From perfecting pizza dough to fermenting tea, rugby players in Europe have found various ways to pass their time during the lockdown forced on them by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australia international Scott Higginbotham, who plays for Bordeaux-Begles, has been busy in his kitchen during the confinement period, which started in France on March 17.
“My wife and I take turns in going out, and doing a bit of exercise and a lot of cooking. Every meal is made from scratch,” Higginbotham told reporters last week. “I made my own pizza dough the other day, which was quite nice. I do love pizza, so that was a big one for me going forward.”
New Zealand-born Dean Budd plays for Treviso in northern Italy, where people have been confined to their homes.
The French Top 14 and the Pro14, which Budd’s Treviso compete in, are both postponed without a restart date.
“I’ve made some nice pickled eggplant — that is my go-to. I tried to make some fermented hot sauce, but that failed,” Budd said. “I’m brewing kombucha, so that keeps me busy as well. The problem with fermentation is time, so I’m wanting to taste them and staring at them, wanting them to go faster because I’ve got nothing else to do.”
Second-row Budd, who has 29 caps for SSC Napoli, lives in an apartment with partner and lifestyle blogger Amelia Rogers, and said that keeping fit has been difficult.
“There’s only a certain access to things and only so much you can do with your creative mind by lifting tables, hanging off tables and running up and down stairs. It’s very challenging to stay active,” he added.
Budd’s Italy teammate Maxime Mbanda has become a volunteer ambulance driver in the city of Parma during the outbreak.
“He’s always been a real team man, always put his body on the line, but now he’s putting it on the line for other reasons,” Budd said. “What Max has done is awesome and symbolizes what a rugby player is about: Giving to the greater good.”
For Racing 92 coach Mike Prendergast in Paris, the task of keeping in touch with work is different.
“It’s a tricky one because there is no day-to-day training or games to analyze. What I’ve been doing is working off my laptop, looking at our games throughout the year, little areas we can get better at,” he said. “There’s not much more you can do as coaches. You can’t even plan ahead because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
RSS