Kevin Sinfield: 'The team are a little bit tired, a little bit busted'
England defence coach Kevin Sinfield said his marathon run in the Dublin rain on Tuesday will live long in the memory. The former Leeds rugby league player is running seven marathons in seven days around the UK and Ireland to raise awareness and funds to tackle the motor neuron disease that affects his former Rhinos teammate Rob Burrow.
His run in Dublin – from Croke Park, the GAA stadium, to Aviva Stadium – is his fifth marathon of seven, a schedule that has seen him complete run in Leeds, Cardiff, Birmingham and Edinburgh.
After finishing in Ireland, where he did part of the run in the company of former RTE reporter Charlie Bird and ex-rugby players Gordon D’Arcy, Keith Earls and Ian Madigan, Sinfield will head to Brighton on Wednesday before completing his challenge in London on Thursday by running from Twickenham to The Mall.
Before he set off in the rain on Tuesday at Croke Park to the strains of Molly Malone, Sinfield spent some time in the company of MND sufferer Bird and he said in his pre-run speech: “It’s an honour for us to be here.
“This is day five. As you can probably imagine, the team are a little bit tired, a little bit busted but actually really looking forward to running in Dublin, looking forward to running with Charlie. We’ve been following your story for some time, Charlie, it’s incredible what you have done.
“Over the last three years, we have run in some pretty special places and through the work of Dodie (Weir) in particular back in the UK. Hopefully, we have added to that in Rob’s name and are showing people how beautiful the MND community are. They need our support.
“We found out the numbers that are in Ireland, the numbers that are worldwide – MND doesn’t pick locations, it’s everywhere so we have got to fight it together and that is part of why we are over here. We are absolutely honoured to be in Ireland.
“Thank you for your hospitality, thank you for having us. We got in late last night (Monday) and everyone has been so kind and welcoming. Although we are only here a short time, it will be one that sticks with us for a very long time.”
- Click here for more details about the Kevin Sinfield 7in7 Challenge
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Excellent game management in the last 15 or so minutes to close it out. Aussie got a bit panicky.
Go to commentsWhile all this is going on… I’ve been thinking more about the NFL draft system and how to make the commercial elements of the game more sustainable for SA teams who precariously live on the fringe of these developments. SA teams play in Europe now, and are welcome, because there’s a novelty to it. SA certainly doesn’t bring the bucks (like a Japan would to SR) but they bring eyes to it. But if they don’t perform (because they don’t have the money like the big clubs) - it’s easy come easy go… I think there is an element of strategic drafting going on in SA. Where the best players (assets) are sort of distributed amongst the major teams. It’s why we’re seeing Moodie at the Bulls for example and not at his homegrown Western Province. 20-30 years ago, it was all about playing for your province of birth. That has clearly changed in the modern era. Maybe Moodie couldn’t stay in the cape because at the time the Stormers were broke? Or had too many good players to fit him in? Kistchoff’s sabbatical to Ireland and back had financial benefits. Now they can afford him again (I would guess). What I am getting at is - I think SA Rugby needs to have a very strong strategy around how teams equitably share good youth players out of the youth structures. That is SA’s strong point - a good supply of good players out of our schools and varsities. It doesn’t need to be the spectacle we see out of the states, but a system where SA teams and SA rugby decide on where to draft youth, how to fund this and how to make it that it were possible for a team like the Cheetahs (for example) to end up with a team of young stars and win! This is the investment and thinking that needs to be happening at grassroots to sustain the monster meanwhile being created at the top.
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