Luke Booth has done tremendously well this year in his Aussie Rules career sweeping up caps for England, GB and now Eurpoe along the way. He reveals the low-down from the European camp ahead of their game versus a touring Australian Academy team last Saturday (6th April);
“The European squad all met up on Sunday 31st March in the afternoon, had a meet and greet and team building session to get to know each other. We did intense training Monday morning with more team building later that day. Trained everyday of the week on game play to help the lads that weren’t too familiar with that style of play or technical know how. We played a practice match on Wednesday night against a London clubs select side which Europe won convincingly!
Thursday and Friday was a bit lighter on the training as the focus was on the build up to Saturday fixture. Had pool recover sessions everyday, physio’s, set diet, video analysis ( basically live like a professional for a week! There was a team social / meal at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant on the Friday evening with the Australian institute of sport team.
Saturday’s game was the focus of the week and we started well and competed all the way through but unfortunately they were too strong and we lost. I was vice captain for the day which was a big honour and made it even more special. The game was played at Surrey Sports Park where Harlequins train. The coaches were Irish, one was ex Sidney Swans player Tadgh Kennelly and the other Geelong Cats legend Brad Ottens!”
Well done Luke!