I hope that Big Roy - who is a regular on here - wont mind me reproducing a very enlightening tale about his time as a RL player. When asked whether he would have preferred to have been a modern day professional player, this was Roys reply....... I am often asked by modern day supporters whether I would prefer to play in the SL era with full time pay, all of the training facilities, sponsors car & Summer rugby. I like to answer with this example ............. It was mid Winter and I was picked to play for Leeds on a Wednesday evening game away at Whitehaven. I got up at 6 am and got ready to go to work as usual as my job was as a labourer on a building site. It was still dark as I left home at 6.30am, cold and raining. I worked all morning & left the site at dinnertime to meet the Leeds bus at Kirkstall, for which I was deducted half a days pay. I was wet and cold as I waited for the team bus and got wetter & colder as the rain started to turn to sleet. On the journey North it got wetter and colder and gradually the rain turned to a mix of sleet and snow on the higher ground. The bus got slower & slower in the traffic on the motorway and the last 30 miles were a single track into Whitehaven in the dark in blizzard conditions. We arrived at the ground 30 mins before kick off, with the snow blowing in at right angles to find that the game was still on - to the Cumbrians it was just a plain day. They also did the intimidation trick in the dressing rooms where they fix the changing pegs about 7 feet off the ground to make you feel that they must be giants which most of them were. The game was one of those that you forget after about five minutes and just concentrate on surviving the cold, it was that kind of cold where your fingers go first, then your hands & feet and youre asking your mates in the scrum to kick you to see if you have any feelings left in your legs. We lost by dozens of points, I got my nose broken (again) and afterwards in the bath we were so frozen with cold that no-one could tell whether the water was cold, frozen or scalding hot and then the coach driver came in and told us that we had 20 mins to get back on the bus or we wouldnt be able to get back over the hills in the snow. I could only manage 5 pints and 4 pork pies before we had to get back on the coach and make our way back to Leeds. We didnt reach Kirkstall until 2 am when it was still cold & raining and I had to walk the 2 miles back up the hill to get home in Bramley, where I had 3 hours sleep before it was time to get up on a another cold, wet morning for my next shift on the building site, made longer because I had to do overtime to make up for the half days pay I had lost to make up for the £20 losing pay at Whitehaven, which didnt cover lost wages or even the bar bill.................................. and you have the fookin nerve to ask me if Id prefer to play today !
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 15:47:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015