Before we leave for that wonderful country we gather at our team hotel for a pre-tour chat.
Jack Rowell, the then England coach, starts to talk about South Africa and the dangers of altitude. The problems of playing high up in the mountains. He starts talking about the thin air and the problems of breathing. And that we have to eat plenty and well. Which had Jason Leonard going straight away, because his idea of a five-course meal is a pizza and a four-pack.
Now, Jack likes to keep his team talks down to under a minute so that the forwards can remember them! But he’d gone on a bit on this occasion and some of it had stuck in my head.
So, within hours of landing in Durban on the east coast of South Africa, we are taking part in a loosener training session in a pitch around the corner from the team hotel.
We were doing laps of the field and after the first lap some of the boys started overtaking me. At the end of the second lap, everyone had overtaken me.
As Stuart Barnes was going past me on the third lap, he said, “What’s the problem, Vic?”
“It must be the altitude. It’s killing me.”
“Altitude?” said Stuart. “The sea is only 100 yards away.”
Memory added on July 10, 2014
Comments (Add your voice)
No comments have yet been added to this memory.
