Aspen Part 2: Send in The Clowns

After going 0-2 without scoring a try against Kansas City and the Harlequins, our combined team of OL's, Metropolis and Omaha GOATS Old Boys had to play it's third, and final game against a bunch of Clowns. That's not meant to be a mean-spirited comment, we REALLY did have to play the Clowns in our last game on Friday. http://clownrugby.com/

We started off well against the Clowns. We had decent pressure on them, and our forward play was better.  I was feeling like I was adapting better and actually making it to some rucks(me with the semi-shaved head rucking a clown). Against KC, my feet felt like I was running in quicksand. At least in the last couple of matches, I was able to at least get to the breakdown, and I felt stronger in the scrum.

We at least scored a try in this game. Kyle, one of the Metropolis Old Boys put the ball down to at least salvage some pride.

The game did have one incident that was maybe the grossest thing I have seen on a rugby  pitch. Towards the end of the game, there was a scrum where the Clown tight head prop and I banged heads, giving me a nice cut on my right ear. This left a large amount of blood on the side of the face of my fellow prop. The young referee wanted to blood bin the other prop, when the hooker said "Don't worry, sir...I'll take care of it!" At this point the hooker grabbed the prop and licked the blood off his face. There was a loud moan of disgust from players on the field, the benches and the spectators at the Rio Grande field. Play did continue until the ref blew his whistle, which meant that our combined side was 0-3 and that our rugby was done for the rest of Ruggerfest.

I had a chance to chat with the Clowns after the game(the other prop to the left of me, the blood-thirsty hooker is shirtless kneeling)-like most people in the sport, they were nice guys, and they told me that one of their mates was going to be getting married on the Wagner Field pitch at the end of all of the rugby on Friday night. A rugby/clown wedding...it sounded so different, that I had to check this out.

After an afternoon of re-hydrating and taking some Ibuprofen for my aches and pains, I went down to the Wagner Field, and sure enough, there were several Clowns players, the kilt-clad preacher and the bride and groom. It was disturbing and romantic all at the same time...

It takes a special woman to be married to a rugger. I know my lovely red-headed bride has been very supportive of me over the last 5 years.  For a woman to sign on to be married to a rugger and a Clown, well, she has to be a good sport.

In my next posting, I will talk about the Running of the Cows at Aspen and my brush with rugby royalty.