Captain Justin Tipuric is adjusting to life staying active at home after the announcement of the indefinite suspension of the Guinness PRO14. We caught up with him to talk about keeping up his fitness, raising spirits in the squad, the 2019/20 season and the future.
“We’re all at home following the Government guidelines and staying safe. I’m keeping up training by doing a lot of press ups, sits ups and a few little bits of weight sessions to keep on top of things. I've been doing a lot of running around the garden chasing the kids which is the hardest fitness of them all. The family are all doing really good, we’re doing a bit of homeschooling but they end up homeschooling me!”
“The boys have all been keeping in touch with each other digitally, sending lots of texts, keeping each other’s spirits up. We’re all still keeping our fitness up to scratch by training remotely and checking in with the strength and conditioning team daily.”
“Tim our WRPA representative has been on fire keeping the boys entertained and updated with all the information. The boys have started doing quiz nights together online, our physio Math Bowen has been bossing it and running the show! In fairness to Tim, he’s been really good at sending us links to a few online courses that may be of interest to make sure our brains keep ticking over.”
Reflecting on the 2019/20 season, Tipuric added:
“This season’s been tough for everyone involved and it’s been really difficult being away from the boys and watching it unfold. It’s been really hard for us to find those wins, but there seems to finally be a light at the end of the tunnel for us all after that win against Ulster and the performances are definitely stepping up a gear. The boys coming back from injury really does make a huge difference to us all.”
“From a playing point of view, it’s probably been the toughest that I’ve ever been involved in. It’s never nice losing games and the way we were losing them has been really tough to take. One positive we can take from this season is that we’ll all learn from it and make sure we never have to go through it again.”
“Despite having no rugby to look forward to any time soon, the future is looking really positive for the region. Next season we have new-signings on board, new staff, boys re-signing which are all massive positives. The squad is getting bigger and stronger and hopefully we can push back to where we belong.”
“I just want to thank all the supporters on behalf of everyone at the Ospreys. Especially throughout this season. It’s been tough for us as players, but I can’t imagine how hard it’s been for supporters having to sit there and watch us lose, but they’ve always been there supporting us through it and everyone really does appreciate that. They really do make a huge difference and we’re positive there’s good times ahead for us all that we can repay you with.”
“Make sure you all stay safe and look after each other over the next few weeks and hopefully we’ll all be back down the Liberty in a couple of months winning games together.”