Bingham Cup.

So if you have been reading along lately, you might have noticed i havent posted anything in a few days. Reason being I landed in Dublin and was running from the moment I landed.

The reason for Dublin in my trip was to attend the 2008 Bingham Cup. This is a tournament held every other year where amateur teams from around the world get together for a friendly game of Rugby. My team, the Chicago Dragons were looking to take home something from the tournament, hopefully the plate which is the second highest prize of the tournament.

Landing wednesday night late, i settled into my room at the Dublin City University (DCU) dorms. Everyone was out at a party so I just rested and got up early the next day. Thursday was the opening events at night and the rest of the team came in, so we hit dublin a bit. We went to the guiness brewery (which btw waste of money, tons better breweries in the US...) and just hung out. Friday was the big day, our first match was against the defending champs from 2006, The Sydney Convicts.

Nervousness was in the air, this was our first match, how would we do? Well the boys sadly did not win, but the Syndey guys were awesome, they played a fair match and even though one of our guys broke his arm 7 minutes into the first match (yes, 7 min folks, not long after the tournament's organizer hoped for an accident free tournament...), the break was a clean one and the match was fun to watch.

We tied with Washington DC's b side team and lost to the Seattle Quake. This puts us at Saturday evening. Sunday were the playoffs for the Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield prizes. We were on the fence, we had to play the London King's Cross Steelers B side team to get into the Plate Division, the one we really wanted to be in. This was the match that the Dragons became a real rugby team. This is the match I watched our 25 players go from club sports weekend warriors to rugby animals. Never before have I seen our boys play like this, it was uncanny. We wanted this match, we owned it. I never felt the joy I felt after the Sir blew his whistle at the 40 min mark and we won by a try. It was amazing, we were in the plate!

Watching the team from the sidelines, I really wanted to be a part of it. I was a part of it, but not on the pitch. Running for water, medical supplies, medics, match officials, making sure people had their gear, taping up ankles, etc are essential but diving for that ball on the pitch is where i want to be now. I have a goal, start next season, get the ball, score a try, be part of this awesome team we call the Dragons.

Sadly, we lost against the San Francisco Fog B side team in the first match of the Plate division, but the Dragons played well, the team is beaten, bruised, broken and tired but that will heal, we will be working toward our fall season and getting better and better as the years go on. Bingham Cup 2010 is only two years away, only four seasons to get things right!

for pictures go to:

Bingham day One
Bingham day Two