Meat, Rugby, More Meat, More Rugby...

As luck would have it, I have a few days off work before I have my 50th birthday on Monday.

The first part of my half-century birthday weekend was spent with my lovely, red-headed wife on Friday night. She made reservations at Murray's Steak House-an institution in my home town of Minneapolis. http://murraysrestaurant.com/  Every aspect of the meal was top flight: Great Australian wines, a "butter-knife" steak that was expertly grilled with sauteed onions, mushrooms and au gratin potatoes. It was fine way to start the weekend out.

On Saturday, my brother Bill, my son Ian and my grand son Duncan accompanied me to Columbia Park in North East Minneapolis to catch a key rugby match between Metropolis and the Chicago Lions. It was a match that Metropolis had to win to keep it's slim play-off hopes alive. The match was played on a gorgeous fall afternoon in Minneapolis. Brilliant sunshine, leaves at their peak color and temps in the low 60's put a tone of optimism in the air...

Metropolis put themselves into a 14-0 hole. They were able to score a converted try to make it 14-7, but then Chicago put it into overdrive to go up 31-7 at half time. Metropolis did not help their cause with some poor tacking and some missed passes. They played a much better second half, but were not able to overcome their poor first half, losing 36-24. Metropolis was able to match up well in the scrum, but you just cannot spot any team that kind of lead and hope to overcome a 24 point deficit against a decent team.

After the game, we were all pretty hungry. It had been quite some time since I had eaten a White Castle Hamburger, and some comfort food seemed to be just the ticket.  http://www.whitecastle.com/
White Castle burgers are small, square and grilled with onions. They go by the nickname of "Sliders". They are not located in all parts of the US, but you can find them in places like New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Ohio...and the Twin Cities. I have fond memories of my mom taking me to the White Castle in North East Minneapolis when I was a kid. All of us were pretty hungry, so that meant making sure we had enough food after working up an appetite(my grandson Duncan and my son Ian) watching other people being physically active...

After our refueling at White Castle. It was time to let Duncan try to have a nap, then we were joined by Ian's friend Travis, and we took the bus(My brother Bill with Ian and Duncan) from near Ian's place in Saint Paul over to the TCF stadium on the campus of the University of Minnesota to catch the University of Minnesota Men's Rugby team take on the University of Nebraska Rugby Club...

The rugby match between Minnesota and Nebraska was a fundraiser for the U of M rugby club. There was a nice crowd already in place. We just got to our seats and settled in to watch the match.

The University of Minnesota(in the gold) simply put a beat-down on the Cornhuskers. The beat the huskers in the forward play of scrums and line-outs...

As good as the forward play was by the Gopher's, their back play was sublime-particularly their scrum half and their inside halves. I got a shot of their 8 man dishing to the scrum half just as he was taking off on what would be a 60 yard scamper for a try...

The 68-19 win by the Gophers was a tonic for long-suffering Minnesota sports fans this fall, who have seen the Twins(baseball) eliminated by the Yankees, the Vikings(American Football) at 1-3, the Minnesota Wild (Ice Hockey) at 1-3 and the University of Minnesota football team at 1-5(Losing to 1-AA University of South Dakota)

The win by Minnesota in front of a nice crowd would get some much needed funds for the rugby program, and put a smile on everybody's face, on what is shaking up to be a great weekend.