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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 reveals his essential items to survive a day of sevens, an injury niggle and his hopes for Samurai as they look to close out the Series.

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Having been on the circuit a few years now I have certainly learned a few tricks of the trade in terms of what to take to tournaments.

Being lucky enough to play for Samurai International, we never have to bring too much gear along as we are always guaranteed some great kit in plentiful supply!

This is one of the great upsides but it is often short-lived due to my vulture-like mates circling around me upon my return!

Every player is different but here are my top five items I couldn't live without:

1. Malt loaf

An unusual item in my kit-bag but it always helps to fill those holes that often occur throughout a long day. With the stop-start nature of a tournament it is important to eat when you can and malt-loaf provides a bucket of calories and carbohydrates while not being too bad on the fat-side of things. Nutritious and delicious!

2. Pillow

As I have mentioned before in my blogs, sleeping is an essential part of my tournament routine! Anything that can help facilitate this is a bonus and 'borrowing' a pillow from the hotel goes a long way to help me get 40 winks when I need it! Despite running the risk of sleep-based abuse, a quick nap can get you feeling on top of the world in no time.

3. Liver Salts

Dehydration can seriously hold you back in a high-intensity sport like sevens. I always pack a few sachets of Dioralyte (or similar) and force a few back over the day. Many team's physios will have these in their medical bags. If you have one spare, it can also come in pretty handy the morning after the night before!

I am pretty sure liver salts saved my life a few years ago in Amsterdam when every team that ate the meal provided by the organisers suffered with a dodgy tummy on day two. In between wrestling for increasingly “weathered” porta-cabins, I could mainly be found huddled in our tent chinning Dioralyte like the best of them!

4. Tunes

Getting some upbeat music in the tent is a must to keep morale high when bodies are tiring. I have found an exception to this when Samurai coach Russell Earnshaw is in charge of the playlist. That should be avoided and can potentially be a very dangerous scenario!

6. Camera

One thing I always manage to forget is a camera. Capturing the moments of a sevens tournament is great for looking back and ‘stitching’ people up. Players can often be found at their lowest ebb shortly after games and there always seems to be some clown walking around documenting this! The inevitable post-match festivities are also there to be captured just to increase the paranoia!

Unfortunately this weekend I will have no need to pack most of these items as I a little niggle in my knee mean by club don’t want to risk me. The politics of release for sevens is definitely a hot topic for the future but this weekend I will enjoy being the Samurai waterboy and immersing myself in the festivities.

Fingers crossed for Samurai...and Pups!

They say you can't win them all but that comes as little consolation to us Samurai boys after our first loss of the National Series in the Manchester final. We had the chance to seal the overall title with a win but, in a game that epitomized everything that is great about sevens, we fell short to a determined British Army side.

For a spectator it must have been another cracker with the tiniest of margins proving the difference between two classy and battle-hardened sides. The bounce of a ball here, a knock-on theremeasure made for another memorable tie!

For the neutral the excitement continues. We go to Newquay having to make the final to guarantee the title and once again, everyone will be out to stop us. Things are really hotting up in the middle of the table too with two more teams looking to join us and the Army at the Middlesex Sevens.

The Wailers are definitely looking good for their position and I personally would love to see the Gilbert Pups secure that hallowed fourth spot that will see them travel to Twickenham on August 14.

Having played a few tournaments with the Pups, they surely deserve the big day out and after a few years of hard work they are certainly becoming a force to be reckoned with. If they can carry their scintillating Manchester form into this weekend I have no doubt we will see them in London next month.

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Related articles:

National Sevens Diary - Geoff Griffiths
National Sevens Series Diary II - 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.