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Throughout the National Sevens Series, Samurai’s Geoff Griffiths will be giving UR7s an exclusive insight from a player’s perspective.

This week Geoff discusses the impact of the National Series, grooming, high blood pressure, upsetting his new employers and ‘flushing’ heading into Saturday’s second leg at the West Country Sevens.

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Geoff Griffiths

After months of anticipation, Saturday saw the inaugural National Sevens Series kick off in Richmond, part of RugbyRocks.

I have been playing on the sevens circuit for a number of years and while the opportunity to fly round the world playing rugby has its perks, it is nice to involved in a home-grown competition with a cumulative goal.

With such a competitive roster of teams and players, this Series will see everyone fighting for every point in a quest for glory.

This will no doubt drive the level of rugby up to new levels and throw up a few surprises along the way. A great spectacle for fans and a great showcase for the sport.

I will always have a close affinity with sevens as I firmly believe it has helped me become a better player in the 15-a-side format.

This in turn has put me in the privileged position of earning money from playing the game.

With every skill performed under the microscope and every mistake increased in magnitude, it provides a very steep learning curve that a player can only benefit from.

This can only transfer positively in to the 15s game where skills are being ignored for weights and power is overshadowing skill.

With more and more players earning their stripes on the invitational and IRB Sevens World Series, I am sure the National Sevens Series will unearth a few gems for the future.

Sky Sports' arrival on the scene is a huge boost for the sport. While the IRB events are televised, the broadcasting of this invitational series gives great exposure to the players and teams. It is a genuinely exciting time for the soon-to-be Olympic sport.

Any downsides of the Sky Sports coverage?! Probably the complication of pre-match rituals, as players lather on the hair and beauty products in readiness for those unforgiving HD cameras!

Knowing Me, Knowing You

Invitational sevens is always a great way to meet new friends as every team that is put together varies greatly from one tournament to the next.

With the National Series however, the squads are going to be more familiar with each other as the majority of players were pre-registered before the Series started. The upshot of this is the opportunity to form some closer bonds within the team.

This is very much in evidence for Samurai International, who I am playing for this season.

Samurai have kept faith with the majority of us that won the Amsterdam Sevens for these first two legs of the National Series. Having now won RugbyRocks, it would appear our familiarity both on and off the pitch is really paying dividends.

It was great turning up for training two days before the tournament and picking the banter up from where we left it in Holland!

Behind this success is a burning desire to succeed that stems from Samurai aficionado Terry Sands. Terry does not like losing and the whole squad is very aware of this!

With such a prestigious reputation, every team wants to beat ‘The Samurai’. Having to deal with this five games in a day can be tough and RugbyRocks was no exception.

Having stuttered through our first game against Apache thanks to a last-play try, we found a bit more form in our next group game and the quarter-final against the Marauders. Possibly the biggest test of the day came in the semi-final from the ever-impressive HFW Wailers.  We scraped by thanks to Mike Davis and that ridiculous side-step of his in a dramatic 70 metre solo effort!

With such drama preceding us it was hard to imagine the final being yet another nerve jangler.

Yet despite concerns already growing for the state of Terry Sands' heart, the Final against Esher just continued the trend.

Having beaten the highly-rated British Army in the semi-final, the guest side from Surrey were in fine form, playing very well as a unit and scrapping to the death in every game.

Seemingly within moments of kick-off, Esher were three tries to the good and it took a monumental effort over the 20 minute final to claw it back for a dramatic 42-31 victory.

Having just signed for Esher in the forthcoming Championship season, I fear that scoring a try and pulling off a last-ditch tap-tackle may prove costly as I look to bond with my new teammates in the near future!

National Series roadshow heads to West Country

With only a one week turnaround, we move to Keynsham RFC on Saturday for the West Country Sevens.

The Army will be disappointed with their loss to Esher and the Wailers will still be smarting after their narrow loss to us.

They are big threats for Samurai.

Apache and Raging Bull Ronin are in our group so it will be a tough early morning start for us too.

Apache are out for revenge and Ronin are looking to cause an upset.

Sevens at this level can really take it out of you, and last Saturday was no exception.

This week I have spent a lot of time in the pool, doing light gym work and trying to keep off my feet as I try to flush out the knocks and strains from RugbyRocks.

I will be having my customary “blow-out” on the rower tonight (Thurday) to make sure I am fresh for Saturday. West Country Sevens, here we come.

See you down there...

Geoff

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Follow Geoff on Twitter! He will be tweeting in the build-up and from every event on the Series. You won’t miss a thing, click here to check out the goings on behind the scenes!

Also check out Geoff’s personal rugby blog, giving a fascinating insight on key issues in rugby from a player’s perspective.