With injuries and Covid it has been 18 months since I’ve played rugby. Over the last 18 months I haven’t known what to do with my time, after going from spending most of my free time training or playing to having rugby taken from me.

I’ve been waiting for this day to finally come for so long – the day when I’m finally able to play rugby again. Going back into my first training session I had such high expectations of being back on the field.  After all that had been going through my head for so long I had to have a reality check when I first read through the training plan for the first session back. I quickly realised that my hopes of a training session like those prior to Covid just wasn’t possible. I’m not saying I was surprised that we weren’t playing contact for the first few weeks but part of me deep down was hoping for the long-shot of being able to scrummage. To get to the stage where it is safe for playing contact rugby with full impact scrums we need to readjust back to a level where it is safe for us to do so without risking unnecessary injuries.

One adjustment in the return to play was having to get used to wearing a face mask whilst training, Not that I’m unaccustomed to wearing a face mask, we have been having to do that for so long, but it felt strange having one on whilst training. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, in fact the complete opposite. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to get to train and play rugby again, despite having to test multiple times a week and wear face-masks to train. This is just part of everyday life at the moment and without these precautions we wouldn’t be able to train because of the increased risk of spreading the virus, not just for the team but the people we come into contact with around campus.