My first experience with the Bucks county sharks was somewhat not surprisingly in a bar in centre city. However it was during the soccer (or football as we call it in the UK) world cup of 2006, a tournament which England where meant to show their superiority over other soccer playing nations…… they failed to live up to their hype much to my delight as a Welshman. It was there I met a guy called Tomo, who said he had some mates back in Wales that he had played rugby with and therefore wondered if I’d be interested in playing a game of rugby when the season started. In a bit of a drunken haze I said yes, not realizing he meant rugby league not union, a sport that is not hugely popular in the welsh valleys.

The second encounter was again in the same bar this time for the super league grand final, where I was introduced to two other members of the team, both seasoned veterans and consummate professionals as well as Tomo. Everything took a turn for the worst when St Helens won the final and then an impromptu UFC type event kicked off in the bar.

Pre-season training started in April, a particularly miserable month for weather, however the constant rain reminded me of home so I felt pretty good. What did strike me was the genuine interest and knowledge the boys had for the game. As always training with a new team is difficult to start with due to the sheer number of names to remember, there is only so long people will let you get away with referring to them as “mate”, “buddy”, “pal” etc.

The end of that same month threw up a charity game with the Bulls, unfortunately we lost but I was told a lot of the boys were absent as they were still playing union so I felt pretty confident that our performance against one of the leagues most successful teams would stand the sharks in good stead for the upcoming season.

Five games into the season and we have now won two and lost three, the feeling is we are turning the corner and even some of the losses could easily have been wins due to the closeness in the score lines.

Although maybe some things are different about playing in the US compared to the UK, lots of things remain the same. There is always that strong will to win, to play well for each other. There is as always some good camaraderie between the boys in training and in the bar and the desire to share a pitcher or eleven-teen. The one thing that is slightly strange to me is changing on the side of the field.