Show not Tell (Narrative)

A Rugby Game

The whistle blows, “Beep”, and the game has started. The ball plummets through the air in a spiral motion. St Kents number 2 catches the ball with a thud. He runs straight at me, my heart starts to pump faster and faster until it almost pumps out of my chest. The excitement is raging inside of me. But it was all gone with the shuffling of his feet as he tries to swerve around me. He eventually does so but luckily my friend Collin comes in and saves the day. The St Kents boy is dragged to the ground. A bit of grass and sand flicks in my face as this is done. I come around to help Collin to find that the rest of their team is already here.

One, then two, then three St Kents boys come charging in. The force in their upper body was amazing. I was almost knocked onto my backside. One of their boots stood on my fingers. As I looked down at my hand it was bright red. I clenched my fist and kept pushing for the ball. But by that time it was too late. It had left the ruck and was in another boy's hands. He threw a perfect spiral pass to another one of his team mates. This boy was big. He was taller than me and was more bulked up than me. But what made me really worried was when he ran at full speed, his legs were pumping and he didn’t stop. I couldn’t be allowed to miss another tackle. But the only way to stop him was by attacking with my shoulder then wrapping my hands around his legs and dropping.

With a bang of my shoulder to his chest he came falling down. As he hit the ground I felt a little shake, and this time our team was here. We took this chance to pick up the ball and run. Taiaha (friend) ran with the ball. Our coach told us, “You have to protect this rugby ball, pretend it is a gold ingot. You have to protect…”, so Taiaha ran with that ball. I followed him up. He looked left and right seeing that there was no clean way out. I called for the ball, “Taiaha I’m open”. He saw me and just before the defender sank his shoulder into Taiaha’s stomach Taiaha passed the ball. With the ball in my hands and with an empty gap in front of me I ran. I don’t know how fast I was going but the defenders started catching up. I found it harder to breath, I was huffing and puffing.

I get over the Try line and score 5 points on the scoreboard. The ten Pt England School supporters cheered. I felt like falling over, but as I jogged back with clumpy steps I realized that I had the rest of the half to play. On the bus ride home with the ricketing windows and the bumping seats I knew I could go home and rest in my soft bed… wait there is Riverside. NOOOOO!