143 - 12... are you kiddin' me?

I am now in my second week of coaching at Queen's University, and so far everything is going peachy. We have stopped the 2-a-day practises, which is kinda nice because I don't feel like I am living at the field anymore, but its kinda bad because they are such a nice team to coach. They are mostly really hard working and well drilled players who all really like rugby. They are keen to learn and don't ask too many dumb questions. The other coaches are really excellent, and it has been a blast getting to know them.

Actually, it was nice to get to know a lot of the players as well after this last weekend. The top forty players from Queen's, plus 4 coaches, 2 trainers, and a video guy all went down to Hanover, NH for the Labour Day long weekend for a series of games against Dartmouth (Ivy League rich kids) and the US Military Academy (West Point Army bullies). McGill (mostly Frenchies from Montreal) also came down, but we didn't play them.

Getting ready for Dartmouth.

Pete "The Boss" Huigenbos

Manager and Assistant Coach Luke "Budso" Follwell helping Boss tell time.

Team Building the night before.

Let me start off by saying that Hanover is just one of those places that smells, or rather stinks, of money. Just by looking around you can tell that people who live there or go to school there have a lot of wealth. People who work in gas stations and such must get bussed in from out of town, because I don't think there is any way they could afford to live there. We left early Friday morning and after a 6 hour drive arrived without incident.

Saturday morning we left the motel (probably the seediest looking building in town, and it wasn't really that bad) after eating them out of house and home. I don't think they expected 40 hungry rugby boys for breakfast, or that those kind of guys don't really know the meaning of a continental breakfast, since they all kept eating until they were full. Most had toast, bagel, and muffin, fruit, cereal as well juice and/or coffee. It looked like locusts had gone through the dining area.

The rugby complex was nice. And by nice I mean some of the best fields I have ever seen. The fields were basically manicured lawns and the clubhouse/changing facility would not look out of place if it had been situated on 4 acres of property in the English Countryside as an estate for some rich aristocrat. Must be nice to have dedicated alums who leave tons of money when they pass on.

Even better than the facilities were the scores though. We played Dartmouth on Saturday, whom the 1st XV beat 32-0 and the 2nd XV beat 35-0. Although the games were sloppy and we could have put more points up had we been a little crisper, it was still a good day for us. After our matches we watched Army play McGill. That looked to be a much tougher match, as McGill looked to have more skill, but Army looked to be the bigger, harder working team. Dartmouth was nice enough to host us that night and it was nice to eat outside and enjoy the company. We had some difficulty going out that night to celebrate since there aren't really any cabs in Hanover, which is a little strange for a university town.

Solid rucking and body position against Dartmouth.

Smooth Lineout ball by Will Sorensen
Proper mouth guard usage demonstrated by Colin Alexander.

The 2nd XV against Dartmouth.

Mike Wong Jr., so proud.

Post-match recovery in the ice bath... very friendly if you ask me.

Hosting by the Dartmouth team on Saturday night.

After watching Army push around McGill the previous day, we knew they would be a tougher match. On Sunday morning however, Queen's showed what they were made of, coming out of the gates early and smashing the Army boys with vicious hits and straight ahead running. The Army guys packed it in early and lost 38-0 to the 1st XV after being beat at their own game. The 2nd XV also won by a wide margin, going 38-12. An excellent weekend of rugby all round, all the better since Queens came away undefeated.

Sean Duke about to bosh the Army winger.

Sweet lineout ball.

Jamie Armstrong at pace.

All in all it was a good trip. Sorry it took me so long to get this post done. There were a few bugs.