27/10/07
7:40 AM
Canada Water
"So how's the team shaping up this year Wes?" Adam asked, dropping a piece of toast each on to his and Wes's plates.
"OK." Wes said, starting to butter his. "We lost Ed and Andy because they went to secondary school and they were really good. None of the year threes have a clue."
"Well they're year threes, they've never played before."
"Well now our best kicker is James and he's not very good."
"You're just going to have to teach some more people then. Have you thought about trying to learn?"
Wes took a mouthful of toast and swallowed it. "Kicking's boring."
"Boring!" Adam exclaimed. "Is Jonny Wilkinson boring? If he could only keep himself uninjured for fifteen minutes he'd be the best player England can field. Everyone needs fly-halves, it's a big part of why the All Blacks are so good, they always have a really great fly-half." Wes looked rather chastened.
"So you think I should learn to kick."
"That was a bit of a rant, wasn't it?" Adam smiled. "No, I'm saying that there's a reason they don't let you specialise yet. At the end of the day it depends on what your body's like as much as what you can do. If you get your mother's build, you'll end up a scrum-half, if you get mine you'll be front or second row by the time you're sixteen."
"You were a lock, weren't you?"
"Once I got to university, I was a hooker in school, mostly. We got moved around a lot." Both of them stopped talking and ate for a couple of minutes.
"Dad," Adam made an affirmative noise round his toast. "Can we go to the Science Museum?" Adam swallowed.
"'Course. If that's where you'd like to go."