Kinsale 2007

On Friday 27^th of April, 22 intrepid rugby players departed from Dublin down the long road to Cork and beyond to the picturesque town of Kinsale. As with ever trip to Kinsale there is a huge element of fear. Fear as to what will happen and worse still the fear of knowing that there might be a Fijian or two whom you get to put your skills to the test against. In keeping with tradition, our long standing leader of all tours Simon ‘Bruiser’ Norton led an advance party to his home town of Bandon on the Thursday just to ensure that the water was safe to drink and that there was suitable amount of space for running rugby to be played. After a conference call with the team manager, Shane Geraghty, Bruiser confirmed that indeed the water was safe and that the wide expanses of pitch 1 in Kinsale were suitable for our dynamic style of rugby.

Upon arrival in Kinsale, we settled into out accommodation in the Guardwell Lodge, which has been the port of call for the last 5 years as the base for UCD’s magnificent 7’s team. After a quick change of attire it was time to hit the streets and soak up the atmosphere. In traditional fashion, Bruiser was joined by former ‘Collidge boy Richie Flynn and we met them in the Hole in the Wall for a few lucozade sports and a discussion of tactics. “I want to bring back the maul” said Flynner at which point Bruiser’s eyes welled up with pride as memories of Serevi’s look of horror and Ian Lynam’s look of delight flashed through his mind. For the new players all this seemed like madness, talk of a maul….in sevens’ rugby?? But after a briefing on what had happened previously, all agreed that a maul was a very effective and indeed crowd-pleasing weapon which would be called when the time was right.

The discussions continued long into the night and more and more of the team slowly arrived after their long and tiring journey from Dublin. We all went to bed with thoughts of 70 meter mauls and scenes from Gladitor with Flynner shouting “Are you not entertained?!”

Fortunately our games didn’t begin until 12.30 which gave us plenty of time to get our game plan together and bring in our resident sports psychologist and Club Captain, Conor Geoghegan. He gave us a two hour lecture on how we had to visualize winning, he made suggestions of guerilla style tactics “hit them hard and hit them fast” was the mantra. Next came a very informative and insightful discussion of the art of try celebration. When playing sevens rugby this is key, Cannonball Doran led this seminar and was ably assisted by veteran leader Bruiser, there was mention of grenades, ten pin bowling and of course who could forget the machine gun. After an early morning swim and 3k run and series of lectures, we decided that the talking was over and we had to go and play some rugby.

We played 3 games on the Saturday in the Junior competition just to ease our way into the event and won 2 out of three which left us all satisfied with the job done and the prospect of the Senior Competition on the Sunday exciting imaginations. We adjourned to the now famous Kinsale tent where some of the players got to know some of the local wildlife. Bemusement was in vogue as some of the lads had never been to Kinsale, but as is required in such moments, natural instinct kicks in and all of the newbies took to the tent like flies to manure. ‘Gigi’ was especially excited by the whole event and could be heard signing ‘Nessun Dorma’ long into the night.

Sunday we awoke bleary eyes and slightly uneasy as the prospect of games that afternoon slowly dawned on those still standing. ‘Il Carrigy’ particularly anxious that we go and win the competition outright as a show strength for University Rugby, to which there were mumbles of Mussolini’s manner of demise. Having successfully battled through the haze, we departed for pitch 1 in Kinsale RFC and we strode forward like Ceasar entering West Cork ie. nobody knew who we were except for a few who saw the steely look of determination in the eyes of our juggernaught pack and were reminded of bygone days where the maul once reigned supreme.

Our first game was against the eventual champions the Kooga Wailers who taught us a harsh lesson in the arts of sevens rugby, next came Kama Sutra, who are another professional outfit which included some old UCD players. This was a tough fought contest with Kama Sutra eventually coming out on the right side of the score board, but only after our pack had brought the game to them and Ken Kennedy and Michael Hasting had opened up huge gaps in their defence. The spirited and often exciting brand of rugby we were now playing would be vital in our last game against the Carmathan Warriors from Wales, who over the last number of years have become our nemesis. After the initial exchanges were dealt with, UCD got on top and fine performances from Michael Hastings Ken, Kennedy and ‘Gigi’ we ran out eventual comfortable winners.

After a long a challenging afternoon, it was rewarded by the organisers declaring us fourth overall in the Senior Competition which was a fantastic result for a group of lads who are thrown together for one weekend a year. Yet again the strains of ‘Nessun Dorma’ rang out over the fields of Kinsale and soon after the final was played, the tent was full of different colour rugby jerseys and men and women dancing away to music being played into the early evening. The team performed its various party pieces in the glorious surrounds of the tent and then onwards and upwards for the remainder and a date with the ‘dishco’ in Acton’s Hotel until the wee small hours…as was noted on the Monday morning “only 363 days until Kinsale”.

My thanks to all who traveled and made Kinsale one of the best yet, the group were 90% new additions and they took to the whole experience from the start. My thanks to my fellow organisers or de-facto organisers: Kevin Kenny, David Carrigy and the big man Simon Norton. There assistance and insight were very welcome and helped lighten the load.