WRWC - Day 1

Thumbs up for: England v Ireland! Great game where Ireland fought well and deserved at least some points.

Big bosh award: goes to England's Maggie Alphonsi! What a rhino!

Biggest disappointment: having to follow France v Sweden via Twitter instead of on TV. Come on - they aired USA-Kazakhstan!

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Ladies are playing Attila tomorrow with more than one rookie on the pitch, and with a majority of the girls both snotty and coffing their lungs out. It's anyone's game, really. Also time for someone else than the regular captain and role models to step up and take control - as they are busy elsewhere. Who's it gonna be? You?

Uppsala v. Attila

It was hot, humid and hard to breathe even for the spectators at this weekend's home game against Attila. Uppsala fielded a XV that was missing several regular players, and was in for a challenge.
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The Stockholmers scored an early try and remained in the lead through the whole game - our home team spent 80 minutes trying to claw their way back in, cheered on by a small crowd of friends and rugby fans. Uppsalas back line had a run at it and center Tim managed to run around and through the defence to score our first five points. Attila played a faster game with good support and offloading, while Uppsalas forwards worked hard to drive the ball up the park. Danne managed to score another try in the first half, but as we were buying ice cream at the time I don't know how it happened.

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The game was played 4x20 minutes due to the heat, and the rookies on the bench was kept busy with the water bottles. Unfortunately Uppsala suffered some injuries on scrum players, they did their best to rearrange positions but lost stability with experienced guys going off. Our back line (also slightly rearranged) had another go in the second half, a small chip over the defence towards the corner proved successful – chasing winger Julian was fouled and got awarded a penalty try. Fly half Stewart put two kicks through the posts today and the final score was 19-35, an undisputable Attila win. Well done to the rookies, and welcome back Sela!

Jag hoppas...

...att fler tjejer kan och vill spela en träningsmatch nästa vecka! Tre kompletta rookies behöver lite erfaret ledarskap på planen.

...att någon annan har fallenhet för att spela klunghalv. Det har inte jag.

...att DHL gasar på och levererar mitt paket innan fredag. 10's!

BOOM BOOM POW!

There's something going on. Not everyone can feel it, but there's definitely something. A slight disturbance in the force, if you will... Old players plan comebacks, one can see an unusual upswing in business at Buttericks web shop, and Ryaniar flights are fully booked way ahead. You know of what I speak, naturally.

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That's right, Stockholm 10's baby! BOOM BOOM POW!

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With only one week to go participants from everywhere are counting down with a beer in one hand and desperately assembling their fancy dress outfit with the other. Who cares about the draw - now how will I attach this kryptonite to my Lex Luthor outfit?

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After a four team dropout ladies pools are down to 3 teams each, which - I must say - sounds like a very relaxing first day. Lots of time to admire other teams and cheer for, say, the italian lads... Avanti!

Betong

Visst gör det ont när knoppar brister? Nej, men det gör fanimej ont att träna rucks utan kuddar först på tisdagen och sen även på torsdagen. Pensionärsstelheten sätter in tidigt på onsdag morgon, innan man ens har vaknat faktiskt - en stilla vändning i lätt slummer blir så mycket svårare när hela axelpartiet är gjort av betong och behöver bilas loss från madrassen.

Smärtan följer sedan en berg-och-dalbaneaktig kurva där intensiteten ökar ju längre man suttit stilla någonstans, och detta pågår hela onsdagen (men öl hjälper!). Torsdag morgon är mer behaglig och så länge man inte gör några korkade saker som att behöva något från en högt placerad hylla, eller tappa något som inte kan ligga kvar, är man helt okej. Men när klockan blir sex och uppvärmningen börjar inför nästa axelmördarpass, då vet man att man lever.

Jag ser fram emot imorgon bitti.

Guest coach

Despite the no-show of the much anticipated videocam at tuesdays session (you know there's always extra effort involved if training is to be recorded in any way) everyone was quite excited about having a guest coach for the evening. There was a poor turnout amongst the ladies, but luckily we had a bunch of guys who didn't mind being girls for a while. While the oldboys practised their 10's skills in preparation for next weekends big bash in Stockholm, we were practising basic skills and recieving sneaky tips about rucking. This could not have been a better training for our eager rookie! She gladly threw herself at opponents, ran into tackles, rucked and looked happy while doing so... I think we've got ourselves a new prop!

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These contact drills were done in same-sex groups for the greater good. No offence, but some of the boys are just too polite to smack the girls around...and some are way too eager (in sort of a Stella-drinking, wife-beating fashion. Concerned? I am). Also worrying was the law student who proved himself incapable of counting to ten, despite several tries. Maybe that's why he's now driving an ice cream van instead?

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Finishing at 8pm sharp, I left with a thought stirring in the deepest hiding place my memory has to offer - the face recognision centre. Who was this guest coach really? Sure, a Stockholm ref, but really really? It took me an hour before i knew. It was undeniably David Mitchell from Peep show! Imagine that.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4tazMq6SA0&feature=channel

Octopus Paul

An unlikely event took place at the local rugby club late last night. The bar was open, people were having take away-pizza and sipping beers, the big screen was showing a game. So far, so good. Although the ball was round.

A not-so-impressive number of ruggers were actually watching the footie WC final, the battle between the spanish matadors and the flying dutchmen. The game proved to be more interesting than the Spain-Germany semifinal but just as goalless. Despite a zillion yellow cards, missed goal opportunities (like, my tomato plant would've scored) and players falling, faking near-death experiences, several fans soon became more and more interested in the drinking and smoking going on outside. The only two who remained tense with anxiety until the end was Blondie and half-Spaniard Karlsson, both teary and shrieking with relief when, somewhere around the 117th minute, Iniesta finally nailed it.

Octopus Paul - Netherlands 1-0