Taity’s Talk - What a journey!
Monday October 22
It’s all still a bit surreal and I’m not sure that I have grasped the enormity of the whole thing.
I know it’s a clichй but there have been real highs and lows. Highs were winning the quarters and the semis and getting to the final. The lows were obviously the game against South Africa and it’s a credit to everyone that we came through all that and unfortunately we just couldn’t finish the job off.
I’ve seen some pictures of the ‘try’ – it’s one of those where you convince yourself that it is or isn’t, whichever way you are biased towards. You just have to accept it and get on with it. There’s no point in changing it, you just have to accept it and move on.
We are obviously devastated not to have won but it’s been fantastic to have been with this group of guys, some of whom we might not see play for England again.
Players like Jason Robinson and Mike Catt are world-class and great squad men to have around and I feel privileged to play with them. And certainly to be involved with Jason’s last game was a great privilege and I wish him the best in retirement. Who knows with Catty, he’s evergreen and will probably be around for the next World Cup!
I have made some good friends, hopefully for the rest of my time in rugby and for life. People like Perry Freshwater whom I might not have met without being on this trip and if he visits ‘the Toon’, he would be more than welcome.
As for us young ones, there are a lot of talented guys around the Guinness Premiership and it’s up to the likes of Dan Hipkiss, myself and Toby Flood to perform and push on from this. There will be a lot of competition going into the RBS 6 Nations.
I’ll pop into the club tomorrow to say hi to everyone and make the decision with them on when I’ll be back playing again.
I’ve got to get back to university at some point in the next couple of days and I will also spend some quality time with the girlfriend. She has been great. We’ve only spent weekends together for however long so it’s nice to be with her.
Now it’s really back to normality – I’m having a new kitchen fitted tomorrow.
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