David Sisi - Pre Season and an Australian Adventure - 2

David Sisi - Pre Season and an Australian Adventure - 2

 

On Sunday 14^th August, myself and the rest of the England U18 squad set off on our early season tour from Heathrow and touched down in Sydney on the Tuesday 16th. The first few days in Australia were all about us adapting to the new time zone and best managing any potential jetlag.  This was aided by us being given sleeping pills during our flight and having to stay awake for hours at a time upon our arrival.  However, from the moment we arrived, our focus was 100% on preparing for our opening game against Australia U19 Academies.  We had training and team runs scheduled each day and gym sessions every other day to prepare as best we could!  Thankfully, we did manage to have enough time off to experience a bit of Sydney - a trip to the zoo and Bondi Beach went down very well with the squad!

Finally on Sunday, we played our first game of the tour against the Australian U19 side, which included some very large players indeed (I wouldn't dare question their age!)!  Mood before the game was buoyant, focused and very professional, with plenty of excitement.  For most of the lads, including me, this was our first competitive run out of the season and a chance to put all the hard work from our respective pre-season programmes into action.

As expected, the game itself was tough, and made even more so when a few minutes in to the game the Australians managed to score the first points with a try to the right of our posts. Credit must go to our lads as we remained focused on the game plan and responded with 2 kicked penalties from our 10 Henry Slade - after good work from the forwards kept us in the game.  The match continued to be very physical and there was some huge hits flying in from both sides.  What was pleasing was as a squad, we managed to nail down our set piece and dominate in the scrum - which gave us a real attacking advantage throughout game and opened the door for an opportunist try coming from our 9 James Lightfoot-Brown, just before the break.  From then on, the side hit a rhythm, with good kicks from Slash (Slade) and great set piece from our front 5, meaning we were able to control the game to the end and get an important first win under our belts “ final score 19 - 8.  It was a good performance, but I think there is still a lot more to come from all of us.

For now our attention turns to the Australian U18 A side, who we face in a couple of days.  I hope I'll be writing about another win and encouraging performance from the boys.

In the meantime you can follow me on Twitter at @DavidSisi

 

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