The Eastman Warriors played the Wasps in last night's Rugby game at A.D. Penner Park.
The Warriors physiotherapist, Eric Larson says that the breeze was on their side, but the players struggled due to the heat.
“We have a couple muscle strains, the heat plays a role, just dehydration,” he says. “And it’s a tough sport too so there’s always a few guys that get dinged up every game.”
Larson explains how the players prepare for the games, especially during a heat wave.
“A lot of them work all day, so they got to prepare themselves. They have a lot of water and they got to just stay hydrated.”
He continues, “When there’s this much heat, halfway through half, they get an extra water break so that helps. A lot of it they got to do themselves.”
He says that stretching and game preparation will also play a huge role in ensuring they don’t get injured or help heal the injuries.
“They got to do a good warm-up and then after the game, hopefully, they get around to stretch a little bit. Especially the older you get, the more you need to take care of your body. So, the 18-year-old guy might not have to do as much as the 35-year-old guy.”
Darian Brown, assistant coach and President of the club helps with strength and conditioning.
He says since they started in the Premier League, the team has made good progress and won the Championship last year, but this year looks a little different.
“This year’s been challenging. We lost a number of guys after winning last year,” Brown shares. “A couple of the guys are back, and if you’ve been watching this game, you see, we’ve got injuries, and that’s part of rugby. But in this game, we’re dropping like flies. Hopefully, most of them are minor, but some of them are not, so it’s tough. It’s been a challenge but we’re still a good team.”
Brown says that the heat plays a role in some of the injuries and the players getting tired quicker.
“Rugby is not a 30 plus game. If you’ve ever played rugby, football, hockey, contact games, they’re not plus 30 sports. Plus 16 and cloudy, that’s a good rugby day.”
The Warriors have a very diverse team and Brown says it’s great to see.
“You see a lot of guys from Fiji, guys from South Africa, Solomon Islands, guys from Manitoba. Without our Fijian contingent, we wouldn’t be near the team.”
He explains that they are trying to grow the game and encourages anyone who may be interested to reach out.
“The big thing is we got to get into the high schools and got to get the 25-year-olds out. We got lots of 40-year-olds on the team but that can only last so long and we need 20 years old,” Brown says. “For those people reading this or coming wanting to watch it, even if you haven’t played rugby but you’re young, you want to play sports and want to learn something new, come on out, we’d love to have you.”
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