Wyatt Crocket--Croczilla by Scotty Stevenson

Author:Scotty Stevenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Upstart Press
Published: 2018-11-27T16:00:00+00:00

All dolled up for Andy and Emma Ellis’s wedding. We would tie the knot just two weeks later. Crockett Collection

At least I didn’t have to wait long for one dream to come true. On 21 December I married Jenna in front of our family and close friends. It was the perfect day. Sure, it may not have been a season during which everything went to plan, but it was certainly a year that ended on the very highest of notes.

8

Hits and Misses – and Hits

* * *

We knew straight away that this was going to be a year like no other in the Crusaders camp. For starters, Ali Williams arrived in Christchurch to join the team. It didn’t take long for him to get fully involved in the daily banter around the place, which was typical of the bloke, and we all warmed to his own unique sense of humour. He had planned on living with Dan Carter for the year, but Robbie saw through that scheme and made him live with Richie McCaw instead, just to keep him on the straight and narrow. Actually, it was probably more to keep DC on the straight and narrow now that I think about it.

The All Blacks had come back with a real hunger to contribute to the team, and they threw themselves into work to assuage some of the pain they must still have felt after the World Cup. They had been savaged by the fans and the press in New Zealand and they knew it, but at Rugby Park, behind the tall green corrugated-iron fence and under the old concrete grandstand, they could escape the noise and get back to doing what they did best.

There were new faces, too. The first of the Whitelock brothers had arrived in Christchurch and immediately set about pissing off the veterans at training. As a character, George was as black and white as a silent movie, and he did not give a solitary damn about anyone’s feelings on the pitch. If his job was to get stuck in to a ruck he would get stuck in, regardless of whose reputation, or whose hands, he was standing on. It was bloody good to have his energy in the team, and if that led to the occasional push or shove then so be it. It had always been that way with the Crusaders. Without that intensity there are no titles.

Of all the new arrivals, there was one that was most definitely not to be trifled with. Brad Thorn was no stranger to the Crusaders, having already been a part of the side for three seasons before heading back across the Tasman to rekindle his rugby league career with the Broncos. In 2008 he returned to rugby and to Christchurch and immediately set about creating his own special tone about the place. Ben Franks was overjoyed; he finally had someone close to him who enjoyed shifting tin as much as he did.

Thorny had been in the team in 2001, 2003 and 2004, and as such he had never won a championship.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.