Edinburgh 2008

Edinburgh University

UCD RFC

O Flower of Scotland, when will we see your likes again? was a very apt question for the 47 people on the coach from the Parliament House Hotel to Edinburgh airport on Sunday morning, and I think the answer to that question would have been unanimously “not for a good while thanks”!

The Junior Committee met in October 2007 to discuss a destination for a tour and after some interesting suggestions which included Galway, Donegal and Pontypool amongst others, we settled on Edinburgh. Then we needed a date, and we decided to take advantage of the cheap flights making the reverse journey to Edinburgh while the tartan army made their way to Croke Park. The Executive Committee left us under no illusion that this trip was to be at least a somewhat self financing tour and there was audible sigh of relief from Brian Corr the man who controls the clubs purse strings. And so began a four month campaign of harassment of all members of the club and those intending to travel in a bid to raise money.

Vinny Hammond and David Johnson ran bucket collections at all the home games after Christmas and Vinny even convinced his Mum to come down and make tea for all the supporters of the home matches in return for small contributions. A date with Shane Geraghty was auctioned off on Ebay and fetched the inflated sum of €26 for the tour, while a draw to join our esteemed Club President for a pre match lunch raised substantially more.

Our finest hour though came on the weekend of the 16th/17th of February when almost every tourist manned the tills in Superquinn, Blackrock to bag pack the groceries of the local community in exchange for donations. The hard work of each of the packers contributed to a total of €2900 being raised, over 10% of which is going to the IRFU Charitable Trust, and 10% of which will go to the Under 20’s in UCD for the development of player camaraderie. Then there was the Australia Day Party, and generous sponsorship of the t-Shirts by the Sheahan Family. Finally each player raised personal sponsorship of between €100 and €300 each and all of a sudden the tour was completely self funded.

Our attack on Edinburgh was to be four pronged. An advance group of 21 on the 9.30 Aer Lingus flight, then the infantry arriving on the 4pm Ryanair flight (credit to Gilly and Geoff Sheahan for getting all the lads over safely) finally the Armchair Generals, Carrigy, The President and Dr. Daly arrived into Edinburgh at 8pm. Our tank division of David Jones was due to arrive on Saturday morning but the Air Coach broke down and he never made it. (Though I am reliably informed he made it to the Punch Bowl all right!)

It may have been a premonition of things to come but as the advance group arrived in Edinburgh Airport we bumped into the Scottish team departing for Dublin. The sight of Bruiser passing Nathan Hynes in the airport was akin to two Kodak bears invading each others territory, but Hynes looked away first and trundled off to check in for his flight.

Bruiser the Captain and Chairman addressed the masses in the Newsroom Bar and introduced our team mascot, a fine bright pink bear, to us before we made our way to Mama Roma’s for dinner. We had the Restaurant to ourselves and dined on the finest of Italian delicacies. Mama Roma herself wasn’t about but her sons Mario, Luigi and daughter Isabella looked after their Collidge visitors with typical Italian hospitality and panache! Although I have to admire the refined gourmet tastes of Sam Duffy and John Comiskey - battered key? Our resident sommelier for the evening was Joe Moroney.

We moved from Mama Roma’s back the Parliament House Hotel for an early night in preparation for the match on Saturday. At this point I wish to say that I categorically deny that I have ever heard of, let alone visited, any of the following establishments: The Seven Sisters, The Four Leprechauns, The Two Shamrocks, The 12 Swans, The 10 Geese and a nightclub by the name of Faith! Suffice to say breakfast on Saturday morning was a quiet affair.

We assembled at the Edinburgh University Sports Ground at 12.30 for the 2pm kick off. It will to this day remain a feat of human endurance to rival Shackleton conquering the North Pole and Hillary climbing Everest that some of the players took to the field at all on Saturday afternoon, but we did.

The match started well against a very strong Edinburgh team. They missed an early penalty and it wasn’t long before the legendary UCD Maul began to rumble slowly down the field, directed by Alan Shubotham at scrum half. Suddenly like the Loch Ness Monster rising from depths of the Loch, flinging miniature Scotsmen from his back, Captain Simon Norton rose from the maul to score a fantastic try. It was a sight that brought tears to the eyes of the three Armchair Generals in the stand. The massive bench and the 20 or so backroom staff erupted on the sidelines. Geoff Sheahan converted and Dublin led Edinburgh 7 - 0 after 10 minutes.

Edinburgh didn’t waste time in pushing us back into our own half and were awarded a penalty by their ref on the 20 minute mark which they converted to make the score 7 - 3. But the battle was young and the fight was fierce. Up and down the pitch we went, with both teams coming close to taking points however it was Edinburgh who stole them. A cross field kick was put in behind us and as I chased back to cover it I was pushed by their winger who then dived on the ball. Their ref ignored my protests and awarded the try. They converted to make the score 10 - 7 to Edinburgh. My despair wasn’t helped by my own brother, Mark, telling me that it was all my fault!

Not be left trailing at the break, Collidge stormed back up the field, Will Hutch and Ronan Grace carrying the ball hundreds of yards each. Mick Barton was immense and the man with feet as sure as a mountain goat, John Roche, danced around the Edinburgh defence. Colm O’Keane in the number 10 berth was linking up with his centres Tom Hill and Geoff Sheehan beautifully but all to no avail. Eventually their ref saw fit to award us a penalty in the dying seconds of the half. Geoff Sheahan split the uprights in two and the half time whistle went.

Changes were made, Ross Cahalane for me, Niall Collins for Stephen O’Hara and Sam Duffy for Ronan Grace. We started well again but it was only ten minutes before we realised that Frank Hadden had left a few of his more illustrious players behind. Edinburgh ran in two tries in quick succession and a fellow whom they called Hastings slotted the two conversions and then a penalty. The score 27 - 10 to Edinburgh. Collidge dead and buried? Not just yet.

We answered the rallying call of Le Bruise. Sam Duffy ran into the jaws of the Scottish Pack and emerged with a suspected broken jaw. Colm O’Keane took a few big hits. Joe Moroney was forced into the full back position but he was camouflaged as his skin was the same colour as the green grass. Ken Forde came on and took some huge hits but didn’t loose possession, Patrick Gamble was immense when he came on but couldn’t find a way through, even Mark Gilligan couldn’t scurry through the defences of Edinburgh.

Then, suddenly, from inside our own 22 Paddy Gamble broke the defences, before taking the ball into contact, Mick Barton made ground, then Paul Dempsey who popped off to Mark Gilligan, Niall Collins took the ball up the pitch, before Shubotham let the ball out to Colm O’Keane, to Ken Forde, who skipped second centre Geoff Sheahan and let the ball out to me, I made it around Edinburgh wing, before letting it out to Geoff who had looped around, and then ran from just inside our half handing off no less than seven Edinburgh players and going over in the corner. A cold twirling whirling breeze blew through an eerily quiet stadium as Geoff slotted the conversion from the touch line. 27 - 17

Alas it was too little too late and as I took a last gasp pass from Shoey and ran into the Edinburgh pack roaring the word FREEDOM, the final whistle went. As I emerged Bruiser turned to the three Armchair Generals and shouted “Are you not entertained?” It was worth it - a good match played in great spirits by all.

We retired to The Craggs Pub to watch Ireland beat Scotland and then England beat France before retiring to the hotel tired but proud. Edinburgh University showed us some great hospitality in the Sportsters Bar. Gero’s pitcher's of jungle juice and Connor O’Driscoll's calls for more kitty echoed into the cold Scottish night.

We departed at 9.30 the next morning, all present and accounted for only to realise that Tom O’Neill wasn’t on the bus as he wasn’t on our list. His mobile was turned off and we had no number for the hotel. He made it home safely later on that day, and I’m glad to say that that was the only mishap of the tour. Ryanair flight 286 Edinburgh to Dublin may well have been one of the quietest flights in history.

Finally huge thanks have to go to Vinny Hammond without whom this tour quite simply could not have happened. Shane Geraghty, Derek Scally, and Simon Norton as the other members of the Junior Committee kept everything moving along swiftly. Brian Corr has to be thanked for helping out with the financial controls as do David Johnson and Joe Moroney. President Bergin was always a great source of encouragement and the Executive Committee especially Chairman Billy Murphy and David Carrigy were of huge help in assisting with the logistics. Finally thanks to every single person on the tour made it a great weekend.

Fred Gilligan

Please click on some of the images below to enlarge them. If anyone has other photos of the weekend, email them to info@ucdrugby.com so they can be posted here.

Gilly decides - Eh I wont be playing lads... Thumbnail1