The Hounds of St. Heliers rugby squad!

I think I need to start a Hounds of St. Heliers rugby squad! We could start with Sevens as I already have at least 7 hounds who could play and NO - they’re NOT all Labradors.

Fergus showed me today that he’s just as capable as the bigger hounds of dribbling a rugby ball .... and I have the photos to prove it. Fergus is a Westie ... a West Highland Terrier

So far we have the normal Labrador Gang. There’s my hound, then there’s Sam - who’s proving to be quite an ace with the rugby ball. There’s  Bella - butter fingers Bella cause she keeps dropping the ball and there’s also Indy - we might give away lots of penalties with him though because he likes to hold onto the ball and not pass it. We could also include Molly and Barney .... though we’d have to persuade them both to come to the beach more often to practice.

The non-Labrador members of the squad would be Bandit and Fergus. We won’t hold it against them that they’re not Labradors ... they play THE game and that’s what’s important. That’s 8 hounds already and I’m sure if we tried we could find another few ... this rugby team might not be long in the making.

Teaching them all to play co-operatively could be the trickiest part. Right now it’s each hound for himself/herself ... they each want the ball and they want to KEEP it! Persuading them to pass it to a team-mate’s gong to be a tough ask ... particularly for Sam. Sam likes to score the tries ALL on his own!

My hound has me a little worried .... she’s showing a distinct liking for that CHIEFS rugby ball of Sam’s. Carol reckons it’s because she, the hound, is trying to show me that she’s backing the Chiefs on Saturday. As far as Carol’s concerned, it’s a no-brainer ... her Chiefs are going to win because the traveling the Sharks have had to do over the past 3 weeks is going to impact on them.

I think my hound’s trying to tell me the same thing.

They’re both WRONG though ... the SHARKS are going to shock them all!

Carol’s at the top of the virtual league she participates in and, even if her mighty Chiefs lose this weekend, it won’t push her off her perch at the top! It’s been a good Super Rugby season for her!

What I like about the final this weekend is that it’s being played at the right time of the day for me ... I don’t have to get up in the wee hours of the morning to watch and neither do my friends in SA. That means I can cheer as loudly as I want without fear of waking the rest of the household. It’s not my cheering that wakes the household though, it’s the dog barking at my cheering! She gets excited because I get excited and then she just can’t contain herself!

I just know there’s going to be lots of excitement this weekend!