What position for me?

[fergo]

HI all looking to go back to playing rugby again after an enforced lay off. Used to play front row and on occasion back row, loved both areas. Having been out of the playing side for so long not sure as to where I would be best suited to play.

I'm 5'11, 13.5 stone ( too lazy to do metric conversion sorry ) general fitness and strength is OK, strength prob better. Not too bad at sprinting but can't sustain it over long periods.

Any advice etc would be very gratefully received.

 

[Hall]

What sort of level will you be playing at? Will it be seniors or age group?

 

[fergo]

WIll be playing mostly at 3rds or 2nds level due to work commitments.

 

[Hall]

Well I don't know the physical attributes of the others on the team you'll be playing for but 13.5 stone sounds a tad light to be in the front row, even if you have good technique.
It's probably enough (just) for the back row if you have the tackling ability and technique at the breakdown to overcome it.

 

[fergo]

Tackling is one of strongpoints and used to be high up in tackle counts even when tight head. Used to be kept back from rucks to do crash balls or tackling. How much weight roughly would I need to go up to for decent backrow or hooker even at lower levels.

 

[Scrumit2]

Hey pardon my not knowing Stone as I'm from the US and it took me long enough to learn kg but I would say you need a tad bit of size and you are the Modern Day Hooker. The thing with 3rd & 2nd Grade is you can get way with being a smaller hooker because most times the Props are bigger and offset the weight difference. Stay away from looking at professional hookers as their weight is a bit higher but they get to train every single day so they have muscle we dont have the time to put on. But in saying that if you look at the ratio of hooker to prop weight you'll see you are not far off for your grade. Now I play in a pretty competative club comp and all the hookers are smaller muscluar guys. Your height is good because the props will love you because you'll be setting the gap so they are not too close to their opposing props. The fact that you have quick bursts of speed means ruck to ruck your suited to hooker as opposed to a flanker where you need enough quickness to chase down the occasional #10 at first reciever. Stay away from #6 because it seems your burst of quickness is a body type issue not a fitness issue. Now I have only played for two years (started rugby late 34 yrs old) because we didn't have it in the US where I lived before moving to Australia and I started as a flanker but changed to hooker because last year our hookers were dropping like flies. In my first year i learned all three front row positions so you've been out far less than I was so you can easily do it. The best training advice I can give you to get you starting on the club quicker is plyometrics. I started doing them and now I can hold my own a lot better than last year. Just get some boxes and do simple explosive jumps and you'll see your scrum strength and even quickness will improve ten fold. I have little time to train due to work and a 20 month old and so I get up on Sunday mornings and do a few sessions of plyometrics on some plastic steps I got at Ikea and my ruck strenght is so much better just need some more technique and I want to push for 2nd grade next year, before I get TOO old and have to hang up my boots and play with the old boys. Just my thoughts. let me know if they help because as I'm still learnng the game I'm constantly reading about the game and if I find something that might help I'll pass it on.

 

[fergo]

Thanks for the replies and advice decided to get up my lazy butt and do the conversions for everyoe so here goes

Height - 5'11 = 71" = 1.80M

Weight - 13.5st = 189lb = 86kg

Played hooker at High School and part of Uni, even when I wasn't at hooker used to throw ball in lot of the time.

As for sprinting bit, hit nail on the head have decent explosive power but not got the right combo to sustain it over a distance.

Will just keep working on strength and speed until local club starts pre season and see how it goes from there. Scrumit2 know what you mean my wee girl is only 3 months but already rules the house and all my free time.