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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 routine of an elite sevens player on 'tournament day', which Welsh players enjoy a good ol' kip, and getting ridiculed by the Wailers!

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We find ourselves at the mid-point of the inaugural National Sevens Series. Two great tournaments have passed at London’s RugbyRocks and the West Country Sevens, both bringing their own personality to the sport.

While we were slugging it out on the pitch in Richmond, the crowds were enjoying the festival atmosphere alongside the rugby, bringing a new twist to the idea of a sporting event.

Perhaps more for the rugby purist, the West Country Sevens boasted a pitch as good as any I have played on, inside the confines of a traditional club (Keynsham RFC) in a rugby heartland.

This weekend is Manchester. The penultimate leg of the four tournament Series.

As a sport, sevens demands its own unique routines as a tournament. It consists of huge physical exertion followed by disjointed and varying amounts of time waiting for the next game.

This can be a nightmare on the body as you are constantly physically and mentally preparing, playing and then recovering from matches that come thick and fast.

Hydration is arguably the most important part of looking after yourself throughout the day.

A player will lose on average a couple of kilograms over the course of the day even with regular fluid in-take.

With the game being played at such a high intensity, not replacing lost water can seriously affect a player's performance leading to cramp, fatigue and in the current English weather, heat stroke! You will never see a player too far away from a bottle of water.

It often seems to me that breakfast is the only proper meal a player will sit down and eat on the day of a tournament. With blood coursing through the working muscles straight after the game, the body isn't too willing to accept large amounts of food, meaning that little and often is the way forward, getting energy on board as and when you can.

The mid-tournament Samurai tent often just consists of a pile of muffin and sandwich wrappers, bottled water and human bodies, sprawled out trying to get some sleep.

The West Country saw our two smaller Welshmen (Rhys Jones and Lee Rees) having a suspicious looking cuddle under a blanket during some down-time but I suppose they do things differently over there so who am I to judge?!

For me the hardest part of any sevens day is picking myself up for the warm-up before a game. After three games you will already be starting to feel the effects. Once the body is moving, everything is fine but in those first few steps of the warm up I can often feel like a man twice my age getting out of bed in the morning!

For the Samurai, the West Country was another successful tournament. Boasting a strong squad we were under a lot of pressure to perform and overall I think we did. The day culminated in a pulsating final against the Army, a team eager to make a mends for their shock semi defeat to Esher the previous week.

The Army scored two late tries to flatter the scoreline a little but a huge effort in the middle period of the game was enough for us to take the spoils.

Standards improving

In many write-ups, forums and discussions I have come across, the general feeling is that a English Football Premier League-esque “Big Four” is emerging; consisting of Samurai International, The British Army, HFW Wailers and Marauders. We have certainly scrapped a few victories out against these guys in the latter stages of the tournaments, developing further some already sizeable rivalries.

Outside the top four teams, Apache, Akuma Smurfs and the Gilbert Pups all provide a real threat as they look to take one of the big scalps and climb up the table. They are all on a upward curve and I think you will see them at their best in Manchester and Newquay. With a top four finish securing entry in to the Middlesex Sevens, every team will be fighting for every point and a chance to play in this famous tournament. Lots to play for.

End of this week will see us trek up north for Sunday’s tournament in Manchester. Having a couple of weeks have given us a chance to recharge our batteries, rid ourselves of knocks and get fresh for another great day of rugby.

It will inevitably be another tough day with everyone wanting to take down the Series leaders. The Samurai have the Smurfs and Ronin in Group A, kicking off first thing against the Welshmen. We know all about Ronin having encountered them in both our group stages so far but the Smurfs are a new opponent for us.

They really came in to their stride in Bath and will be looking to build on that up. A 10am start is never easy so we will have to be firing on all cylinders from the off on Sunday morning.

Writing this column has made me very aware that I am opening myself up for abuse. Walking off after one of the games at the weekend, I received an earful from the couple of the Wailers', Tyson Lewis and Aaron Myers as they warmed up, mocking me for my journalistic efforts!

Despite keeping a keen eye on them over the course of the day I have only noticed Tyson's ridiculous one-up-one-down sock scenario that is worth a mention but rest assured I will be keeping my eyes peeled this weekend!
 

Related articles:
National Sevens Series Diary - Geoff Griffiths

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.

For those in UK catch the second of the National Series shows, this time from the West Country Sevens on Sky Sports 3 20:00

National Sevens Series TV Schedule