Irish Blog — Bombers lose 36-12 to Montivea, experience St. Paddy's Day
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The L.V. Rogers Bombers are currently traveling the roads of Ireland on Rugby tour.
The team, which has been raising money for the past year to help offset the costs, departed from Nelson 10 days ago. The Mighty Bombers opened the tour with a 27-5 win over the Balgriggan Rugby Club.
However, the Bombers were brought back down to earth with a 36-12 setback at the hands of a team from Montevia Friday.
LVR Vice Principal Frank Marisco, who is with the team on the tour along with coach Michael Joyce, has graciously accepted the challenge of blogging the tour for The Nelson Daily.
There’s been lots of sightseeing, training and, of course, an experience of a lifetime — being in Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day — to blog.
Here’s Frank’s latest entry.
Saturday, March 19
I knock on the doors at 8 a.m. and the response is limited.
Breakfast time, are you awake?
Uh, yeah, silence.
Beans, eggs and bacon for most of us at the Galway Bakery Company. Some of the kids have figured out that they can get an extra 30 minutes of sleep and just eat the complementary toast, cereal, and juice at the hostel. To each his own.
The boys are a little stiff and bruised up after yesterday’s game but the spirits are high. We played a high powered skillful team and held our own – we can be proud of that.
After the game the coach of Montivea said we would easily beat the American college team that played the previous day.
We get on the bus and head for the field for another session with Nigel Carolan.
Today he spends most of his time working with our backs. The pack is quite good and can hold their own with pretty much anyone. The back line has more subtleties both offensively and defensively.
Nigel is very experienced and knows the game well. He comments about the talent and “rugby brain” of Connor Butler. He likes what he sees.
After practice it is soup and sandwiches and then a little down time in preparation for the Six Nations game. The whole country is buzzing with excitement in anticipation of this big match.
It is Ireland’s last Six Nations game of the season and England is coming in with an undefeated record.
A bunch of kids stayand watch the game in the hostel. Many others head downtown and watch the game in the Sheffington Arms pub. It is standing room only and the mood is electric. Right from the opening kickoff Ireland takes control of the game and never gives it up.
The crowd breaks into song almost everytime Ireland scores and they end up winning the game win convincingly. As the signs everywhere say – This IS rugby country.
After the game it is curried chicken dinner at the GBC and then a quite night getting things packed up and ready for tomorrow. At 10 a.m. we’re on the bus and off to Limerick in Munster Province for the last leg of our journey.
The forecast is rain, rain, and more rain.
Friday, March 18
Eight o’clock wake up call and it is back to the GBC for breakfast.
I get the feeling that many of the players are longing for a morning when they can just sleep in ’till noon.
After breakfast we are taken on a walking tour of downtown Galway. The remnants of last night’s revelry litter the streets and the cleanup crews are busy sweeping up garbage and broken glass.
What a fascinating city with a rich old history. Amoungst other things we found out that the word “lynch” originated here in Galway. The Lynch family were the mayors here for over six generations and one of them hung his own son for murder because no one else in town was willing to do it.
The kids enjoyed that little story.
We spent time inside the huge old Protestant Church and found out that Oliver Cromwell used it as a stable when he and his troops were looting and pillaging this area. We head for lunch (soup and sandwiches) and are introduced to Nik Woods uncle who has flown over from England.
He is going to be with us for a couple of days. The resemblance to father Ian is definitely there.
After lunch there is some downtime to get mentally prepared for this evening’s game. At 5 p.m. we load onto the bus and head to Monivea, a small farming town 30 minutes east of Galway.
The country side is quite beautiful and the land very fertile. Lots of big beautiful farm houses would indicate that this area is quite wealthy. Once there we realize that Maverick has been left behind in the hostel so Michael out driver, goes back and fetches him.
The Montivea team arrives and we immediately see a much different team than the one we played in Balbriggan.
These guys are older, bigger and much more confident looking. I make some enquiries and find out a few things about the team . . . the Montivea squad will be playing for the county championship next weekend . . . one of their players has been selected to play for the Irish U18 squad.
They have hand picked some of their best players from their U19, U18 and U17 squads.
The game kicks off at 7 p.m. under the lights and before we know it we down 12-0.
However, the Bombers regroup and start getting into the groove. We hold our own in the scrums and lineouts but can’t keep up with their pace in the backline.
The outcome is 36-12 in favour of Montivea with Connor Butler and Kevin Lewis crossing the line and Kevin scoring one conversion.
After the game we are invited back to the clubhouse for burgers, fries and presentations.
We get back to the hostel at 9:30 and find that the GBC restuarant has delivered dinner and boystuck into another feast of soup, chicken breast, fries, and apple crsip with custard.
What a day.
Thursday, March 17 . . . St. Paddy’s Day!
St. Paddy’s Day and we get our first day off.
Well, sort of. Morning wake up call by myself and then off to breakfast at the usual place.
Main street already has the barricades up and preparations for the parade are in full swing. After breakfast it is off to the local field for a training session with Mike and Brad. No fitness stuff – most of our guys are already in pretty good shape – this is all about game skills and strategy.
Touring teams from North America generally lose against local teams because they lack skills and knowledge of the game. We are way ahead of most teams in that regard.
After practice it is back to main street for the parade. The crowds are huge and people are packed tightly together trying to get a good view. It seems that the laws of the land are disregarded on Paddy’s Day and many young people are wandering around drinking bottles of beer and cider.
The parade is quite good and it is followed by a massive traffic jam as people get into their cars and head back to the burbs.
A few of us wander off to the Sportsground to cheer on the American college team that we have become friends with. They are from outside of Pittsburgh and are on a similar tour as us. They have a lot of big boys but lack rugby skills and the score is indicative of that- they lose by a score of 11 tries to 1. That is about 70 – 5. Ouch!
At the game I bump into the coach of the team we are playing tomorrow. He is there scouting and trying to judge the level of play he might expect from us. It show that the word is out because he already had some knowledge about our ability.
A quiet evening back at the dorm – the boys are eager to play tomorrow’s game.
