November Memories Meeting Recap - Stirling County RFC

November Memories Meeting Recap

“At our November Memories Meeting at County, we remembered the contribution that Sandy Carmichael had given to Scottish rugby after his passing last week. He was first an outstanding prop for Scotland and the Lions but also gave his time to rugby in so many ways over the years. He was on the field for the Greatest try of all time with the Barbarians versus the All Blacks. We looked at the programme for the 1978 Ireland v Scotland match when he played alongside Andy Irvine, Dougie Morgan, Bruce Hay and other famous Scots players in what was to be his final international. He attended our first Memories group at Stirling a few years ago and gave willingly of his time and reminiscences. He will be greatly missed.
 
The speaker this month was our very own fitness coach Filippo who is pictured with club stalwart Rodger Brewster who was about to celebrate his eightieth birthday.
Filippo gave a fascinating talk about his rugby journey from Italy to Scotland with a stop off to work in an Italian restaurant in New Zealand, but accessing their verve for rugby at the same time. He played in Parma which was a hotbed of rugby but recognised he might not make the top grade as a player so developed his fitness coaching skills, took an M.Sc. and County are benefitting from his decisions. He answered questions about the different fitness demands on the youth players and the semi-professional Super Six team. He observed how New Zealand children were honed in a variety of sports whereas Italian children were less keen on this, Scotland’s children were somewhere in between. In Italy, there was previously a preference for the bigger, stronger players, rather than the fastest most skilful, though this is perhaps changing now. Filippo was at a loss for how Italy could catch up on the opposition in international fixtures. Although he hinted at the answer when talking about the All Blacks – they do the basics better and faster than everyone else, therefore making fewer mistakes.
 
Our next Memories Meeting will be at the club 12.30 for 1.00pm start on Monday 6th December.  Contact me by e-mail at derekyoung54@hotmail.com or by phone 07713872450 for further information.