Chapter 52

I left Saras’ house the following day with empty balls and feeling sated. I had woken up at five AM, and my bladder needed voiding. Then, when I went back to bed, we had another great shag before another hour’s rest.

Sara had set an alarm, which woke us. I made coffee as Sara showered. I did offer to wash her back, but she wouldn’t have any of it. She had to get to the club earlier than I did. We had a nice snog before she kicked me out the door.

I drove back to the hotel, had breakfast, and then went up to my room to shave and take a shower.

I made a coffee and checked my email. I had one from my tenant telling me she had a mortgage, so that was a bonus. I had one from Natalie, it was from her personal email address. She was not happy that I was leaving, but said she understood.

I drove to the club; it would be a morning of analytics and video work with the first team, followed by a short captains’ run, and then they had a few hours’ rest before kick-off at seven.

I arrived at the club and headed to the coaches’ offices. The guys were all there, and there was a pot of coffee on the side. I got a cup and we discussed the match.

They told me all the tickets had been sold, which was great news for the club. More folks, more cash. We had half an hour before the video session. I went to see Esse. She was up to her eyes in marketing stuff. She stopped when I walked in.

“Just the man!” she said, and stood up to hug me. “Do you fancy doing a radio slot for me?”

“Ermmmm!” I started to say. But she stopped me.

“The right answer is yes!” she said and sat me down. She told me that the local radio station was coming to the game for the first time. They would like a star to interview, and he saw me as that star. How could I refuse?

We had a chat about what I could say and what I couldn’t. Then I left to attend the video analyst session. The guys in the analysis department had done a great job. But to my mind, the session should have been done at the start of the week. The lads told us that the opposition full back didn’t like catching high balls and that neither the scrum half nor the fly half liked to tackle. So, the game plan was to kick high balls toward the fullback and to flood the channel that the numbers nine and ten were defending.

Suppose we had known that at the start of the week, we could have trained that way. Oh well, when I was there the following year, we would change when we had the video sessions.

After the video session, we all went to eat, the playing lads were good and stuck to the pasta and salad options. The coaches, including me, all went for burgers and fries.

After lunch, I went back to the hotel and packed as much of my gear away as I could. My flight home was early the following morning.

Then I got into some clean, club-branded kit. I made coffee and checked my emails.

I left the hotel ten minutes later. I drove over to the club and, after parking up, I headed into the coach’s office. The guys were all excited about the game. It was another sell-out, and that was always good.

The academy was playing first. They had a game against the Calgary Cowboys 2nd XV.

I went and sat in the coaches’ box for that game. The lads played well. Coley’s brother played well. He was one to watch out for in the future.

The first half of the game was low-scoring; each side scored only two tries, both of which were converted.

It was obvious in the second half that the Cowboys’ kicker was having an off day and made a few mistakes, which our lads pounced on. The kicker’s mistakes also seemed to have a knock-on effect, and his teammates seemed to lose their mojo. They gave away ten penalties, and our kicker was on top form, and he put two into the corners for lineouts, and the others he put between the posts.

Moose, the lad who had swung at me, was on top of his game; he won three turnovers using his new Jackling skills. He was another lad to watch out for the following season.

It was a good win, and the crowd showed their appreciation. As soon as the final whistle was blown, I ran down to the changing room. I got dressed in my club gear. I knew the S&C guys would have been warming the lads up on the training pitch.

As I was coming out of the coaches’ dressing room, the lads were being led out onto the pitch. I followed the lads out.

Our opposition, the Black Valley raiders, were on the pitch. They were one point above us in the table. I had looked at the table, and a five-point win today would leave us midway up the table.