Chapter 46

So, we went to Timmy’s as Esse called it. We both ordered a French Vanilla Latte and then I went for Boston Cream Donut and Esse picked a Honey Cruller. We sat down and Esse asked if I had seen the stuff on the social media channels. I admitted I hadn’t but pulled my phone out and took a look.

There were three posts I had been tagged into and I had over a hundred new friends requests.

There was a post and film of me working with the first team. Then there was a post with a dozen pictures of me working with the academy, and then there was the interview, which was matched with pictures of me from my playing days including one of me lifting the European Cup.

“Are they okay?” Esse asked.

“Yes, they are great,” I said, “they might even help with my job application,”

“They have helped with ticket sales; we are 20% up on sales already!” Esse smiled.

I knew that was good for the club, the money from the tickets and the additional sales of food, drink and merchandise would be helpful.

We tucked into our treats and the coffee, all of which were delicious. We chatted about our CD choices and Esse told me I would love Line dancing. She told me it was a good workout. I wanted to suggest another type of good workout but something told me it was not the time or place.

Esse drained her coffee cup and smiled at me.

“Well, I have stuff to do,” she said and gave me a cheeky wink.

“Right let’s hit the road,” I said.

We walked back to the car and I slotted in my new CD and we listened to it as I drove Esse home.

When we pulled up outside her apartment block, she turned to me and kissed me on the cheek.

“Thanks Zak, you are my hero,” she smiled.

“don’t be daft,” I smiled, “would you like me to pick you up tomorrow?”

“That would be awesome, but only as long as it’s not putting you out?” she replied.

“No, it’s not a problem, what time shall I pick you up?” I asked.

“let’s say eleven o’clock,” Esse said.

She stepped out of the car and I watched her cute ass as she walked up the steps to the door of her apartment block. Then I pulled out into the traffic and headed back to my hotel.

I took my kit bag up to the room, took a shower and checked my emails. There was nothing important. I spent half an hour deleting and replying as needed. My agent has asked about the book’s progress and I had to admit I had not touched it for a week. I went down to the bar and ordered a beer, a club sandwich, and some fries. I would need to go for a run before the game...

I only had one beer; I ate my food and made some notes before heading up to my room. It was only seven o’clock. I made a coffee, and opened the windows, as I found fresh air helps me write and got my head down and wrote some more of my book. I ended up writing until midnight and I felt good that I had made some good progress.

I slept well that night, I woke up around six. So, I got into my running gear once I was outside the hotel I did some warm-ups and then did a run, I went down the road and into a local park before running along a river. The sun was already high in the sky and it would be a hot day. I was sweating like a pig by the time I got back to the hotel.

I went up to my room and had a shave and shower, then headed down for breakfast. I opted for the full Canadian and pot of coffee. After breakfast, I headed back to my room, set an alarm on my phone, and got my head back into my book.

The alarm stopped me and I grabbed my kit bag and header down to the car park. I drove across town to pick up Esse. She was waiting at the curbside by her apartment block.

“Morning handsome,” she said as she got into the car.

“Hello Gorgeous,” I replied.

She kissed me on the cheek and pulled on her seat belt.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked as I pulled away from the curb.

“Yes, great thanks and you?” I asked.

“Yes, I had a few chores to do but then I met up with a friend,” she said. She didn’t say if it was male or female so I was left guessing.

We arrived at the club and the car park was half full, Esse directed me to the area where the staff parked. We both got out and I grabbed my kit back.

We headed into the clubhouse; the canteen was buzzing. Both teams the first fifteen and the academy were eating breakfast, as well as the coaches and medical staff.

I went in with Esse and we both had a bowl of porridge and some fruit. We sat with some of the medical staff. The chat around the table was about the social media stuff that had been getting lots of hits overnight.

One of the staff told me the game was now a sellout. Jim came over and asked me to meet him in the office when I was done. So, I drained my coffee cup and got a bottle of water and headed down to the coach’s office. Jim and Noah were in there, we all shook hands and I sat down.

“Right well let’s see if we can make a better show for the fans today!” Jim said.

“We just need to get the lads making the right decisions at the right time,” I said.

“Yes, to help with that we are going to have you running the water and the kicking tee on so you can talk to the players,” Noah said, “If that’s okay with you?”

“It makes sense to me,” I replied with a smile.

“Oh, and I had this for you,” Jim said and brought a club-branded kit bag from behind his desk.

A quick look inside showed me it was full of club-branded gear. All the kit had my initials sown in it, which was a standard thing in rugby. There we two pairs of shorts, two shirts, two training shirts, socks, a cap and all sorts of other bits and bobs.

The medics and the physios came in, one of them I think her name was Kelly brought a tray of coffees with her. She handed them out...

“Zak, I got you a latte is that okay?” she smiled.

“That’s spot-on thanks,” I smiled back. I wondered how she knew I liked a latte.

So, we all sat and chatted about what was expected during the game and then Noah looked up at the clock.

“Right, it’s time we got the players warmed up,” he said, “Zak do you want to warm up the forwards and I will take the backs,”

We all shook hands and then Noah and I headed down to the coach’s changing room.

I was soon changed into my club kit and was on the pitch with the players. We had the match day twenty-three plus another ten players. We always warmed up more than the match-day squad just in case there were any last-minute pullouts or injuries.

The physios were there as well, running the sets of warm-up exercises. The Edmonton Hawks lads were also warming up at the other end of the pitch. They looked like a big handy bunch of lads. Some of their coaches looked over at me and one even waved.

I turned back to our team and got my head into game mode. I have to be honest I wished I was playing that day, not sure why I just felt like I was up for a game.

Once the lads were warmed up, we took on fluids and then I led the forwards to one side of the pitch and we ran them through some tackling exercises. That led to lineouts and some scrum drills and we ended the session with some running and passing, just to get all the lads practising their ball-handling skills.

I borrowed one of the academy’s scrumhalf to practice box kicks from behind rucks so the lad we had chosen as our kick blocker could get some practice. He was called Steve Shaw and was known as Shawsy, he was a tall lad and he had a huge reach. We did a dozen kicks and he got his hands on more than half of them. I talked to him about looking for the tell-tail signs that the scrumhalf is going to kick not pass.

I glanced at my watch and at the same time, I saw Noah leading his lads into the dressing rooms.

I sent my lads in with them and then I stood for ten minutes and watched the opposition. Then I headed into the changing room. The noise and the smell took me back to my playing days.

It was a typical pre-game dressing room; some lads were sitting with earphones on. some lads were getting tapped up. the lineout jumpers got tapped to help the lifters grip their legs. Two of the physios were giving players massages.

Jim came over and told me the referee and the captains had done the coin toss and we had lost. The Hawks would be kicking off.

We had ten minutes before kick-off, I took an energy drink off the table that was loaded with bottles of water, energy drinks, bananas, and energy bars. I saw the captain talking to the referee and then the ref checked the studs of the player’s boots. It all took me back to my playing days.

The referee left the room and Jim gave the lads a speech, basically telling them to go out and do their best and to enjoy the game. Then it was the captain’s turn and as coaches, we left the room.

We all went out; then Jim and Noah went up to their seats in the stand. I went to stand in the technical area. Kelly handed out headsets. These would allow us all to communicate. As I was fitting mine, I saw the Edmonton Hawks players coming out onto the pitch. I glanced around the ground it was heaving.

“what’s is the capacity of the ground Kelly?” I asked.

“Five thousand and all the tickets for today’s game have been sold,” she smiled, she was cute and she had a cute smile. I saw the physios checking their bags of kit. I checked that the water bottles were all full there were three full sets. I made sure I knew where the kicking tee was.

I heard the clapping as our lads came onto the pitch, Esse was taking pictures with a stills camera and for the first time I noticed the camera crews. I had not realised that the match was being filmed.

The lads lined up and the referee waved at the assistant referees, or touch judges as most players of my age still call them. Then he lifted his whistle to his mouth and the game started.

Their fly half kicked the ball high into the sky and their chasers ran full tilt down the ground. Our number eight collected the ball and ran a good line. He passed the ball to one of the centres as he was being hit. The centre dummied out to his centre partner before passing inside to the fly-half who made some great ground. He was brought to the ground and the Hawks were quicker to the breakdown. They formed a ruck and their scrumhalf started to use his feet to get the ball to the back of the ruck. I looked for Steve Shaw, he need to get into position.

“Shawys ... Shawsy!!” I shouted, he glanced at me and then his brain kicked in he jogged into the right position, the Hawks scrum half glanced to his right and then the shape of his body told me he was going to box kick. For me time slowed down, the scrum half lifted the ball and his leg swung and the ball was in the air ... for a millisecond before Shawsy leapt at the ball and his big hands spread out and the ball slapped into them and our crowd erupted into cheers as our players ran at the ball. The hawk’s lads seemed to be in shock.

One of our back-row players went to the ground and grabbed the ball before popping it up to our scrum half. He was on his toes and made ten yards before he was tackled. We were ten yards away from the Hawks’s try line. Our lads rucked over our scrumhalf to secure the ball and one of the props ran in to act as scrumhalf and to secure the ball.

Our backs lined up ready to attack once the ball was retrieved. The prop passed. Our fly-half ran and after five steps before throwing a great pass to the inside centre, then the outside centre made a great run and I saw Max hitting the offensive line. I knew that they had called the tunnel ball move.

And they did it, the inside centre passed the ball behind the outside centre to the right-hand winger, and three Hawks defenders were left stranded as they tried to tackle our outside centre, which left a huge hole in their defensive line. The winger went through the hole and was followed by Max our Academy fullback. The Hawk’s defence was in tatters but two lads zeroed in on our winger and he timed his pass to perfection.

He was hit at the same time as he passed an inside ball to Max who ran in under the posts. The crowd went mad. The physios ran on and I grabbed the water bottles and the tee and ran on.

Our lads were jogging back to the halfway line, I dropped the water bottles for them and jogged over to the kicker. I had a water bottle and the kicking tee. Our fly-half and kicker was a lad called Brad.

“Brad take your time mate,” I said and handed him the water bottle. He took a swig and smiled at me.

“Well coach your tunnel ball move worked well,” he said and took on more water.

“You need to make sure Shawsy gets to the rucks Brad,” I told him and he handed the water bottle to me. I watched as he lined up his kick and after a pause, he slotted it between the posts.

Seven – Nil what a good start.

I grabbed the tee and jogged over to pick up the water bottles before leaving the pitch. I saw one of the academy players filling up the bottles.

I turned back to the game. The Hawk’s Flyhalf kicked off, our pod caught the ball and we fed out along the offensive line. Each player making good ground and keeping the ball alive.

The Hawks lads seemed to be in shock. They eventually got their act together and dragged our right-hand winger into touch. It was their line out. They called a five-man lineout and we lined up and arranged our defensive line. The Hawks hooker threw the ball to his back jumper, he palmed the ball down to his scrumhalf and he passed out to his flyhalf.

He made three steps before one of our players hit him hard, the ball bounced out of his hands and our inside centre pounced on it and our forwards rucked over him. Our scrumhalf got the base of the ruck and passed wide to the outside centre, Max our full-back had hit the offensive line at speed and called for the ball, the centre passed and Max was off like a hare. He sidestepped one defender and another tried to tackle him but Max put out a hand to block him.