A sad story

Earlier this week I received a message to tell me that one of my Murchison students would be playing rugby in Timaru this weekend.  I've known Tommy since I started at Murchison when he was a wee 7 year old. Now he's a 17 year old playing playing 1st XV and representative rugby!

Murchison doesn't have enough players for a senior secondary team so he travels into Nelson to play for Waimea Combined - that's the 3 hour return trip at least two evenings a week for practices, plus travel for a game each weekend.  Now that's commitment to rugby!  Somehow he also fits in his year 13 courses and NCEA Level 3.  

I couldn't let him play down here without going to watch him.  They were playing against Roncalli College and Tommy had a great first half.  Unfortunately all my photos of him seemed to be back on as he was playing away from me, but I figured it would be ideal for the second half as he'd be playing towards me.

Nope!  He was knocked unconscious right at the end of the first half, and sat on the bench for the rest of the game, nursing an ice pack.  Ouch!  He is going to be sporting a heck of a headache and probably a pretty impressive black eye too.

Such a pity to see him out of the game, but it was lovely to see him play and to catch up with him.

Once I left the rugby I headed up to Gearldine to meet with a friend.  We had a great catch up over coffee - and have sworn to do it more often now that I'm living down here!