Apr 6

Apr 6 Izzy, Christchurch

I’m gonna come out of this thing fresh. Crazy, but fresh.

I’m Izzy Dagg, I’m 32, no – I’m 31. Pretty old. I live in Christchurch and I’m a retired rugby player. I played rugby for 15 years. Now, I’m working for Sky Sport doing a little bit of presenting, a bit of commentating. Focusing on that side of the game.

I’m in lockdown with my wife Daisy, little Arlo who’s nearly three and Tilly who’s nearly two. The house is … pretty intense from about 6.20 in the morning ‘til about 6.30 – 7 at night. It’s all go. So far, it’s rained for five days straight, so our days have pretty much been made up of Peppa Pig. I can’t wait for that pig to go away. He’s running our house. And every toy needs to come out, every game, every book - every night we’re putting away the same shit. It’s chaos but hey, it’s good to spend so much time with the kids. With how my job is, I can be away a lot. This is a really good opportunity for me, in that sense.

Before all this, what was a normal day for Daggy like? Should I be honest? I’d either wake up early with the kids or I’d get a sleep-in, cos me and Dais alternate the early starts. If it was a Monday, I’d drop the kids at day-care at 9am in my golf gears. I’d probably play a game of golf for about five hours – I know, I know – then the kids would get home around 3pm. I’d spend the next few hours playing with them, cooking them dinner. So yeah, that was a Monday. A good Monday. With my job, most of the work’s up in Auckland. I’d go up every Thursday for a show called The Kick Off, then I’d fly home on Friday. I’d be doing the build-up for whatever Super Rugby was on, so I’d be travelling for that too. When I’m at home, I’m either golfing or helping out with house stuff. Daisy’s all over that though, she usually just kicks me out. She doesn’t need me there. So … it’s usually golfing. Hey, you said be honest.

Everything’s a bit crazy at the moment. With Sky Sport, we’re thinking of ways we can keep the players connected and keep some content on the TV. We’re producing a show called Isolation Nation, to connect with rugby players around the world to see how they’re doing in isolation. You know, how they’re training, how they’re keeping fresh. We’ll get them to show us around the set ups of their houses. It’s good content. So, in that sense, work is still going for me. But I mean in the golf sense … I can’t lie to you, I’m going crazy. I just wanna hit a ball. But I’m training now! I’ve got four weeks to lose weight. Try get some abs back. I’ve got my home gym set up in the garage, a couply little dumbbells, and I do a few circuits in there. And, it’s day nine off the beers for Daggy. Was a big summer. I love a beer at night, but if I want those abs I have to make a few sacrifices. I think the weight will come off, but the thing is, it’s just gonna go straight back on. As soon as I retired I was just eating pies. I blew out. I’m gonna come out of this thing fresh. Crazy, but fresh.

Daisy and the kids are doing as well as they can. It’s been hard with the non-stop rain and having nowhere to go, but we’ve got a good balance going at the moment. Whoever wakes up first does the morning shift, then when Tilly goes down at 11am the other one will look after Arlo – play with him, read to him – while the first person has a bit of a break. Trying to keep that balance, otherwise we’re just in each other’s faces all day. Already had a couple of touchy moments, but who hasn’t?

I think it’s just – the hardest thing is just not having any freedom, you know? We take so much for granted, even just going to the supermarket or going somewhere in the car and getting away for a bit. This is bringing back a bit of reality. Maybe we have become too full of ourselves. Too greedy. It’s a good time to take a breath. But yeah, the loss of that freedom is hard. And missing out on connections. When I was walking today, I was keeping my distance not knowing if I should look people in the eye. Everyone thinking – have you got it? Have you got it? But shit, there are a lot of people out there doing worse than me. I have nothing to complain about. I’ve got a house, warmth, food, a family … just got to suck it up and get through it. But I miss the golf, let’s just say that. I really miss the golf. I miss playing, I’ve got to be honest with you. Have I mentioned golf?

The worst thing to run out of at the moment … the kids aren’t toilet trained. If we ran out of nappies I don’t know what we’d do. This is a great opportunity for us to train Arlo, but he doesn’t want to learn. Every time I ask him he just stares at me and says ‘No’. Shit, we better not run out of nappies. What’s it like not having kids right now? Can you tell me what it’s like?

Once we get out of this, I think people will show a lot of sympathy for others. A lot of love, a lot of appreciation. That’s what I’m looking forward to. And people coming out with smiles on their faces and businesses seeing a bit of money coming back in. And hugging people, that’s it! When we can go up to our mates and hug them. I think that’s going to be the cool thing at the end of this, embracing each other.