14 February 2012
By Graeme McNicol
Over the coming weeks I am going to be writing a weekly blog on what life is like at a local rugby club. You are all fans of rugby and that is why you are on this website and reading this. However how many of you play the game and are connected to a club?
.jpg)
First of all I should start off by introducing myself, I am Graeme McNicol, by day (and some nights) I am a PR & Events Executive for a large financial company. By night and at the weekend I am the club captain and hooker at Lanark Rugby Club.
We are a small local club based in central Scotland, an area dominated by football. However for our size we have a strong squad and work well with the local community.
Over the coming weeks I am going to be writing a weekly blog on what life is like at a local rugby club. You are all fans of rugby and that is why you are on this website and reading this. However how many of you play the game and are connected to a club?
.jpg)
There are loads of benefits from being part of a club, especially a friendly club such as Lanark. We have a fantastic balance of fun, friendship and desire to win. I have seen other clubs that are just basically pub teams with no real aims or goals and then other clubs that are not friendly and are only interested in winning!
The people you get to meet is fantastic, every club has their characters. From the jokers to the studs to the muppets to the tight guy that does not buy a pint ever to the dirty player and all the others. Lanark is no different!
The camaraderie that is shared among the boys is fantastic; we train together, play together, drink together and win together. That is why we are top of our league. Oh and we shower together I forgot to mention that!
Unfortunately it has been rather quiet on the playing front of late at our club due to some poor weather. However off the field we have all been enjoying the RBS 6 Nations.
Last Saturday I was lucky enough to go to the Scotland vs England game, Murrayfield was buzzing. 67000 people filling the seats, the noise, the atmosphere, the build-up was amazing. Then the game started and it was all downhill from there.
In my opinion both teams came out the tunnel with the same attitude and that was: At all costs we must not lose this match. This made for a very dull, negative and boring game of rugby, if I am honest.
If both teams had come out and said that they must win the game we could have seen a wonderful, open, fast paced game of rugby. But instead we had to endure 80 minutes of boredom. And for what it is worth Laidlaw did score a try!
While me and some of the other boys from my team were at the game there was a large number of boys in our local pub watching the game. The Wallace Cave in Lanark, having spoken to some of the boys at training I am glad I did not go there as they drowned their sorrows and it turned into a rather messy night!
Our game had to be cancelled on Saturday unfortunately due to a frozen pitch; we made the call at 9am, unlike the France vs Ireland game. I feel for the Irish fans who have shelled out a fair amount of cash to attend that game, flights, hotels, tickets and beer money. Only to be told at the last minute it is not going to go ahead!
Anyway I have rambled on enough for one week; hopefully I will be back next week with some more from the info from the front row for you all.
.jpg){kind=link}
