Well, I am now back in Texas after a week back in Minnesota, where the weather was cold, wet and gray most of the week. (Except for Sunday, the day I left-it was 60 degrees and sunshine) I had bought tickets for my wife and I to see the Minnesota Twins-Cleveland Indians baseball game for Friday, and that ended up being a no-go...
That left Saturday's rugby to be played in cool, moist conditions between Metropolis and the Old Laurentians. The first game was Metropolis Old Boys/seconds against the OL's Veterans and seconds. This would end up being my first "international" match against our English visitors. One factor in our favor was that we had a deeper bench and could do more substitutions. We also had a bit more speed and skill in the back line. Metropolis old boys Pedro and Super Joe played great matches. The last try of the game was scored with great back and forth ball between Super Joe and Dave Heebner.
The game was played with great sportsmanship-after a few days of partying together, that probably did not hurt. Plus Metropolis and the OL's have a special relationship. There certainly were some good hits and intensity, but no chippy or dirty play.
The other thing that made the day special that is was my dad's first chance to see his now 50 year old son play rugby. My brother Bill and my friend Jacques were at the game, as well. That was pretty cool. My dad just could not believe all of us gray-beards out there playing this game. One thing that my dad noticed was even though we were busy beating each other up, there was nothing mean-spirited going on off the ball. Usually you think of playing a sport in front of your dad, it's usually when you are a kid in high school, but veteran's rugby has allowed a middle aged kid to show my dad just why I love this sport.
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