A guy who picked up Rugby with no experience....

[Tankie]

I was looking through the rugby section and boards and found a very interesting post:

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055611380

First off its through this forum that i put up a quick question about joining rugby in the relevant sticky...
Soon enough i was pointed to Stillorgan RFC... I checked out the website and sent off a noobie email and i got a reply within the day from a chap called mark...

I asked him all the usual "ive never played rugby before, generally unfit, couch potato" kinda questions and he answered them all diligently.

The reason i was asking so many questions is
1. Im not from dublin (moved here from Limerick)
2. Were they friendly? ( a big crux for me as i have had mates that have played rugby for years and came to dublin and tried to settle into a team and were met with very clannish "you didnt go to school with us or college with us" behaviour.

This experience had me quite frankly a little shy about the whole joining especially since i have never played before.

So i got an email last week stating if i was still interested, pre season training was starting on Thursday (02/06/09).

In truth as i drove in i was thinkin to myself "i wonder how ill get on". When i got out of the car, the lads knew i was new and everyone made a huge effort to say hello, and explain a little about themselves etc...

We did some basic fitness training, circuits, sprinting, stretching, and 2 games of Tag to warm down... Suffice to say i was sweating alot, coming from a period of no exercise, in an office enviornment, sitting down all day.

Coming away, i felt it was a worthwhile experience, and that i felt that the lads there were dead on and would genuinely help you out if they saw you were falling behind etc... Theres a really team spirit there...

The next day, i was a little worse for wear in that i was quite stiff, However ill be back down for the training next week and hopefully it will get easier...

Ill post up in here how im getting along, for those who are humming and hawing about joining a great sport and were in the smae position as me about not playing, generally unfit etc...

The thread is fairly interesting and he has updated his second post on page 4 or 5. he really seems to be getting into it, i was wonder does anyone have any similar stories from GAA where a guy in his late 20's tried o take it up?

It will be interesting to see how this guy gets on when the contact training will start....but fair play to him, i think more people should be like this guy

[ziggysego]

Cousin of mine started playing for Omagh's second team in his late 20s and loved it. He took to the game pretty quickly and the management said he has the build of a natural.

[Rav67]

I was looking through the rugby section and boards and found a very interesting post:

To think you and Glasnevin go an about soccer fans starting shit/pointless threads!

[Gnevin]

I was looking through the rugby section and boards and found a very interesting post:

To think you and Glasnevin go an about soccer fans starting shit/pointless threads!

I agree this 1 rugby thread on page one is far to many we should start a other sports section . 

[Rav67]

I was looking through the rugby section and boards and found a very interesting post:

To think you and Glasnevin go an about soccer fans starting shit/pointless threads!

I agree this 1 rugby thread on page one is far to many we should start a other sports section . 

Just had to laugh at the description of this as "very interesting."  Some fella trying to make a few mates in a new city and he's decided to post up a blog about it.  Very 2009.  Maybe everyone on the board can start posting up a wee diary for all the teams they're involved with-  Can't imagaine youse 2 being too happy if the team in question is Blanchardstown Rovers (I hope there is a soccer team called that) rather than Stillorgan RFC!

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

I'd be more interested in a diary of board member's non-sporting activities.

Say if they were riding a porn star or something. Give us something exciting to read about.

[McPants]

Cousin of mine started playing for Omagh's second team in his late 20s and loved it. He took to the game pretty quickly and the management said he has the build of a natural.

I would actually have loved to do this kind of thing myself. Being foreign, I've never played any Gaelic football in my life, however certainly do enjoy watching it on tv.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Cousin of mine started playing for Omagh's second team in his late 20s and loved it. He took to the game pretty quickly and the management said he has the build of a natural.

I would actually have loved to do this kind of thing myself. Being foreign, I've never played any Gaelic football in my life, however certainly do enjoy watching it on tv.

No reason you couldn't. Worth asking a local club.

[DennistheMenace]

Unless he actually calls himself McPants that is..

[Roger]

I've met and introduced a number of Gaelic players into the rugby fraternity.  There seems to be a number of players that want to play rugby in the off-season.  Outstanding players at junior level in rugby clubs imo if they come to it late. But if they come to rugby early enough, you can see some of the handling of players at international level must have been influenced by GAA.  I think it was Quinlan who took a ball brilliantly above his head with ease in the 6N this year and my instant thought was "must've played gaelic football in his youth".  Big overlaps between the skills in the games. Kearney played GAA I think too and his ability with a ball is outstanding.  From an inclusiveness perspective I'd say rugby would be welcoming but I'd be interested to hear some of the stories of rugby players playing Gaelic in the rugby off-season (I've heard of a few doing so but not many) from a GAA POV on ability and inclusiveness.

[McPants]

No reason you couldn't. Worth asking a local club.

I fear the learning curve would be rather steep though, given that I'm still at the stage where I discover rules I didn't know existed every match I see. 

[ziggysego]

No reason you couldn't. Worth asking a local club.

I fear the learning curve would be rather steep though, given that I'm still at the stage where I discover rules I didn't know existed every match I see. 

The wee cubs from East Belfast weren't too long getting the basics last week.

What county are you in at the moment?

[McPants]

The wee cubs from East Belfast weren't too long getting the basics last week.

What county are you in at the moment?

Aontroim. I think St. Brigid's would be my local club unless there's one closer to Queen's university.

[ziggysego]

The wee cubs from East Belfast weren't too long getting the basics last week.

What county are you in at the moment?

Aontroim. I think St. Brigid's would be my local club unless there's one closer to Queen's university.

Queen's University itself as a GAA team. Try there, or St. Brigid's.

[McPants]

Queen's University itself as a GAA team. Try there, or St. Brigid's.

I'm not a Queen's student, so I suppose if I do give it a shot it would probably be with St Brigid's. Thanks for the info!