The Tournament

The tournament

On saturday, we woke up at 8:00 a.m. to get to the Complutens University as fast as dad's motorbike would take us.  We arrived right on time. While the A team started the tournament's first match, me and my friend R.F. put up all the sponsor posters. Then we watched a bit of the game until it was our turn to play. We played againt La Única from the Basque Country and lost miserably. All the day's matches gave us no doubt of the fact that we would get the "wooden spoon", an expression that says that that team has lost all their matches. All 5 games we played, we lost all of them. With the scores getting worse and worse, we had a breakthrough in our last match when we played against Colmenar Viejo. Our fast runner J. scored our first try in the tournament. Well, we all felt bad, but the consolation came soon. You see, one of our sponsors was Telepizza, something like England's Pizza Hut. We all had pizza and chicken nuggets after all the matches.

The Cisneros captain pondering the team's next move

 On Sunday we woke up at about the same time as on saturday. We got to the pitch really early, so we had some time to muck about on the pitch. But then the rest of the teams started to pour in and we decided to continue after the tournament was over. Well, the B team had 2 remaining matches in the tournament. We lost the first but we won the second. Afterwards, the A team had to play the final against a portuguese club. They lost, but all the team, including the losing B's, got the silver medal.

The Cisneros captain smashing into the opponent's defence with two helpers

 So, that was that. We cleared the pitch up and that was the end of the Rugby tournament.

For safety reasons I will not write the full name of plaayers, coaches, etc.

 

London

The London trip

On Friday 15th, at 15:00, we were all at Madrid Barajas airport checking in our suitcases because we were going to a trip to London to play against Staines FRC. The long wait plus the problems we encountered were worth the wait because after the 2 hour flight to Luton Airport we had embarked on a heavenly adventure. The hotel was quite good. After a short walk, we strolled into a Pizza Hut. There, we had a feast. The salad bar was emptied immediately. Then came the pizzas. Crunchy, tasty and good in every way, they disappeared off their plates in a split second. The ice cream machine had to be refilled twice!

That night the coaches split us into 2 groups. One of them would sleep in a ginormous 24 bed room. The other, including me, slept in a 8 bed room with a bathroom. Everyone except me and one of my friends, M.C, left the room during the night.

The next morning we went for a stroll to the park so that our appetite was 100% ready when we came back for breakfast.
 
In the bus there was immediate chatter as we arrived at The Reeves football and rugby pitch. There, we rapidly changed and trotted out onto the rugby pitch. Our opponents looked bigger and stronger. I wasn´t playing in the first half so I took out my camera. Our team struggled to score but when they did, they wantede more. The first half ended in 0-22 for the Cisneros. I played in the second half in which, I must say, a giant player from the other team jumped on top of me instead of tackling me and my shoulder cracked. Yikes! Even though we scored one try to their four or five, we still won 12-29 for us.

Our Half-scrum passing the ball as a scrum ends

During the 3rd time, we had meat, potatoes, peas, carrots and broccoli with gravy (of course). After that came a yummy apple pie with vanilla cream. After the meal, we had a series of contests such as "who eats their mars bar the fastest" or "which team can get most Maltesers into their mouthes on a tape measure".

Both teams' family snapshot

 We lost all of them, but we do have the excuse of never doing it before. Then the Staines captain made a speech and M.C translated it to the players on our team that didn't speak fluent English.The captains gave each other presents (everyone got a Staines badge). After that, the Staines 1st senior team played.

The Staines 1st senior team doing their pre-match training

We watched some and then we piled back into the bus. We stopped at Twickenham stadium (the world's Rugby Cathedral) on our way back there was a great hulabaloo to get into the gift shop first. You can't imagine the things you could find in there. Shirts, balls, salt and pepper pots, England rugby team water bottles and much much much much more.

That afternoon (and well into the night) we had a 4 hour trek around London, stopping at Buckingham palace, the Big Ben and the London Eye. After that, we were very hungry so we stopped at a KFC.

That night nobody moved from their beds.

On Sunday we made our suitcases and left them at the hotel for a bus to come and pick them up. We then went for another stroll around London stopping at the Marble arch, Hamleys, Oxford Circus and Picadilly Circus. We then went back to the Marble Arch where the bus was waiting. It took us to the airport. There, even though the boarding gate would close at 18:00, someone had the bright idea of going to a Macdonald's. The result: we all had to pour our chips into our empty paper cups and run to the gate. In the plane, we finally relaxed in our seats.

 Read the section in the centre:
http://www.stainesrugby.co.uk/v5/base.php 

 For safety reasons I will not write the full names of players, coaches, etc.

Getafe RC

Getafe RC

Today we played Getafe rugby club. As all our trainers were away, we got trained by the 1st senior team trainer. I chose my boots with short studs because we were playing on artificial grass. The other team's captain was a girl.

the referee and the captains before the match.

We had seen our opponents as soon as we got out of the car. Their team  didn't look but I think there was a U-16 boy in their team. Anyway, as soon as the game started (I was a substitute) I caught a glimpse of the typical hard leaders of the team. Hard to tackle, hard to avoid boys that are the most problematic in a rugby match.

Nº 54 player zooming up the right flank to a try

In the 2nd half, as soon as I had got in my position, one of them was already storming through the middle. When they did that, they looked good, but after they scored, our players would get up from the ground with a red hand mark on their necks (hand-off to the neck. That's illegal in rugby, you see). But we continued playing and continued scoring until the referee blew the end of the match. I believe the final score was something like 20-57. I liked it. Also, I liked being trained by the 1st senior team trainer. A true honour.

Our new trainer inspecting our passing practise

For safety reasons I will not write the full name of players, coaches, etc. 

CRC Pozuelo

CRC Pozuelo

 

Today we played against CRC (Canoe Rugby Club) from Pozuelo. 41-14. We won. Although I didn't do much for the victory. I didn't touch the ball, I didn't enter the rucks like other people did. I don't know whether it was the sun or whether it was the slight temperature, but I just couldn't play properly. Let's hope next game goes better.

Defending a ruck.

 For safety reasons I will not write the full name of players, coaches, etc.