lads ones are also rather good andshall check with some of them to see if they mind putting some of the photos inmy next entry….. believe me, you’ll love them girlies! Hehe

Right,international news…… NO JOSH LEWSEY IN THE SIX NATIONS SQUAD!WHYYYYYY????! I know Ashton has said he is not outof contention for Englandand he’s bringing up new guns and all that, but what if things go wrong????Little bit of an odd decision in my opinion, but we shall see if it works. England vs Wales next week and being a ¼ welshI have devised a cunning plan to support both sides. England shirt, but Welsh underwear…..La Senza did home nations underwear during the world cup. Hehehe. Brilliant!(They’re still on sale too I think, so have a squiz.. could be fun!)

Newcastle disappointed me yesterday with a bad loss to Leicester.However, I think after their try fest the week before, they’ve learnt how to score tries finally!!!!! The news that the wonderful Wilkinson has extended his contract for two more years was taken very well the other day.YAY!  I still have a very good reason towatch rugby to improve my own skills and performance…. ;)

That is all for now, but more to follow soon I hope…..
Lizi

Oh dear…. So far behind on the blogging. Where do I start!

19th October 2007
The nerves have already started and so has the competitiveness. I had to control myself on the train into uni today while sitting opposite a man in a South African rugby shirt! Lol

It’s been one hell of a week as far as rugby is concerned. I played on Sunday and technically we should have won the match outright, but due to a massively inexperienced ref and a few missed chances the match finished 0-0. Was very pleased with my own performance, and finally got that confident warm and satisfied feeling back after a good game.

England vs. France was a nail bitter and a half. I had to keep stum about the score my parents were going to watch it later after having gone out. You’d have thought this would be pretty easy, but considering that when England loose in a tight match I tend to get quite upset and a little angry, I think they may have gathered we’d won without me saying a word! Tis a good thing that trusty boot fires in the right direction when it’s really needed though! Couldn’t sit still in the last 10mins and then collapsed at the end of the match. I could not believe it...

Lizi's first blog
Right, first blog.... where to start!!! Ok, its the start of season and the RWC 2007, which is a complete nightmare for those who love to play the game as well as watch it. Not only are here intense pre-season training session, pre-season socials and friendly matches, which make you tired enough, there are also the late RWC game to think about! Although an England supporter through and through, I love to watch some of the 'smaller' teams play. The likes of Samoa, Argentina and Fiji are really coming on leaps and bounds, and at this present point in time are far more interesting to watch... I just have to mention the France vs. Argentina game and you can see where I'm coming from. I'm sure this years world cup is going to be one full of upsets, big hits and brilliant tries.... bring it on!

That's the watching covered, now the playing. Pre-Season under a new coach is brilliant, if not a little tiring. We started off training with the lads, which pt us through our paces, but I like to think we kept up. We're now getting ready for our first match on sunday, which hopefully will show how much work we've put in as far as fitness is concerned, however there are always going to be elements of rustiness when the team hasn't played together for a few month......

I think at this point I should rewind to the end of June when my pre-season started off with a bang! Our club social sec. organised a club tour to the Beach Rugby competition in Belgium. This was to be my first tour, and definately an experience I will never forget. Not only did we find out that rugby plus sand leads to numerous complications when running, but that the mainland european competitors seem to take this very seriously. We'd only gone over as a sort of club bonding, come laugh! It worked though and the ladies team are definately becoming more and more excepted as the seasons go on. Apart from the rugby, a lot of drinking was done, mainly by everyone else, which made the second evening there great to watch! We managed to get from Dover to Calais without being checked by customs, with what must have been about 10-15 crates of beer as well as bottles of wine. From what I know any amount of alcohol is not supposed to be on the coach, let only the incredibly large quantity we had! We were also told to bring certain items with us. These were: an inflatable, silly glasses, a funny hand and a bucket and spade. Never actually found out what these were for, but they led to some interesting photos, with one of the lads of course bringing an inflatable doll, and quite a few sandcastles being built by grown men! bless.
 
Well I think thats about it for now.... enjoy the next round of the RWC.x.x
Lizi xx

Lizi Wharton
'Girlie in shorts'

Happy New Year!!!!!

Oh so much to catch up on, it’s hard to decide where to begin!

Think I’ll start with grass roots this time. It hasn’t been a good start to the New Year for BRFC. The 1^st are having a bit of trouble as are the ladies side,but hopefully after the Christmas food has worn off everything will pick up!

On the bright side.I got a copy of our calendar photo shoot….

The Ladies Team photos are fab and have added a few. The lads ones are also rather good andshall check with some of them to see if they mind putting some of the photos in my next entry….. believe me, you’ll love them girlies! Hehe

Right,international news…… NO JOSH LEWSEY IN THE SIX NATIONS SQUAD!WHYYYYYY????! I know Ashton has said he is not outof contention for Englandand he’s bringing up new guns and all that, but what if things go wrong????Little bit of an odd decision in my opinion, but we shall see if it works. England vs Wales next week and being a ¼ welshI have devised a cunning plan to support both sides. England shirt, but Welsh underwear…..La Senza did home nations underwear during the world cup. Hehehe. Brilliant!(They’re still on sale too I think, so have a squiz.. could be fun!)

Newcastle disappointed me yesterday with a bad lossto Leicester.However, I think after their try fest the week before, they’ve learnt how toscore tries finally!!!!! The news that the wonderful Wilkinsonhas extended his contract for two more years was taken very well the other day.YAY!  I still have a very good reason towatch rugby to improve my own skills and performance…. ;)

That is all for now, but more to follow soon I hope…..

Lizi

Right, RWC. Our boys played so, so well. I was so proud but it still hurt a lot to be beaten. Mind you the Springbok team had been working as a side purely for this world cup so all credit to them, they pulled it off… We’ll get em next time! The atmosphere down at the rugby club was amazing and I’m sure if we’d got more people shouting at the television Matt Tait would’ve been able to go all the way. Hehe.

Jason Robinson, Billy Whizz, which ever name you’d prefer to use, made his exit from the International rugby scene after the RWC, but not before getting his own back on the South African’s by beating them comprehensively with the BaBa’s. Bet it felt good!!

Club rugby is going well. I was out injured for 3 weeks after managing to strain the muscles and joint of my hip while scoring my first try for the Ladies side. It’ll probably be memorable for the fact that it was the most painful try I’ve scored! We’ve had a few blips over this half of the season, but our match last Sunday has to be our best so far. We won 5-0, which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the first time we’d beaten our opposition and the match was incredibly close. We all put in fab performances and showed our new coaches what we can actually do….. more like that next year me thinks!

We were also given the opportunity to take part in a calendar shoot for the club which made for a great day. Unfortunately due to funding the calendar could not be produced, but am determined to get a copy of the CD of pics and make my own.

This day also saw my first pub crawl with the club, and an amusing evening it was. It was a great chance for me to let my hair down after a pretty hectic few weeks at uni. The best moment I reckon has to be beating one of our first team at drinking. I will mention no names but there were witnesses! Hehe.

I think that’s it for the moment. Very quick little round up, but with xmas hols here, will be more frequent in my updates! 

Oh missed a bit. Cambridge won again in the Varsity match. Well done lads. Unfortunately their U21’s couldn’t do the same, but well done to a good friend of mine (he knows who he is), for starting on the bench for them and getting a 30 min run out at Twickers, lucky so and so! Our 7’s boys haven’t made the greatest of starts, but hoping they can pick themselves up as they go through the tournament. Big shout out to Beckenham lads who are all doing well too with the 1^st up to 4^th in their league last time I looked and our seconds having only lost 2 matches so far this season, but not entirely sure where this puts them. Lastly, well done to the England lads for getting BBC Sports Personality Team of the year. Woohoo!