Last night was spent fairly sensibly in the Irish Village. Its basically an Irish pub, quite small inside but with a massive outdoor terrace. We eventually bundled a few tables together and got some food. As is typical of travelling abroad, the barman was from the same town as Gearoid so they exchanged the usual banter. There was a good buzz about the place and temptation to let go was substantial. To save face, we all noddingly agreed we shoud get a good night sleep to recover from the long journey. It was only when I got into the taxi I realised the Irish Village had a substantial sized tennis stadium above it. It plays host to a big tournament mid-February. Its the kind of thing which seems to be typical of our host city.
The alarms went off just after 7am the next morning and we all filtered down for breakfast. It was grand, beans, scrambled eggs, porridge and that kind of thing. We met our liason from Dubai in the lobby and she ushered all onto the bus. It was like something you would expect to see in India and they squashed is in as you would have expected. We were joined by a ladies football team from Down and together with them and our bags, there was little space for twitching. The journey was about forty minutes and it took us out of Dubai in the direction of Al Ain, deep into the desert. Our co-travellers were all a little worse for wear after a session the night before but we were kept amused by Eoin and Olof’s arguing.
As the bus pulled into the venue you couldn’t but be amazed. In front of us were four pristine pitches, a stadium and a large clubhouse, all smack bang in the middle of the desert. Its the venue for the Dubai 7’s Rugby and will host the Rugby 7’s World Cup next year. It must have cost a fortune to rent for the weekend. The schedule was not kind to us as our first game was scheduled for 12h40 against Abu Dhabi. We were joined in our group by Clonmel Commercials, a Senior Football club from South Tipperary. We ambled between pitches and conserved enery for a few hours. When gametime rolled around we were all eager for action though.
We started the first game with the following team; Emmett, Davy, Keary, Rochey, Olof, Eoin and Micheal. Abu Dhabi would be much better versed in the 7’s game so we knew we had to be on the ball from the throw-in. They travelled with two teams and their A team which we were to play had the look of reasonably conmpetent footballers. We got the start we wanted with Micheal and I think, Eoin kicking a couple of points. Rochey and Keary were bursting through lads early doors and Keary topped it with a ‘lob’ of the keeper from forty yards. I think Mr. Gill kicked a second half point as did Rochey. Bar the odd hairy moment around our goal, which Emmett dealt with well, we controlled the game. The need for regular rotation of the subs was obvious early on and Conchur, Dec and Colin all saw plenty of gametime and contributed well. I was quiet enough and my one venture forward into enemy territory finished with a lame enough attempt for a point. The final score of 1-5 to 0-3 was deserved and the relative ease at which it was achieved allowed us keep the injured Gearoid Sayers in reserve.
A lengthy break followed and the temptation for some of us to join ranks with Abu Dhabi hurlers was too much to resist. We bolstered their squad for their make or break assignment against Dubai B! Myself, Micheal, Eoin and Dec all honoured their green jerseys and despite some rust we aquitted ourselves ok and contributed to Abu’s one point victory which qualifies them for a semi-final tomorrow against Dubai A. We all came through pretty much unscathed but i did have the pleasure of one of the Dubai apes breaking his hurley across my shins.
Clonmel Commercials were next and victory would seal our qualification to the semi-final. They were big men and with the former Tipp goalkeeper Philly Ryan (?) minding the net, we expected a tough game. Our tactics were simple, use our speed to change the focus from physical battle to something more suitable for men of our size. Again Gearoid stayed in reserve but there was the odd positional change. We lined up as follows; Emmett, Rochey, Keary, Olof, Michael, Davy and Eoin. Playing into the wind we started well with Eoin and Micheal getting a point and goal respectively. Then Eoin’s diminutive full-forward partner found his shooting points and kicked a truly marvelous score. Dec burst through soon after and had eyes only for the top corner but unfortunately the ball did not cooperate and he only succeeded in sending the little Indian lad behind the goal scampering into the desert to gather the ball. Conor de Barra was next to eye-ball our friend Philly but his piledriver went just over the bar.
The second half saw our opponents come into the game with their tactic being to drive long ball into Keary and his taller opponent. We didn’t give him the required support and this route certainly led to one goal. Still, with the aforementioned diminutive corner forward getting a taste for kicking scores, the Belgians would take control. First came another fine point as he briefly toyed with a Clonmel defender before despatching the ball over the bar and well into the car park. Minutes later he galloped through but maybe waited a moment too long before realising Micheal for a goal chance. It gave Clonmel the time to get back and bundle up the Duhallow man but not enough to stop him returning the ball to the aforementioned diminutive corner forward, who cooly placed the ball in the bottom corner. The final whistle soon followed and Niall Barrett of Carrigtwoill declared the European Champions 2-7 to 2-0 winners. Gearoid was joined by Colin Byrne on the sidelines as he picked up a knock in the ribs earlier in the day. Hopefully both will recover enough to play some part tomorrow.
The results mean we top the group and will now play Dubai A tomorrow who were runners up to Carrigtwoill in their group. They look a formidable side and the fact they have something like six teams competing shows their strength in depth. We will have to be on our game.
We returned on the fun bus with the Down ladies, who were in much better form. A couple of hairy incidents involving the bus driver trying to grab some shuteye mid-journey kept things lively. Once we got back it was straight to the pool to watch the sun come down on the day and toast our victories with some dodgy Chinesse beer. The pool played able substitute to the ice baths. It was flipping freezing.
Dubai continues to baffle me. On the roof top pool, you listen to the mosque doing its thing, look at the futuristic buildings scattered along the skyline and watch the sun disappear behind the desert. After a quick sprucing up we scattered off to different destinations. I headed to a large shopping mall around the corner with a few of the lads and we found a well stocked food hall which catered for all our needs. This was followed by a bit of shopping. The prices aren’t so different. Suits and shirts seem to be good value and i picked up a phone for half the price I would have in Brussels.
We are back in the hotel/appartment now and we are not sure what to do for the night. There is a social in the Irish Village but the weather has taken a turn and given its an outdoor venue we might skip it and put the feet up and sup a few beers. Tomorrow we play Dubai at 10h20 so pick-up is at 9am. As I said, they will be strong and we will need to up it another level from todays performance. We generally improve with each game of a tournament so hopefully we can follow that curve tomorrow. We hope Gearoid can play, we’ll need his strength and powerful running. A couple of us are suffering a bit of back pain from the hard ground but we should be ok.
So far the organisation has been top notch. Only thing we could have done with was maybe a couple of more games. An explanation of 7’s rules would have been handy too i.e. you take kick-outs from your hand! The 7’s game itself is tough. Its played on a full size rugby pitch which makes for alot of hard running. To some extent positions go out the window and its all about following the one man. Playing in defence is a nightmare due to all the space in front of you. It certainly isn’t my favourite variation of our sport but you wouldn’t expect anything to be normal in this city.
The alarms went off just after 7am the next morning and we all filtered down for breakfast. It was grand, beans, scrambled eggs, porridge and that kind of thing. We met our liason from Dubai in the lobby and she ushered all onto the bus. It was like something you would expect to see in India and they squashed is in as you would have expected. We were joined by a ladies football team from Down and together with them and our bags, there was little space for twitching. The journey was about forty minutes and it took us out of Dubai in the direction of Al Ain, deep into the desert. Our co-travellers were all a little worse for wear after a session the night before but we were kept amused by Eoin and Olof’s arguing.
As the bus pulled into the venue you couldn’t but be amazed. In front of us were four pristine pitches, a stadium and a large clubhouse, all smack bang in the middle of the desert. Its the venue for the Dubai 7’s Rugby and will host the Rugby 7’s World Cup next year. It must have cost a fortune to rent for the weekend. The schedule was not kind to us as our first game was scheduled for 12h40 against Abu Dhabi. We were joined in our group by Clonmel Commercials, a Senior Football club from South Tipperary. We ambled between pitches and conserved enery for a few hours. When gametime rolled around we were all eager for action though.
We started the first game with the following team; Emmett, Davy, Keary, Rochey, Olof, Eoin and Micheal. Abu Dhabi would be much better versed in the 7’s game so we knew we had to be on the ball from the throw-in. They travelled with two teams and their A team which we were to play had the look of reasonably conmpetent footballers. We got the start we wanted with Micheal and I think, Eoin kicking a couple of points. Rochey and Keary were bursting through lads early doors and Keary topped it with a ‘lob’ of the keeper from forty yards. I think Mr. Gill kicked a second half point as did Rochey. Bar the odd hairy moment around our goal, which Emmett dealt with well, we controlled the game. The need for regular rotation of the subs was obvious early on and Conchur, Dec and Colin all saw plenty of gametime and contributed well. I was quiet enough and my one venture forward into enemy territory finished with a lame enough attempt for a point. The final score of 1-5 to 0-3 was deserved and the relative ease at which it was achieved allowed us keep the injured Gearoid Sayers in reserve.
A lengthy break followed and the temptation for some of us to join ranks with Abu Dhabi hurlers was too much to resist. We bolstered their squad for their make or break assignment against Dubai B! Myself, Micheal, Eoin and Dec all honoured their green jerseys and despite some rust we aquitted ourselves ok and contributed to Abu’s one point victory which qualifies them for a semi-final tomorrow against Dubai A. We all came through pretty much unscathed but i did have the pleasure of one of the Dubai apes breaking his hurley across my shins.
Clonmel Commercials were next and victory would seal our qualification to the semi-final. They were big men and with the former Tipp goalkeeper Philly Ryan (?) minding the net, we expected a tough game. Our tactics were simple, use our speed to change the focus from physical battle to something more suitable for men of our size. Again Gearoid stayed in reserve but there was the odd positional change. We lined up as follows; Emmett, Rochey, Keary, Olof, Michael, Davy and Eoin. Playing into the wind we started well with Eoin and Micheal getting a point and goal respectively. Then Eoin’s diminutive full-forward partner found his shooting points and kicked a truly marvelous score. Dec burst through soon after and had eyes only for the top corner but unfortunately the ball did not cooperate and he only succeeded in sending the little Indian lad behind the goal scampering into the desert to gather the ball. Conor de Barra was next to eye-ball our friend Philly but his piledriver went just over the bar.
The second half saw our opponents come into the game with their tactic being to drive long ball into Keary and his taller opponent. We didn’t give him the required support and this route certainly led to one goal. Still, with the aforementioned diminutive corner forward getting a taste for kicking scores, the Belgians would take control. First came another fine point as he briefly toyed with a Clonmel defender before despatching the ball over the bar and well into the car park. Minutes later he galloped through but maybe waited a moment too long before realising Micheal for a goal chance. It gave Clonmel the time to get back and bundle up the Duhallow man but not enough to stop him returning the ball to the aforementioned diminutive corner forward, who cooly placed the ball in the bottom corner. The final whistle soon followed and Niall Barrett of Carrigtwoill declared the European Champions 2-7 to 2-0 winners. Gearoid was joined by Colin Byrne on the sidelines as he picked up a knock in the ribs earlier in the day. Hopefully both will recover enough to play some part tomorrow.
The results mean we top the group and will now play Dubai A tomorrow who were runners up to Carrigtwoill in their group. They look a formidable side and the fact they have something like six teams competing shows their strength in depth. We will have to be on our game.
We returned on the fun bus with the Down ladies, who were in much better form. A couple of hairy incidents involving the bus driver trying to grab some shuteye mid-journey kept things lively. Once we got back it was straight to the pool to watch the sun come down on the day and toast our victories with some dodgy Chinesse beer. The pool played able substitute to the ice baths. It was flipping freezing.
Dubai continues to baffle me. On the roof top pool, you listen to the mosque doing its thing, look at the futuristic buildings scattered along the skyline and watch the sun disappear behind the desert. After a quick sprucing up we scattered off to different destinations. I headed to a large shopping mall around the corner with a few of the lads and we found a well stocked food hall which catered for all our needs. This was followed by a bit of shopping. The prices aren’t so different. Suits and shirts seem to be good value and i picked up a phone for half the price I would have in Brussels.
We are back in the hotel/appartment now and we are not sure what to do for the night. There is a social in the Irish Village but the weather has taken a turn and given its an outdoor venue we might skip it and put the feet up and sup a few beers. Tomorrow we play Dubai at 10h20 so pick-up is at 9am. As I said, they will be strong and we will need to up it another level from todays performance. We generally improve with each game of a tournament so hopefully we can follow that curve tomorrow. We hope Gearoid can play, we’ll need his strength and powerful running. A couple of us are suffering a bit of back pain from the hard ground but we should be ok.
So far the organisation has been top notch. Only thing we could have done with was maybe a couple of more games. An explanation of 7’s rules would have been handy too i.e. you take kick-outs from your hand! The 7’s game itself is tough. Its played on a full size rugby pitch which makes for alot of hard running. To some extent positions go out the window and its all about following the one man. Playing in defence is a nightmare due to all the space in front of you. It certainly isn’t my favourite variation of our sport but you wouldn’t expect anything to be normal in this city.
1 comment:
Fair play men! Any update since? Conan.
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