Sadia Kabeya's Six Nations Column | Wales Week
We knew the atmosphere in Bristol was going to be huge, so to get the win in front of that crowd was a special experience.
On to Wales week… I travelled down to Bristol with Maud Muir and Lucy Packer. I sat in the back because Lucy gets travel sick, which is great for me because I like to sleep! I think if I was in the car with anyone else I would’ve felt like I had to stay awake, but they yapped away in the front while I drifted in and out, and I think slept for most of the journey!
I’m someone who enjoys my own company, especially when I’m shopping. I don’t like waiting around for people and my pet peeve is people hovering around me when I’m looking at the racks, so when we were given the day off in Bristol, I went into the city by myself to go shopping.
It’s nice to have the balance and be given the time to just get out, be away from camp and switch off from rugby for a while.
PRE-GAME PREP
I get extremely bored on a game day with a late kick-off. I wake up in the morning and I just want to be on the pitch playing, so it’s important not to get over excited. We had our pre-match meal around lunch time before our stretch and walkthrough time and for me, that’s when I really switch on in terms of thinking about the game.
You’re in your gym kit, your hair is done already, and you’ve had your morning off. You feel the vibe changing around the team as everyone’s getting ready for the game. I don’t really get nervous until just before kick-off, but there’s definitely a shift in mindset as we get closer to it.
BECOMING CAPTAIN
Being told about becoming captain was a very laid back experience. Mitch (John Mitchell) doesn’t like to make a huge deal out of things if he doesn’t need to, so he just came up to me a few days before the game and very casually told me “If Marlie comes off at the weekend, you’ll be captain. You don’t need to do anything different. We’ve chosen you for a reason” which for me was really comforting.
It helped to make me feel at ease when the moment came because I was knew it was coming, and of course it’s a huge honour as well to captain the team so early on in my career.
Initially when Marlie went off it didn’t even occur to me, and I didn’t really feel any pressure on my shoulders until we started conceding penalties in the last fifteen minutes of the game. I thought to myself ‘okay, I probably need to do something here’ and spoke to the team about what we needed to change. In a team like the Red Roses you have leaders all over the pitch; everyone knows their role and what they need to do, so it’s about finding the right thing to say to people at the right time.
FAMILY TIME
After the game I managed to find my family who had travelled to Bristol. It wasn’t so hard; they were waving like crazy in the crowd, so they were easy to spot! My mum and auntie were never rugby orientated before I started playing, they had no relation to rugby whatsoever and for the first couple of years they weren’t overly interested in what was going on, they were just happy that I had a sport I was enjoying. They’ve become bigger and bigger fans as I’ve progressed in my rugby career, from never watching a live women’s rugby match to coming to every match they can, and it’s always so cool to see them after a game enjoying the experience.
We were given some time off for Easter, so I went back to Loughborough to see my uni friends. I don’t tend to go back home to London when I have a small break because I’ve been at Loughborough for three years now and it’s become home for me. Aside from sorting through my massive pile of washing I had such a lazy weekend, went out for some food and got some much-needed rest in.
