Republished - An article I wrote for my local club.

Boston Buccaneers

To say I was looking forward to this season of Rugby League would be an understatement.
It had only been a house move across Peterborough to the Deepings but suddenly I lived in a county where rugby league was being played close by. Last year the family and I got to all but one Buccaneers match despite a combination of unseasonably cold weather laced with gales on occasion.
To tempt them out of the house was a challenge and cost me a fish and chip supper on the way home from each match but they love the game and having been to the likes of Stade Gilbert Brutus and the Mend-a-Hose Jungle it was nice for them to watch a match where they could run about and not get told to keep still every five minutes.
The matches were of a really good standard, despite Boston struggling against the Wolf Hunter they put in a really good show against the Outlaws.
Despite being away on holiday for the London 9s I invested in a jersey (with my own squad number from playing for Yaxley Yaks touch team “7” on the back).
2020 arrived and once the fixtures were on the website I updated the family calendar with all home matches for Boston with strict instructions not to fill the days with other ‘stuff’… like anniversaries, birthdays and so on.
As a Catalans Dragons fan, I was also planning Boston matches around trips to see my other team, but once they made the decision to sign Israel Folau I chose not to buy merchandise or go to matches whilst he was at the club. Enough said.
And then along came this coronavirus and spoiled all of our plans. At the top level the game is struggling to decide what to do with regards to the season and I suppose all clubs at our level are at the behest of local union clubs who will dictate our player availability should the season still be unresolved by the autumn.
Naturally the issue of public health and the wellbeing of loved ones is absolutely paramount in all of this, but as a football pundit said on the news the other day “it’s ok to miss sport without being disrespectful”.
I agree with that wholeheartedly and it may just be 6 a side touch rugby I play, but last Friday night when we should have been playing league matches I was moping around the house lost.
Fingers crossed this will all be over soon and we can get some sense of normality back. In the meantime supporters can get behind their club by buying a shirt or training top to hopefully earn them a few quid and get the sponsors names back out there when we can go out.
Stay safe.