Convicts fly out to defend title

Convicts fly out to defend title

There’s just two more days before the Convicts step onto that plane to head to Ireland to defend their title as the world’s top gay rugby team at the Bingham World Cup.

Departing Sydney on Sunday June 8 and arriving the following day in Dublin, the boys will have just four days up their sleeves to acclimatise, put the finishing touches on their game plans and get themselves mentally prepared for the gruelling two weeeks of hard rugby playing before them. Convicts 1 will have 6 games to play in that period, while the boys in the Convicts 2 will have to put themselves through 7 punishing games in a row to reach the finals on June 15.

Team spokesperson Iain Jepsen says that in spite of the loss of a few players to injury, the team is quietly confident about their ability to bring the trophy back to Australia.

Mentally and physically we’re where we need to be, Jepsen said the day after the team had their final briefing.

We’ve been training three days a week as well as the matches and we’re going to have a couple of days when we get there that we’ll use to have a few games of touch and a couple of light training sessions. Nothing too hard though, we don’t want anyone to get any injuries while training.

Each team member has a different approach to getting themselves mentally prepared. Some are quite openly competitive and get into yelling, while others get very introspective and quiet. Either way, we have a quiet confidence about our ability and if we just go out there and stick to our game we have a pretty good chance of winning.

The teams that the Convicts will be watching throughout the tournament are English teams Manchester and London as well as their archrivals the San Francisco Fog who competed against the Convicts at the last World Cup finals.

With the team as prepared as they can be, Jepsen says the only other thing that can help now is to get some support from their fans.

Convicts followers are encouraged to show their support by joining the Convicts Facebook group or sending an email of encouragement to [email protected]. Keep an eye on our website, www.ssonet.com.au, for updates for match updates and pictures direct from Ireland.

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