Uppsala v Södertälje. PREMIÄR!

Seems like some team bonding in german student clubs helps... Uppsala celebrated Valborg the best way possible - with a win in their first away game for the season! The home team had clearly done some serious research beforehand, as we overheard them discussing our tour to Leipzig while warming up.

Uppsala took the lead early with a penalty kick by today's welsh no 10, and as the rain died down both teams tried to play a fast game with offloads, quick lineouts and quick ball from the rucks. Unfortunately it seemed like Södertälje was doing a bit better, they won territory by a few good kicks and managed to score two tries in the first half. Uppsala however scored under the posts after a teamwork that, according to one of the involved, 'was so good should've been caught on camera'.

In the second half Uppsala cranked it up a notch and showed great determination in defense AND offense. After a good session of pick and go from the forwards a flanker eventually scored what might even be his first Uppsala try? Magnus, is that so? Scrums worked really well, but it took like 20 minutes before we won a single lineout, including our own. Ref gave a few penalties our way and good kicking from no 10 again (top point scorer in his first A team game! Unofficial man of the match?) put Uppsala ahead with 24 against 17. Several new players got game time, and one old forward made a short comeback (although he confessed it felt like an eternity before the ref blew the whistle for full time...)

Great work and happy Valborg everyone!

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Lineouts

Doing lineouts for an hour makes the lifters cry with sore arms and cramping fingers. Luckily I'm a jumper. I've never managed to lift anyone properly and I don't think that will change in the near future... By the end of training my lifting group really got the hang of it though! Cred to B1 getting so awesome so quickly. Sometimes all it takes is an old scotsman laughing at you...

The news about the recently started gay rugby team in sthlm travelled fast and when training was over I think more than one went home to read QX. You go, guys.

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Sprint, dammit!

As a warm up before the post-easter rugby comeback, myself and S went for a run on monday. The four days of bbq, booze and general slacking, not to mention the unnaturally warm weather, took me out early. 'you go on without me, run, I know when my time has come...' Imagine my happiness when tuesdays rugby session started with a surprise - sprinting! Oh well, we did our best and the scotsman was happy. Only one week 'til the training game! Please make yourselves available, it's so worth it before the start of the season...

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Sour Balls Syndrom?

Friday morning several people were sporting shades, bed heads and tiny little blacksmiths working away inside their heads. Despite this, none was missing at breakfast court! Off we went for our first training session that day - oh, how heavy you feel when you go from astroturf and moulded studs to a sandy grass pitch and real second row shoes. Especially if you first sat on a bus for 19 hours and then played some rugby the day before...not to mention danced at a student night club necking 1 euro drinks like water in Sahara.

When everyone were in desperate need of some relax time and the ladies team had lost the Battle of the hot water, our german hosts sorted out lunch and took us downtown. Pictures was taken left, right and centre (if you could fool someone to point at something, and by that break tour rule number 3, that was extra special). A lot of us started blaming the town of Leipzig for some foul air pollution, possibly from the power plants nearby, but turned out to be one bearded player who clearly had had one too many the night before... Beer drinking in a public place is btw completely OK in Bundesligaland and highly recommended.

When everyone had found their way back to the bus we drove once again to the pitch, curiously comparing shopping bags and eagerly awaiting some pre-training snacks. Bellies full with bread, raisin, nuts and juice (ready for more air pollution the next day?) the men's team went out training on their own and the ladies spent a memorable 90 minutes with the Leipzig ladies where some lucky second rows got treated to a full frontal! Woo woo! I was glad to see people were sticking to the flower power theme, even in very private details.

By the time dinner was served (slightly slowed down by tourists not remembering what they'd actually ordered) some seemed to be quite cranky. We realised it might be the late hour that caused some people not being able to take a joke they weren't even involved in, but more probably it was SBS - the male version of PMS (Sour Balls Syndrom). The choice between taking the tour bus back to the hotel and staying out late the night before the game was free, but clearly people felt very responsible and went to bed early. Surprise, indeed!

Eier Mann

THURSDAY MORNING
Woke up on the bus floor. Bus was on a ferry to Allemagna (remember to respect tour rule 2) and breakfast was gonna be served as soon as you get your butt up to passenger deck, we were informed in the bus speaker system. We fought for seats against a crowd of Almtuna hockey juniors and managed a hostile takeover next to the slot machines. The presence of low-lactose yoghurt made a tired Berg cry with appreciation - and the state of the eggs made me cry inside for a completely different reason. Ruben, in charge of the eggs, apparently thought is was a great idea to cook all 80 of them at once - result: runnier than a mexican shit. We rolled off the ferry at 9 and had 4 hours to go.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON
First training after 18 hours on a bus can be nothing but painful. German spy Steve attended the men's training, no doubt in hope of picking up sneaky tips on their weaknesses and secret calls. Looked like they played touch, so I doubt he found it useful. Ladies did some lineouts and other set pieces, but eventually the long journey got the better of us and everyone was quite happy to check in at the hotel and have a shower.

THURSDAY EVE
Six huge taxis came to pick us up and take us to dinner - myself was quite looking forward to my chosen Leg of pork with beer sauce... For everyones benefit (ours and other customers) we had been put in a seperate room with our own bar! Unfortunately, in a beer country such as Bundesligaland, they rarely stock cider - hence myself and Paulo felt lost for a while before he decided on a scaringly green cocktail and I dared to try the local brew. Worst offence this evening was SS general Dory losing the black book! (Does NOT look good in the tour hitlers' eyes.) Some people moved on to a student pub but myself took a taxi home while listening to LillBeggo screaming for senf (mustard) and Mattias pretending to understand the taxi driver's long monologue in german and replying with eeh, natürlich. Eloquent man, he is.

3, 2, 1...DEPARTURE!

WEDNESDAY EVE
After months of planning and waiting is was finally time. The bus was fully packed with gear and booze and everyone looked happy and excited apart from the two bus drivers that, for some reason, had agreed to transport 50 rugby players to Germany and back. For once, we managed to leave on time! Last person to arrive was Magnus - AND with 30 seconds to spare, where the former didn't surprise anyone but the latter definitely did. On our way south little bags were handed out with tour shirts and, even more importantly, tour rules.

TOUR RULES
1 - What goes on tour stays on tour
2 - Mentioning of the words Germany/Tyskland/Deutchland is prohibited
3 - So is finger pointing
4 - Everyone must attend breakfast court every day
5 - Tour virgins will perform a haka before every training and game

(Rules apply on Autobahn country soil)



A few drinks were consumed before most people fell asleep somewhere in Denmark. So far, no reason for drivers to complain.

Friendly

Our men's team went to Bosön to play what was supposed to be "a friendly" last sunday. Despite the friendliness one center is now on crutches, one scrum half lost vision on one eye, one winger dislocated his collarbone (didn't even know you could do that!) and one center almost hurt himself properly, so he decided to limp off just in case (spot the odd one out!). This meant all the newbies got to play at the same time, so two wingers, one fullback (not the ultimate first game ever position?) and one second row took turns to swear quietly over the ten people "helping out" on the side line by screaming all sorts of contradicting advise.

Since we lost by several points the team talk afterwards wasn't all roses and hugs all round - KG accused most of the players of something strongly prohibited, namely tittygrabbing, I wonder if this rule will be advocated on tour as well? Nah, it has less to do with tits than you think...

I guess there's nothing left to say about this game apart from gossip about the other team slightly (I mean, it's what we do, right?). Rumours say the Attila scrum half has been seen in the company of several well-known, scantily dressed female felons of dubious character - himself in slight disguise but still showing a serious lack of judgement! Oh behave!

Are the rumours true? I think we have proof...

Mugshot

Sometimes one can be so focused on practical, on location details regarding a trip, and so concerned about all the other travellers problems with going, that you forget to think through your own participation of the event. So we have lunch on friday, okay great, what about the bus drivers, do they stay sober the whole trip or just while driving? The hotel have been talked into serving breakfast early, perfect, the pitch is booked and sightseeing planned, what about training, do we do thursday, friday, friday, saturday? Oh so-and-so can't go now because of this and so-and-so pulled out because of that. Yeah and so-and-so thought he couldn't come because his passport expired but he's got a new one... FUUUUCK!

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I have been planning this for months. MONTHS. And at least the three last times I used my passport I looked at it and found it would expire soon. March, as the matter of fact. Still my brain waits until 7 days before departure (weekend included where no work gets done towards stupid peoples passports) before it realises I will actually have to apply for a new one!

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This thought arrived in my head at 4 pm yesterday while at uni. A hysterically quick check on the web showed me that the police station's passport department close at 5pm. Naturally, I had the world's heaviest bag with me including my computer, and I was wearing heels as I left the library with long, second-row strides. I got there and eventually even got called in with ten minutes to spare, hair unwashed and windswept (not in a good way), no make up and eyes wild with stress (humanity once again screwed over by Murphy). You're not allowed to smile in your picture says the police man. Not to worry, I don't feel like smiling at all. Result: mugshot type A.

Peace!

KG on Leipzig tour 2011?

Seriously, let's go all in on this fancy dress occasion! And remember: a little face paint and a flower in your hair goes a long way for those of you who are the shy type (not that there are many of you in the rugby world)...