Each summer, Michigan Rugby sends one or two select players to New Zealand to train with our partner club, Poneke FC. Shea Loughnane and Luke Zana are there now, and Luke is writing about his experiences abroad each week. This post concerns July 7-13.
After the trip down to the south island last week it was time to get back to Wellington and rugby. There was no game this weekend, as everyone had a week off before the playoffs, which meant we could have some more high-intensity practices, really working on preparing for our specific first-round opponent: the top seed Hutt Old Boys. They have a pretty big midfield that likes to carry hard off of set-piece play, so we spent a lot of time working on our back-line connection in the midfield. Additionally, I got a big week of lifting in because we didn’t have a game. I worked a lot on speed and explosiveness and even did a bit of conditioning to make sure I didn’t lose too much endurance by taking a week off. Because it’s late in the season, everyone is a bit banged up so I also went to the recreation center next door to the club a couple of times and used the sauna and recovery facilities.
Also at this rec center is a huge diving well, and one day it was open for public access. In addition to the typical 1 and 3 meter boards, this pool also has a 5 and a 7.5 meter platform open to the public, so I got to try those as well. I went with a couple of teammates, and spent a lot of the time trying to learn a dive called a manu, which creates this massive vertical splash from a sort of half-pike half-backslap movement. I didn’t do a great job describing it, but that’s mostly because I did an even worse job attempting it. For the life of me I couldn’t figure it out, and almost always ended up back flopping. All and all, the boards were pretty fun but I was pissed I couldn’t figure out the many.
Later that day my teammates took me up to a cool spot to check out the sunset. A little out of town there are some old World War 2 bunkers that overlook the entrance to Wellington Harbor. Naturally, they have an excellent vantage point, and we got to hang out on top of the bunkers. The view was excellent, and the sunset was super cool. Additionally, my roommates Seamus and Dan brought along their guitar and we had some fun singing along as well. It was a pretty awesome evening, and I owe a huge shout-out to my teammates for showing me something that you would never find in any Wellington travel guide.
