Duncan Bell writes
17th April 2009 2:37pm by The Mole posted in Off the pitch, The MoleThe Bath and former Sale tighthead prop has a regular “Weekly take on life at Bath Rugby”.
Duncan revealed that “The Sale match saw us changing a couple of things. We considered travelling the day of the game, but with the uncertainty of traffic on the M5 and M6, where it has taken us up to seven hours travelling previously, we decided against it.
But this immediately presents another problem, namely nine hours of waiting in a hotel room stewing in our own juices, thinking of nothing but rugby. If you are not careful, you end playing the game in full in your head, and when it does come time for the real kick-off, you feel mentally exhausted.
In Manchester, we tried to break the monotony of the day by accepting an invitation to attend the Manchester United stadium tour during the morning. It was pretty good, to be honest, and it was interesting to see the facilities the players use there. Not only is it a fantastic stadium to watch football in (jealous, much?) but the facilities in general are second to none. Something Bath Rugby could aspire to. The trophy room was enormous and the tour ended with a penalty shootout that measured the speed of our shooting prowess. Apparently, Rooney smacks the ball at 68 mph. I managed a respectable 51 mph, even with my dodgy knees! Poor old Mark Lilley and Aaron Jarvis would still be there trying to beat Rooney and Ronaldo’s scores if we hadn’t dragged them away and forced them back to the hotel.
In that regard, the stadium tour did a job. It took our minds away from rugby for a good three hours. Unfortunately, it didn’t change our fortunes in Stockport and we managed to chalk up another loss there.”
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