23rd October
Deacs diary has been updated by Gavin Cattle
Dear Diary
Well it's always mixed feeling when you return on a Monday morning
following a bitterly disappointing defeat.......On one hand you dont
want to be reminded of what happened and on the other you just want to
rewrite your wrongs and put things right!! We reviewed and looked at
the Quins and Stade game in detail and recognised the areas where we
need to improve!! From there on in we concentrated on "Operation
Bristol!"
Training has gone well.......both players and coached have recognised
where there maybe opportunities to exploit Bristol. The boys have
rolled their sleeves up this week and worked really well, especially
being the last game at Stradey! It's going to be emotional in sending
stradey off with a win it deserves, and there is an inner belief in
the squad that the right result can be achieved!
We have a couple casualities in the pack from the Harlequins and Stade
games which has left an opportunity for some of the other squad
members to step up to the plate!! Both Vernon (Rib cartilage) and
Simon Mailing aka Donk (Calf) were the unfortunate ones in the pack
from the Quins! Congratulations go to Dom Day who has had an excellent
showing in France of what he can do on one of the biggest stages in
club rugby. It's always healthy to see the youngsters pulling on the
Scarlets jersey and showing what they are made of......Lou Reed has
shown what he is capable of and now his housemate Dom has the same
opportunity!! Who knows they could be the second row pairing for the
future of Wales......We hear that they work well together so that
should stand them in good stead!!!
On the conditioning side of things we are currently in the strength
and power phase. Basically that means heavier weights and less
repititions. Some big weights being shunted around...."Bad News Mews"
is pretty handy with the bench press and Daf Jones recording some
good results.........must be his vocal techniques helping him finish
his lifts.....Wow deafening!!!!
The long term casualties (Deacs, Mo, Lou and Jamo) are progressing
quickly ....... It's a regular occurance to see Brad and Ryan beasting
the boys!!! Hopefully they will be back in the red jersey sooner
rather than later. No doubt they will be physically ready going by
the work they are putting in!
Thats about it.......hopefully we will put it all together where it
matters this weekend and Monday will be a better beginning to next
weeks training!
Catts aka the "Sugar Man"
4th October 2008
Dear diary,
Well a lot has happened since the last time I wrote.
The season has well and truly started and for most it is a time for pushing for spots in the team and getting ready for Europe.
All was going to plan in the first week , we just had two wins and were well on top of Connacht when I had a nasty head clash with an opposition player and a freak turn of events put me out for 8-10 weeks with a fractured cheek bone and a fractured eye socket.
It was quite an experience going into a hospital ward with people ranging from hip replacements to people that were in very poor health which made me appreciate things in a new light.
The staffs there were wonderful and the endless banter from the able patients made my time very enjoyable.
Being injured is never fun and this is the first time in my time as a professional player that I will be missing out on over 2 weeks in a row of playing.
For injured players the day has a different make up if you were playing.
· For starters we are to be at the rugby ground at 730 am for a weigh in to monitor how heavy /light we are and to take on our various supplements before training.
· We then have a prehabilitation training session followed by a gym strength session.
· On completion of this we need to have food in Wayne James cafe and get treatment on various injuries.
· We then have rehabilitation exercises prescribed by the Physio's John and Pat before the able injured players are able to take part in training.
· With the decreases in work load on game day we have to do various community visits. During the week we visit schools or do visits to local sponsors as well, which the guys always enjoy.
Having lost touch with the day to day carry on with the boys I was eager to find out any gossip or news from the two weeks that I was away.
A lot had gone on behind the scenes in the last few weeks:
· In an attempt to rediscover his youth "Billy" Iestyn Thomas had what can only be described as highlights in his hair when he went to the hairdresser last.
· Several of the boys have decided to start up coaching qualifications with 15 of the Scarlets players taking the first steps into a possible coaching role in the future
· Lou Reed has put together a range of music to listen to for our gym sessions, music from Barry White, Bryan Adams, and Celine Dion , this may well have been his romance music as he is quite a Casanova
· Ken "kebab" Owens was caught eating 10 vegetarian sausages after training. In which he claimed he had only had 6 but admitted losing count after 5
Deacs
Dear Diary,
As with summer, preseason has come and gone. It was a preseason that set new standards both off and on the field. For the first time this year we have integrated committees to run the off field side of things. A variety of committees have been established by the boys, including a disciplinary committee which foresees fines placed on members involved in any misdemeanours. An entertainment committee and a charity committee amongst others have also been formed. Each committee brings something new and unique to our team culture..
To date they are all in their teething stages in particular the discipline committee, in which Bates (James Bater) is the captain of the committee and has had trouble with a rogue agent Smiler (Matthew Rees) who has gone a- wall with fining people for absolutely anything, which inevitably will lead to the demise of his position prematurely .
Aber
Camp in Aberystwyth was just what the team needed to hone in on our game plan for the season and enjoy each others company in a new environment. If this season was about getting bigger and faster, getting bigger on this camp was going to be easy. The food that was put on for us was amazing and I have never experienced such good food in a rugby environment in all my travels. This came to the detriment of a few players namely Waca (Nathan Thomas) who put on an extra couple of kg that can only be described as excess weight .
In between getting fed and getting whipped in to shape we managed to go for an afternoon in Bala where we went white water rafting down some relatively gently rapids.
My group was Rob "the Rock" Higgit, Cats ( Gavin Cattle), Bates , Patrick "robot" Moran (head Physio) and myself. What I was to experience going down the white water rapids was astounding and surprising. The Rock and Cats were at the front for the second time down and in all honesty it was like watching two fish out of water, they were holding on to the sides of the raft with white knuckles and were pinned down to the deck of the raft huddled in their respective corners in the foetal position . Thank goodness they are much happier tackling big forwards and running full steam at opposition than they are on the water.
Bath away.
Following on from our camp we went to bath to play our first preseason game . It took a while to adjust to the new rules and we ended up going down. There were lots more positives than negatives and there were some standout performances throughout the team.
Wasps
Adams Park, home of the Guinness premiership champions Wasps, one of the top sides in English rugby. Coming off a loss to Bath we were determined to win away from home and get the winning mentality right away from home as we have such a lot of away games early on in the competition.
We travelled the day of the game and it was a long old bus trip to Wasps. There were some fans that travelled from Llanelli and it was great to have their support at the ground. With some big hits being put in it took the sting out of Wasps.
It was a classic match with Ceiron kicking the winning points in the dying minutes. All in all a good day at the office. It was a long day on the bus next day as between Lou Reed and Phil John there were way too many beans eaten for breakfast that morning.
Well diary that is it for me this preseason, in retrospect it has been an enjoyable pre season , which has seen the boys grow closer over time to form a solid basis and foundation for the oncoming season.
Deacs