Ever wondered what the boys have for brekkie? Well... bacon, poached eggs, muffins, muesli and toast mostly... Oh and honey, peanut butter, marmite and jam...

Tracy, Darren and I had the onerous task of putting some questions to as many players as we could in the time allotted for their breakfast. They arrived in groups over 3 hours! Starting with some familiar faces, Willie, Pat, Kai, Dale, and Greg R amongst others.

The guys had been warned that we would be there but seemed happy to come and chat to us, Pat broke the ice and joined us at our table and we were soon joined by Greg and Kai. Amongst the interrogations there was a good smattering of banter between themselves and us.. It was good to see they guys happy and relaxed. Richard Hill came over too and joined in not quite so much banter but still a good atmosphere.

With some of the “old lags” subjected to our questions they sauntered off to be replaced by the next batch. There were a fair few of the new boys in this group and we quickly found ourselves a wee bit over faced trying to make sure we didn’t miss any one but Adam Balding and Oliver Tomaszczyk managed to escape unfettered!

We seem to have some really motivated players in our new recruits, some are not quite as comfortable as others in this particular situation but all warmed to the task with the more light hearted questions. I bet that if I asked you to pick out the more forthcoming of them you wouldn’t be far wrong.

I managed to get a whole front row thing going on with 2 of my victims being Ed and Bruce. It was really interesting to chat with players who have not a whole lot of experience in Championship Rugby, to hear what they think and what they expect. We did ask some off the cuff questions and one to Andy Goode drew a comforting response, he was asked if he had had second thoughts about coming to the Warriors and he said that he chose not to have a get out clause and that he was surprised we got relegated but once you give your word then there is no going back and as his family is happily settled, really that’s all that matters to him. We did have a very long chat with him, he is very very easy to talk to there is no “big I am” attitude, just let’s get on with it and win some games.

One question drew pretty much a universal response, the one about which law/rule change would improve the game and almost to a man, the players talked about how frustrating the inconsistency of the reffing around the contact area was, and how that has to be changed... Some are not sure about the quality of the referees we are going to see this season, but we should get a couple of higher profile refs if and when we are on TV.

The questions and answers will be posted here over the next couple of weeks or so in no particular order or preference.

So WATCH THIS SPACE!!!! Oh and there are photos too..

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon