Gareth Ellis – Getting on my bike as reality of the crisis hits home

It has now, particularly now that they have closed everything down but before, although I knew the severity of it all and people’s health and lives being at stake due to the coronavirus, it did take a few days for the magnitude really to hit home.

Sport – rugby, football – doesn’t shut down on a whim.

It wasn’t until I thought about that that I realised this really is something serious. At first, I was expecting games would be off but we’d be able to train.

Then we got a message saying that we wouldn’t be able to train but we would be coming in. It’d be just once per week, though, we’d be in small groups and we’d have a certain time slot in which to attend.

I was due to go in next Friday morning and we’d been put in groups of six but now – as it stands – I don’t actually know if that will even happen.

We’ve been sent some home programmes to do as well but again they were all gym-based sorts of stuff – and now all the gyms have closed as well.

I really don’t know what’s going to happen. It meant on Saturday I got my bike out that’s been in the garage gathering dust since I did Ride to Wembley with Rugby League Cares back in 2018.

I took that out for a bit but I know there might come a time when I can’t even do that. I will try and do it for now – get out on my bike – and try to keep myself ticking over and do as much as I can.

Our conditioner has sent me some programmes I can do without any equipment and we just have to make the best of a very strange and a bit scary situation.

I’ve got a bit of gear but it’s mainly stuff that my missus has bought and said ‘I’ll definitely use that’ and then never used it.

I’ve a few bits and bobs but nothing like I’d get in our gym at training; I’ve a rower, treadmill, my bike, some light weights and a couple of kettlebells.

I can make something of it but, with the situation we’re in at the moment, we were all looking forward to knuckling down and trying to turn this first part of the season around. We’re not going to get chance to do that.

We thought, on the other side of it, we might get some training under our belts so we can make any changes we want but we’ve not been able to do that either.

It’s a strange situation. My wife was working at a school up until Friday and the kids were at school until then, too.

So the first few days last week I was twiddling my thumbs a little bit, thinking what I can do? But obviously now all the kids are off so we went for a walk with the dog on Saturday morning and, as well as being on the bike, I just pottered around; washed both the cars, tidied the garden... if I had any hair, I would have lost it already after just a day!

The thing now is we just don’t know when it will be back. The whispers around the school gates are they might not be going back until September and that’s five months away.

It is crazy but it might be the reality of it. The experts just don’t know. And the ramifications of it could last for a couple of years.

I know Super League put April 3 down as a potential start date but the owners have since admitted that was just giving them time to go over plan A, plan B and plan C.

It’s going to be interesting to see what comes out of all the meetings and how we do carry on afterwards.

They are carrying on in the NRL, in pretty dramatic circumstances being behind closed doors. It’s a good job New Zealand Warriors actually had an away game in the week when everything happened as otherwise they might not have got across at all.

They made that decision to set up camp in Australia in order for them to be able to fulfil the NRL fixtures – and the TV money will have been a big draw for them – so they can carry on in a strange sort of way.

With no-one in the stands and being able to hear all the players on the field, it has been eerie watching those highlights.

But you can see why they’ve done it and it will be interesting to see how long it goes on for Down Under – and what will happen over here in terms of our own rugby league. In the meantime, it’s just a case of everyone doing their utmost to stay well and stay safe.