Page 14 of Lord of the Lock

“Is that your professional opinion, Dr Roberts?” I asked.

“Don’t start playing doctor with me when I’ve got my willy out, I might get excited,” he laughed.

I felt my cheeks heat and realised again how exposed I was. I flipped the towel under me over my groin.

“Insecure?” Finn asked. Finally, he’d caught on to something.

“Yeah, just a bit.”

“You shouldn’t be. I’m proportional to my height and build. For your height, you’re way out of proportion, big boy.”

He clapped me on the shoulder and stood up, giving me one last eyeful of the entirety of him. We got changed in silence. When Finn was fully dressed, he walked around to my side of the bench. “Thanks for training with me, Nathan. I’m really enjoying having you around.”

8

Chapter Eight - Finn

“Right boys, they don’t call me Lord of the Lock for nothing!” I shouted at the motley crew in front of me. “As you all know, in rugby the biggest bastard gets lifted, because he with the longest arms is going to be best placed to scrabble for the ball. So you’ve got to be strong enough to lift that big bastard! You’re in luck though, because Ben is the tallest and he’s a fucking string bean of a kid so it’s like lifting a feather. Those of you who are normally involved in line-outs, I want you to show me what you’ve got. Those of you who aren’t, I’d like you to line up as an opposition team. As soon as Ben’s feet touch the ground, I want you to get that ball by any means.”

I watched as the boys lined up for their line-out. They were still hesitant around me but they had raw skill and talent that Rhod had probably nurtured in most of them since they were eight. Ben was like I had been at his age, tall and rangy. He hadn’t been involved in many line-outs as a lock, but I had faith in him to be fantastic.

One of the lads held the ball above his hand. “Ready, ready, ready, UP!” I shouted, and Ben was lifted. In a real line-out he’d have to compete with the opposing team for the ball, but the real danger would be when he got to the ground and someone tackled him.

The ball was thrown.

Ben caught it effortlessly.

And then Darren, one of our biggest bastards, rushed him and tackled him before his feet could even touch the ground. Ben went down with the ball and his shoulder just about cushioned the fall before his head connected with the grass.

By the time I got to him Ben was wheezing, the air knocked out of him. I was most worried by the way that his neck had moved as he hit the hard grass. Unusually for this part of Wales, it hadn’t rained in a couple of weeks.

“Right everyone, I want you running passing drills.” I crooked one finger at the lad who’d tackled Ben. “Darren, come here. For fuck’s sake, your tackling is fucking shocking. You never tackle in the air, you could kill someone. Get off my pitch!” A very sad looking Darren jogged away. He was getting no sympathy from me. But the young man lying at my feet was. “You OK, Ben? Your heart still beating?”

“I think so,” he said.

“Who’s the current prime minister?” I asked.

“How the fuck should I know?”

Fuck.Surely someone could tell me. It had been unanswered on my crossword for days, and I was too ashamed to admit I didn’t know the answer. I looked around, hopeful someone smart enough had a concussion. But everyone else was running around practising the defensive tackling drill I’d given them.

“Right, Ben. I’m going to have to ask you not to move. I don’t know if you’ve hurt your neck badly in the fall so I’m going to see if we have someone medically trained around.”

“Did someone call for a doctor?” said a familiar, friendly voice.

“You’re a physiotherapist,” I replied.

“Well I’m the best you’ve got, so live with it.” I turned to face Bernie, Cardiff Old Navy rugby team’s physio, who was walking across the rugby field with Garrett Gray, Wales’ newest Head Coach.

“What are you two doing here?” I asked, almost dropping Ben’s head.

“You asked me to come,” said Garrett. “So I came.”

“I asked you to visit me like four months ago!”

“I’ve been busy,” said Garrett. Bernie blushed. What the hell was going on there, I wondered.

Bernie knelt down next to me and took Ben’s head in his hands. As I stood up to let him do his work, I noticed that the drills had all stopped. “What are you all looking at, get back to work!”

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