Surviving a Weekend Without Rugby-and 52 Candles

I did not get a chance to watch ANY rugby this past weekend. You might think that I would be as depressed as my bulldog Buddha wearing a referee shirt.

At TCF Stadium with my kids Ian and Rachel

I had a chance to get back to Minnesota this past weekend to see my kids and my grandson. There were great fall colors in the Twin Cities, and I took my kids to see a University of Minnesota football game.(Metropolis was out of town playing in Chicago)

Minnesota would lose to Northwestern 21-13

Today on my 52nd birthday, I had kind wishes and phone calls from places like Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, France, Portugal, Sri Lanka, South Korea and all over the USA. It was very humbling that so many people took time to wish an old boy prop birthday greetings.

Just got a 42 inch LED TV for our apartment, which is going to make watching rugby on TV with my bulldog a whole lot more fun.

Buddha wondering who will watch rugby with him...

All Blacks: Help From Above?

From the Wellington Cathedral of Saint Paul..

After Watching the All Blacks spot the Springboks a lead in Soweto, and then storm back to beat the Boks 32-16 to earn a clean sweap of the inagural "Rugby Championship"( Lame name, I cannot believe somebody could not have come up with a better name or logo for this southern hemisphere tournament)

In trying to explain the All Blacks success, you can probably point to a lot of factors where Steve Hansen has made a nice transition since taking over from Graham Henry as the All Black head coach, but in the end, maybe some help from above is not a bad thing to have in your corner, either.

Happy 20th Anniversary Metropolis Rugby Football Club!

This weekend in Minneapolis will mark the XXth Anniversary of the birth of the Metropolis Rugby Football Club. It was born of the merger of the Minneapolis RFC and the Metropolitan RFC in 1992. There will be a huge celebration this weekend which I will miss, as I live in California now, and I work this weekend. http://www.metropolisrugby.com/news_article/show/175334?referrer_id=

Metropolis RFC was my club from 2006, when I joined as a 45 year old to spring of this year. This group of people could not have been more supportive of me when I made the decision to play at an advanced age. http://nursedude.blog.com/2007/07/11/how-rugby-saved-my-life-and-my-sanity/

I cannot thank people enough like Ike, Tony, Dilley, Jester, Super Joe and so, so many others who were supportive of me and offered me their friendship through the Metropolis Rugby Football Club. There were a lot of highlights in my time with Metropolis. It has been amazing to see the club go from one A squad team with some extras to actually having 3 clubs playing Division I, II and now a full D III side. The participation levels are simply breathtaking. The DIII side were national champs last year and the DI side made the national semifinals. For me, my personal highlight was playing with a group of Metropolis, Old Laruentian and Omaha Goat over 35 players at the Aspen Ruggerfest two years ago. It was just a beautiful place to play rugby, and was just a great time. (What happens on tour, STAYS on tour)

Have a great XXth anniversary this weekend, Metropolis! Sorry I will have to miss it. You are just a fantastic group of people.