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Written by Lok Man Ho
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Monday, 08 June 2009 |
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It is not unusual that Munich brings too many players to tournaments and allocates them to other teams as pool players. What was unusual in the Capital Cup 2009 in Berlin, however,was that the pool players were also the star players of the team which encountered Munich in the final.
With a very strong line-up of touring players we assigned our new Aussie player, Simon Haron, and also Renat to the Barbarians team, while Kim Hendrick was assigned to play for the Frankfurt team. While the Frankfurters consisted of the usual suspects, interestingly the Barbarians was made up mainly from a group of 16 year old students from close to Paderborn, and their teacher. While they were inexperienced, they surprised the competition with their intensity and undoubted speed. It was, however, down to Simon and Renat to take the lead in attack and to do the scoring. Well done.
With coach-for-the-day Keith Baxter taking down the team statistics, Munich was at its best with its simple but merciless driving attack, with. 6:1 against Leipzig, 6:0 against Berlin, 5:0 against Frankfurt, and 6:2 against Prague. The game against the Barbarians was challenging as the team was very fast, while they also secured the services of Matt from Frankfurt. Together they ran in 6 touchdowns, but Munich responded by picking up their game to outscore them with 9. To finish the pool stage, we beat Vienna 4:2, which was a good preparation for the final.
While most of the day was conducted in dry, cloudy and cool weather (perfect for sport), the heavens decided to open minutes before the final between Munich and the Barbarians. It worked in our favour as Munich concentrated and simplified the game to reduce handling errors, while the inexperienced opposition struggled to keep the ball in their hands. The sudden downpour turned the pitch into a swamp within minutes, but soggy shoes and sticky trikots didn't stop Munich from collecting another 5 touchdowns on their way to the final victory and the Capital Cup 2009. The team celebrated in style with diving practice through the many puddles, which resulted in a priceless team photo after the match!  Besides the playing achievements of the team, four referees from Munich also passed their Level 1 referee on-field assessments, after completing the theory course several weeks ago. Congratulations to Anita Piringer, Katharina Schuette, Keith Baxter and Renat Iskakov for this achievement. We are also very glad that they will be able to further assist in the development of the sport of touch rugby.
Post-match highlights included an unusually high number of “dangerous pints”, especially on Mr. Ball's side of the table. Those who made it to the field on Sunday were treated with a Touch Deutschland meeting, followed by a short, fun and useful coaching session with two Wales national players.
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Written by Lok Man Ho
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Saturday, 02 May 2009 |
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Just like last year, Touch Rugby Vienna hosted the opening tournament of the touch season. We were greeted with fantastic sunshine and a beautifully prepared stadium field in Purkersdorf, with a slightly smaller second field to accommodate the tight schedule. With many of the usual suspects of the European touch scene attending, this is a serious test of how the skills and fitness have improved or faded over the winter.
With opening games on the larger field against the mighty Brussels Celtics followed by the Glasgow Spiders (who coincidentally stayed in the same hostel and would go on to become the victor in the tournament), we were thrown straight into the deep end. The match began with a high error count and lots of drop balls from both sides, but when the game settled, the score remained at 0-0. With our strong defence, we were in the game with a sporting chance. After a tight, hard-fought match Brussels emerged victorious with 3-2. Despite the loss, the Munich team was upbeat.
Our next opponent, the Glasgow Spiders seemed to be in a class of their own. 7-3 against Brussels, and another convincing win in the morning as well. “They're really fast”, declared a Brussels player. The referee blew the whistle and the test was started. Surprisingly the Spiders were not too difficult to contain with our well-drilled defence, although they were very dangerous once given some open space. Although we could be proud of the narrow defeat of 3-2, with two losses we were effectively relegated to the 5v6 playoff in the best case. A bit disappointing, but that's sport.
The rest of the games were routine affairs, with 3-0 and 4-0 victories against the Vienna A-Team (their development team) and the Barbarians respectively. Unfortunately Andreas twisted his ankle and Lok Man and Tony both hit cramp problems (which were treated by the part time masseurs Duncan and Amanda), which limited our options in the final match against the “Irish Furters”, a jumble of players from Ireland and Frankfurt. A 3-4 defeat in their hands wrapped up a day where “close but no cigar” was the story.
The Touch Muenchen team would like to thank Dan Travers and his organisation team at Touch Rugby Vienna for this fantastically organised tournament. We were most impressed by the numerous prizes and their prize presenters (although I was not overly impressed by the presence of the New Zealand ambassador with the Australian counterpart on ANZAC day!), especially since our team won a box of L'Oreal beauty products for having the most number of female players on the team. In fact, the only team with more girls than guys!
We were also very proud of our “tournament virgins” and congratulate them on getting through their first touch rugby tournament. We hope that Christina and Kim will be with us for many future events to come. Well done to Ani who won our Player's Player award and got to lug home a poker set for her troubles.
And to Andreas, get well soon!
Lok Man Ho
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Written by Keith Ball
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Thursday, 23 April 2009 |
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A message regarding our home tournament this year... Dear Touchies,
we can confirm that this year's Bavarian Open will take place
on the 8th of August. We have booked the same two pitches
as last year and are looking forward to getting as many people
there as possible (players and the fan-zone).
Anyone willing to help with the organisation, please let us know.
If you know of anyone wanting to offer any kind of sponsorship
(prizes and such), please let us know.
We are still discussing the location for the after-party, but it is
looking like our good and old Max-Emanuel is in order. The live
music is already sorted (same group as last year) since they did such a superb job.
Lederhosen and Dirndls are mandatory for the home team! :o))
Cheers,
Susi and Katrina |
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