After 18 months without proper rugby, Josh Papa got a call asking if he would like to ‘unretire’ and play for the team. Following a brief period of consideration, he agreed thinking he’d have a few weeks to build up his fitness before returning to action in National 2 North. However, the registration went quicker than expected which led to a faster return than the second rower was expecting.
“When I returned to rugby, it was a baptism of fire, because I had not played for 18 months.
“I was expecting the registration to take longer than it did, but because I was unregistered, it meant I trained on the Thursday and played on the Saturday.
“It was interesting, but the lads have helped me settle in as well as I have.
“I feel better for it and it’s good to get out playing again.
“It was nice of Mike and Tony to even ask me and consider me, so anything I can do to help the team, I’ll do.
“We have four more games left this season, let’s see how many more wins we can pick up.
“I feel alright now. I’ll probably get fit for the final game of the season. I feel like I’ve done my pre-season now!”
Papa played his fifth games last weekend in our 47-29 loss to title chasers Rotherham. In the final play of the game, the second rower got over the line for our fourth try thus securing a bonus point. While it was nice scoring his first try in a couple of years, he was disappointed it didn’t count for more.
“It was a bitter sweet moment, getting over the line to secure a bonus point, but the result didn’t go our way.
“The 20-minutes spell in the second half. When you give good teams opportunities, they are going to score.
“It was unfortunate, but we stayed in it and we finished strong.”
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