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Adding to his rugby career and charity work, Dave has added journo to his resume. These columns are from before the past 2 tests but still worth a read if you want a player's perspective.
Wallabies will bring discipline to All Blacks clash
David Pocock
Ausgust 21, 2009
The All Blacks at ANZ stadium on Saturday is a game the Wallabies need no motivating for in order to get fired up about. They don’t get much bigger than this – and it’s a must-win to keep our Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup hopes alive.
It’s fantastic to be back in Australia after our last two matches were away.
We’ve had a good ten day camp leading into this game, working hard on the areas we identified that we need to improve on.
The intensity at training has been right up there – with James O’Connor and Phil Waugh even getting into a bit of a scuffle during one of the contact drills.
There was really nothing in it – just a heat of the moment push and shove (luckily for little James!). I actually think it’s a good thing to have the odd push and shove at training between players – it’s certainly a good sign that players are pushing each other to train hard, and once training is over its back to being mates.
One of the great things about sport is that you usually get a chance the next week to move on and change your fortunes - and that is something that we are all determined to do come Saturday night................
http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/08/21...-blacks-clash/
Swimming with sharks inside Cape Town’s Camp Wallaby
David Pocock
August 7, 2009
Cape Town, what a place! Africa’s busiest tourist destination - now even more popular than Cairo - Cape Town is definitely the favoured destination of touring rugby teams to South Africa.
The beauty of Table Mountain, an abundance of activities, great training grounds, good food, and a very knowledgable and passionate rugby public.
It’s hard to beat.
We arrived in Cape Town late Friday night after a solid day of travel, and everyone was looking forward to a good night sleep.
Saturday was a day to get some recovery – a few team activities to get everyone out and about and a brief team meeting and a good night’s sleep.
Sunday was a rare full day off, which the guys put to good use. There were a number of activities to choose from – a game of golf, a drive through the Stellenbosch wine region, shark cage diving, or even lunch in a tree-house restaurant.
I chose the shark diving, as I’d been a few years ago with the Western Force and it was awesome, despite the poor water visibility, so I was keen to do it again.
After a two hour drive, we arrived at the launch spot where we boarded the boat and headed out toward Shark Alley, often dubbed “the McDonalds Drive-thru for the Great White shark” and made famous by many documentaries, including David Attenborough’s Earth Series – where the Great Whites terrorize the 60,000 strong Cape Fur seal colony in the area.
We donned the 7mm wetsuits with hoods and booties (the water was a cool 14 degrees), put on our masks, then the first five of us climbed tentatively into the cage.
The visibility was 15 metres and it wasn’t long before we heard the shouts from above, “Go down! Go down!”
A quick breath and under we all went, to be greeted by a massive 3.5 metre shark gliding past, just a few feet from the cage. Its stone-cold eyes sent shivers down my spine.
The sheer size of a three and a half metre missile-looking shark the size of a small car is awe inspiring – you really appreciate the power and majesty of the White Shark (whilst being very thankful that there are steel bars in front of you) as they glide effortlessly within an arms length of the cage.
It was such an awesome experience....................
http://www.theroar.com.au/2009/08/07...-camp-wallaby/
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