International Touch Rugby - Greenstone Hook Cup
I promise to stop writing about touch rugby after this article, but since at the moment, work aside, it takes up a few days of my time a week, it deserves another mention.
On July 21st and 22nd, in the suburbs of Paris not far from the Orly airport, directly next to a highway and under some grand power lines, an international touch footy tournament was held. Teams came from all over Europe, including some from across the channel, to compete. In some ways, this tournament is a space filler in the odd years of the bi-annual European Championships. As part of this tournament, there is also the all-important Greenstone Hook cup, which the Germans and the French compete for.
The weekend started badly. Storms in Europe on Friday night meant that I arrived in Paris at 2:30 a.m.. Luckily, I met another team member on the flight, and instead of staying near the football field, he was staying with a friend in the city. That was convenient, because a taxi to my hotel that evening would have cost in excess of 100 Euros. The tournament was near the Orly airport, but almost everybody flew into Charles De Gaulle.
On Saturday morning, the team met for the first time. I knew some of the other non-Munich based players since I have played AGAINST them before, but others were complete strangers to me. After a few ice-breakers to remember each others names, we started on our journey towards international sporting glory.
In total, there were 7 teams in the mens competition. Suffice to say that we didn't win a single match out of the six that we played, and only got one draw out of it. So we lost to Guernsey, Switzerland, Wales over 30, Wales over 35, France, and drew with the French over-35s. The girls did rather well, winning all but one of their matches. That left the Greenstone Hook cup (between France and Germany only) to be decided by the mixed game. For that we recruited two excellent male players, who had been refereeing during the tournament, and I also had the chance to take part.
We led the whole match, except for the last few minutes, where France salvaged a draw. That was enough for them to win the cup on for-and-against.
Now that you know who won the cup, let me turn to how I ended up playing international touch rugby. Actually, it was very simple - we didn't have enough available players for there to be a selection process! Otherwise we would have also fielded a mixed team. That said, I did do more than just stand around on the wing the whole time. I scored a try and refereed a match as well.
There are some fantastic photos from the tournament here, if anybody is interested. They were, of course, not taken by yours truly. And please ignore the cross-dressers and the Scotsmen in kilts in the neighbouring album, that was after the tournament and I had nothing to do with that :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/koelneransichten/sets/72157601146631012/
On July 21st and 22nd, in the suburbs of Paris not far from the Orly airport, directly next to a highway and under some grand power lines, an international touch footy tournament was held. Teams came from all over Europe, including some from across the channel, to compete. In some ways, this tournament is a space filler in the odd years of the bi-annual European Championships. As part of this tournament, there is also the all-important Greenstone Hook cup, which the Germans and the French compete for.The weekend started badly. Storms in Europe on Friday night meant that I arrived in Paris at 2:30 a.m.. Luckily, I met another team member on the flight, and instead of staying near the football field, he was staying with a friend in the city. That was convenient, because a taxi to my hotel that evening would have cost in excess of 100 Euros. The tournament was near the Orly airport, but almost everybody flew into Charles De Gaulle.
On Saturday morning, the team met for the first time. I knew some of the other non-Munich based players since I have played AGAINST them before, but others were complete strangers to me. After a few ice-breakers to remember each others names, we started on our journey towards international sporting glory.
In total, there were 7 teams in the mens competition. Suffice to say that we didn't win a single match out of the six that we played, and only got one draw out of it. So we lost to Guernsey, Switzerland, Wales over 30, Wales over 35, France, and drew with the French over-35s. The girls did rather well, winning all but one of their matches. That left the Greenstone Hook cup (between France and Germany only) to be decided by the mixed game. For that we recruited two excellent male players, who had been refereeing during the tournament, and I also had the chance to take part.We led the whole match, except for the last few minutes, where France salvaged a draw. That was enough for them to win the cup on for-and-against.
Now that you know who won the cup, let me turn to how I ended up playing international touch rugby. Actually, it was very simple - we didn't have enough available players for there to be a selection process! Otherwise we would have also fielded a mixed team. That said, I did do more than just stand around on the wing the whole time. I scored a try and refereed a match as well.
There are some fantastic photos from the tournament here, if anybody is interested. They were, of course, not taken by yours truly. And please ignore the cross-dressers and the Scotsmen in kilts in the neighbouring album, that was after the tournament and I had nothing to do with that :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/koelneransichten/sets/72157601146631012/
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