City Of Sails.
Well, I had to write a summary of the trip for Wan.toks,
so I shall just cnp the email here, as my blog post. Hahah.
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Hi Wan.toks! The Baby-toks are back from NZ! (:
It's a really beautiful place, the people are soo friendly and welcoming, and all of us enjoyed our stay there!
Sooo, we were gone for 10 days, of which we spent 2 travelling,
and played some pretty awesome touch almost every day we were in NZ!
The first 4 days were the Y.outh World Ch.allenge where we met with teams from NZ, Australia and South Africa.
We played both U20s and U18s, and lost pretty miserably, BUT we all felt the trip was still enriching, cos we learnt something from every team.
Each team we played with was very impressive, especially the Aussie teams, who were disciplined and structured, yet knew when to break away from it to play what's in front of them. We also met with an Australian coach, Carly, who gave us feedback on our game, and taught us new dirty tricks (heh heh).
For the Women's U20s team, our closest match was with South Africa's U18s (9-6), where we really stepped up our game. We started executing our moves properly, dummy-scooping, and playing their weakness to our advantage.
We also watched more impressive touch, between Australia and NZ, where we wow-ed and gasp-ed at their perfect long passes and diving techniques. Some games involved fights (like an NZ girl wanting to punch an Aussie guy), most games involved tension, and one Mens game was especially exciting when NZ played with only 5 men for almost the entire game (yet they had a rather good strong defence).
Why? Because, during an interception by an Aussie guy, an NZ guy ran to the sub box so that another sub could run out from the other end of the box, gaining 20m advantage, and catching up with the Aussie guy.
The ref gave the penalty touchdown, sent the NZ guy off, hence they played with only 5 for the rest of the game.
After the 4-day tournament, we moved on to play their clubs, who were also really good. Then we discovered their secret, which was to start playing young. Some of them start from as early as 8 years old, and some of the girls we played at the club side were only 12 (and already good at the game!)
We also ice dip every night in the already freezing wind, and wear our skins after every game (thanks Wantoks for the skins, again! We all love it and needed it). We carbo load everyday (potatoes, bread, pasta, :s) and don't sleep enough (sleep about 11 something, wake up at 6).
We've also had lotsa injuries (sprained thumb, pulled hamstring, injured knee/shoulder/ankle) but were very well taken care of by the physios upstairs.
We also shopped til we dropped, where some ran like they never did before to an Adidas store about 200m away to get a visor for $10,
some bungy-ed (like Anne who refused to return to SG to say she chicken-ed out so she jumped anyway),
and all of us made friends with the people there.
But overall, in this trip, we definitely bonded, learnt something new about each other and about the sport. And in my opinion, the most important thing we took back from this trip is, that in this game of Touch, trusting the person next to you on the field, and having confidence with the person on the other end beats any fancy moves, or individual flair.
Ok, really long email. But NZ WAS AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! (:
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And stuff to add on my own,
On the first day of the Tourney, I hurt my thumb again, went for physio then x-ray, cos it was suspected fracture (and I was so scared :( )
But the results came the next day and no fracture, so thankGod ((:
Subsequently, every game I play, my right hand is severely taped like a cast. Quite funny(: but it felt more secure.
And and and, the skies in Auck.land are soooo beautiful. They are filled with stars like those you see in the movies and never think exist. (: It is an absolutely beautiful sight(:
