Touch Rugby
At last, a post that is not about traveling. Well, mostly not.
Earlier in the year I discovered that a bunch of English speaking people play touch footy (or touch rugby to people outside of Australia and New Zealand) in the English Gardens. On a make shift pitch in the middle of a very large patch of grass (where others play soccer or ultimate frisbee), were a bunch of people throwing around a rugby ball. Fantastic.
As I have found out, it is very much a developing sports in Germany. There are about 30 players in the group in Munich, and slightly less in the cities of Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne, which also have clubs. Every month during the summer they meet for tournaments - the first this year was in Cologne in June, more on that later - culminating in the German championships, which conveniently finishes in September just before the Oktoberfest.
Most people are expats from the UK, or Aussies, or New Zealanders, or from other rugby playing nations. There are several German players too, but they are predominantly beginners that are learning the game (such as a colleague that I brought along). Other German players are either going out with, married with, or in some way connected with some person from a rugby playing nation.
Onto the events. First event of the season was the National Training weekend, held in Munich. Because of the low attendance from teams from other cities, we managed to turn it pretty much into a Munich training weekend. Which was good preparation for the Cologne tournament one month later, on 23rd June.
A drive afterwork on Friday night to Cologne is a long and frustrating business. There is no way out of Munich without encountering a jam ... so we shared the responsibilities of sitting at the steering wheel and arrived at 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. 6 hours of sleep later, we were off, in a torrential downpour, to the footy field.
The field is supposed to be 70 m long by 50 m wide. The groundsman, have however, marked the field as 70 m including the end zones, which meant that we ended up with a 50 x 50 field. For unfit people like me that was a blessing, but since we had the most subs of any teams, it was overall probably a slight disadvantage. But in the end, the rain cleared away, we won all our matches and beat Cologne 6-1 in the final, to beat Cologne in a tournament for the first time. It was a fantastic day for the Munich squad and we celebrated in style - in Cologne's club house of course.
Somewhere in between joining the group and the tournaments I qualified as a touch referee. I have come to realise that it is quite difficult to be decisive, accurate, calm, and at the same time remember the touch count. But I am getting better at it - I will probably referee a couple of games in the international tournament in Paris in July, besides playing a few games for the German team. More on that after the event.
So there it is. By playing a sport that nobody in this country plays, I have managed to get myself into the national team. I am looking forward to the touch footy shoes that I will buy when I get back to Australia.
Some pictures, with the second link not my myself. Munich wears the bright red shirts with the white writing.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lokmanho/sets/72157600484247775/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/touchdeutschland/
Earlier in the year I discovered that a bunch of English speaking people play touch footy (or touch rugby to people outside of Australia and New Zealand) in the English Gardens. On a make shift pitch in the middle of a very large patch of grass (where others play soccer or ultimate frisbee), were a bunch of people throwing around a rugby ball. Fantastic.As I have found out, it is very much a developing sports in Germany. There are about 30 players in the group in Munich, and slightly less in the cities of Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne, which also have clubs. Every month during the summer they meet for tournaments - the first this year was in Cologne in June, more on that later - culminating in the German championships, which conveniently finishes in September just before the Oktoberfest.
Most people are expats from the UK, or Aussies, or New Zealanders, or from other rugby playing nations. There are several German players too, but they are predominantly beginners that are learning the game (such as a colleague that I brought along). Other German players are either going out with, married with, or in some way connected with some person from a rugby playing nation.
Onto the events. First event of the season was the National Training weekend, held in Munich. Because of the low attendance from teams from other cities, we managed to turn it pretty much into a Munich training weekend. Which was good preparation for the Cologne tournament one month later, on 23rd June.
A drive afterwork on Friday night to Cologne is a long and frustrating business. There is no way out of Munich without encountering a jam ... so we shared the responsibilities of sitting at the steering wheel and arrived at 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. 6 hours of sleep later, we were off, in a torrential downpour, to the footy field.
The field is supposed to be 70 m long by 50 m wide. The groundsman, have however, marked the field as 70 m including the end zones, which meant that we ended up with a 50 x 50 field. For unfit people like me that was a blessing, but since we had the most subs of any teams, it was overall probably a slight disadvantage. But in the end, the rain cleared away, we won all our matches and beat Cologne 6-1 in the final, to beat Cologne in a tournament for the first time. It was a fantastic day for the Munich squad and we celebrated in style - in Cologne's club house of course.
Somewhere in between joining the group and the tournaments I qualified as a touch referee. I have come to realise that it is quite difficult to be decisive, accurate, calm, and at the same time remember the touch count. But I am getting better at it - I will probably referee a couple of games in the international tournament in Paris in July, besides playing a few games for the German team. More on that after the event.So there it is. By playing a sport that nobody in this country plays, I have managed to get myself into the national team. I am looking forward to the touch footy shoes that I will buy when I get back to Australia.
Some pictures, with the second link not my myself. Munich wears the bright red shirts with the white writing.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lokmanho/sets/72157600484247775/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/touchdeutschland/
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