I'm in the last couple of months of my three years at university and I put on my University rugby jersey for the final time last Friday. It was in front of a crowd of around 1000 people as it was the derby between the two city's university. For me the occasion was met with mixed emotions; on one hand I was quite relieved because I'd finally be able to get some work done with deadlines becoming ever-present. Ultimately though it was quite sad knowing this will be the last time I play with all these lads, maybe even the last time I'd see some of them.
In my first year I didn't play rugby- and that is my single biggest regret of my Uni experience. Not only did I not play rugby, I didn't do anything at all (apart from watch Breaking Bad and The Wire). I was a lazy waste-of-space in all honesty. Rugby and the gym was a huge part of my life before uni and to go from that to nothing, in hind-sight, was totally stupid.
The day I decided that next year was going to be different was when I went to watch the Uni 1st XV play in the Varsity match against the city's other (better) university. I was swept away in the crowd chanting and all the fun of it. As I watched I couldn't help but think that the standard was not beyond me, which I like to think wasn't big-headed of me as prior to uni I had played for various county teams and North Wales.
So in my second year I started going to training and playing for the 3rd team, which was kind of annoying but I didn't mind as I just really wanted to get back into it and get to know the people involved in the rugby club. I played in that years 3rd team Varsity match, scored a try (I was outside-centre) and we were the only team to win our Varsity fixture that year. Probably one of the best days of my 3 years in university.
Over the summer I took pre-season seriously and prepared correctly- my goal was to be starting in 9 months time in the same fixture I watched back in first year: the 1st XV Varsity. I was expecting to play for the 2s until around Christmas then hopefully get brought up into the 1s with 3 months to go until the Varsity.
To my surprise though I completely by-passed the 2s and went straight to the bench for the 1s after some good performances in training. I stayed on the bench for the first 2 matches and have since been on the wing for the start of every game. As I said last Friday saw the end of my time there and I started and played for 60mins in the 1st XV Varsity so I finally achieved my goal.
All that is great but it is sort of inferior to the whole experience of being involved in a university rugby club. Some will turn out to be your best friends in uni and quite possibly in life after your 3/4 years are up. Rugby at uni, for me at least, was like a bi-product to meeting a great bunch of people and having a massive laugh a few times a week.
If you are in university and not playing rugby anymore my advice would be to just go for it. I've done uni without rugby and with rugby and honestly, there is no comparison. Equally, if your son is uni and not playing rugby get onto him and try and get him to change his mind, my Dad and its part of the reason of why I joined in my second year.
