Friday October 29th 2010
Dear Diary
Yesterday was a good long day. My wakeup call came through at 7.05am. I didn't want to be late for the scrum unit meeting at 7.30am. There has been a lot of content to
absorb this last week or so, especially as it's been the first week of the tour.
It's a definite step up from Super 14 rugby planning. It is a lot for me to take in as one of the new guys. The meeting went well, it really helped me understand what I
have to do and the detail of my role.
It's good to work with guys like Kev (Mealamu ) and Brad Thorn, they have been there and done it so many times and they are so willing to help us new boys. I play the same position as Kev but I am still able to lean on him and tap into his experience quite a lot. It's great. It makes for a real special environment.
This time around was a big bonus because I got to hear my name read out during the official All Blacks announcement of the squad for the Telecom BackingBlack tour of
Hong Kong, UK and Ireland. The first time I got called into the squad in the middle of a tour because of an injury. On the day of the announcement, we (Hawke's Bay) had just beaten North Harbour in the ITM Cup at McLean Park in Napier. I was talking to my coach, Tom Coventry, when we heard my name called out. It was an awesome
feeling.
We had two training sessions yesterday, one indoors and one outdoors in the lovely warm Hong Kong sunshine. The indoor session was a light mindset one of how we want
to approach this game against Australia. We worked on what part of the field we are going to do which moves and what each of our roles are in those situations.
I had a light lunch before the big session in the afternoon. I am not a big eater. I used to tip the scales at 130kg. Now I am around 108kg. So I have to watch my weight and keep my skinfold measurements inside my target. At my lightest I was 98kg, but I found it quite hard to stay injury free. I kept getting lots of little niggly injuries. So I had to chuck on a bit of beef. It was such a weird time for me. I have been overweight most of my life and trying to lose the fat.
The rest of the day was training and recovery at the pool and a couple of one on one meetings. That all went pretty well. The pool is at the Hong Kong Football Club, which is a real flash facility, especially for a little Maori boy from New Zealand like myself!
Alby Mathewson had to shout dinner for me and CJ (Cory Jane) because he lost our cards game of gin rummy. The highest score at the end of the game had to buy dinner
for the other two and I was real hungry last night. Yum.
Cheers,
Hika Elliot
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