Page 90 - All Shapes & Zebras From Treorchy

To play a season of rugby is to follow the seasons and observe the patterns of change closely.
Preseason begins in earnest in the summer – though some more canny players may not arrive until somewhat later – on hard tracks more akin to concrete roads rather than lush, green rugby pitches. As ever in Britain, summer does little to stave off the rain but, occasionally, the weather is hot enough to make drills and repetitions fairly unpleasant for the bold souls who bravely attend the opening preseason sessions.
With the onset of league fixtures in September, and as the weekends roll on to October, the weather begins to cool and the low autumn sun harnesses enough power to blind and dazzle. Then, the final shadows of Indian summers draw away into the gloom of late October and beyond, and the weather begins to turn.
Into late autumn and as the clocks go back, the second halves of games are often accompanied by the sound of buzzing floodlights being turned on as they reverberate around the pitches on those late Saturday afternoons for those clubs lucky enough to have them. They are often used as weapons to combat the half-light of dense fog and accompanying mist which envelope the pitches, in which ghost-grey attackers break lines and cause no end of trouble for last ditch tacklers. Ragged shouts and desperate cries make the pitch seem alive in contrast to the increasingly skeletal trees or cold and abandoned breeze-blocked stands that surround them.
88 ALL SHAPES & ZEBRAS FROM TREORCHY