2017/CW27 Training/Tournament Munich W27

The training day that was turned into a tournament day.

We had that Sunday in our diaries since a while, when Jay asked "What about going to a little tournament instead?"

Our playful natures made the rest (and thankfully some Munich players were thoughtful enough to book some Air?B&B flats just in case, so we could have a roof over our heads for little money).

And off we went. I picked up Irene and Joelle just to enter the evening traffic jumps, whereas Jay, Fabi, Jess, Manu and Karin took the early afternoon option and Larissa and Chris the midnight option.

Dinner at Augustiner was Bavarian style, so we were sure we would not lack energy on the next day.

After a good night and a good breakfast, we were early on site, even earlier than the organizers (maybe it was due to me being unable to program 2 destinations in the correct order in the rental car's GPS? Sshh)

As it was a mixed tournament, we had to have a minimum of 1 man on the field any time, and Jay and Chris were The Chosen Ones, giving us the chance to play in the tournament. We are greatly thankful for their time, help, coaching, smile, and yes for setting up a few nice attacks and occasionally preventing some fast opponents to score.

It turned out that the day's schedule was very favorable to us, as we had always a good break between the games and because we started playing the 2nd team of Munich.

We started the warm up as a routine and managed to put our heads quickly into the game. We had no idea of how we would perform. Facing a mixed team, would we be able to play our game or would we be shut early in our play?

This game helped us building up confidence, as, to our surprise, we won 8:4.  

It was the first occasion to learn how your next teammate plays under pressure, as only half of the team played together last year.

Happiness was on our faces.

Coach Jay, helped by Chris and supported by our most experienced players, used the time between the games to bring a few more insights into our game plan.

This benefited us in the second game, against the first team of Munich. This team was better organized, more routined and determined. But we held tight in defense and did not let them score easily. We also scored most of our tries by a common effort of the team. End result was a 5?2 win.

By then, we had one more pool game to go, and because Prag and us both won our 2 previous games, we could predict that we would meet in final again (and Munich would met Munich for the 3rd/4th place). We then decided to skip one pool game and we went straight into the finals. Prag was a strong opponent, a mix of experienced expats and fast learners warriors. This was a very tough and disputed game, where Karin unfortunately got injured and i can proudly say that we gave all our heart and emptied the energy tank to its last little drop. Our consistency and trust into each other turned the game to our advantage, and we were happy to finish on a 5?2 win, which lead us to lift the trophy and drink one (or maybe 2) well deserved beer...

For this beautiful sunny day and "klein aber fein" tournament, we would like to thank the organisers and the referees very warmly. Everything was perfect!  

I unfortunately could not join the party, but I heard it finished late ...

And last but not least: Congratulations Jay for the level 1 referee.

CU next year Münich!  

Cat