Hello all, Another Manila Madness weekend has come and gone. The usual post-Manila blues have set in & the boys are counting the days until Manila 2001. (356...but who's really counting?) In keeping with fine-standing tradition, the Survivors made their annual showing & did a very respectable job...both on and off the pitch. However, in keeping with the rules which are well-known to all, I will give a brief tour report about what happened on the pitch.
We had the misfortune to be placed in a very tough pool on the first day. We were up against last year's cup runners-up, Macau; the hosts, the Manila Nomads; and Wayfoong from Hong Kong. In keeping with yet another long-standing Survivor tradition, we started off very slowly...taking the better part of the first two games to figure out one another's names, positions, and so on. I suppose that having the same numbers on our jerseys didn't help all that much.
Anyway...after losing our first two matches, we managed to squeak out a 5 - 0 victory against Wayfoong, enabling us to get a decent placement in the Bowl round for Sunday. Unfortunately, someone from the Nomads screwed up with the placings, however, and seeded us behind a team that lost all three of their games on the first day. After endless haggling (which seriously cut into our Saturday night drinking time, I hasten to add) to no avail, we were told to be at the pitch for a 9:30 game the following morning. Needless to say, we were not too pleased about that, however, we kept our chins (and San Miguels) up and made a night of it just the same - silly tour hats and all.
The next morning (or was it the same night?), we assembled in our lobby at the ungodly hour of 7:30 & prepared to leave for the pitch. It was at this time that one of the tournament organizers strolled by & informed us that the mistake had been fixed & we didn't have to play until 12:15. How nice of them to tell us. Since we were already there & packed to go, we went to the pitch anyway & just slept there for a couple hours. It was arguably more comfortable than the hotel rooms & besides, we didn't have to worry about oversleeping our game.
Our first Bowl match pitted us against the Brunei Yacht Club... a usually tough team that seemed even sleepier than the Survivors on that day. After that, we played what was supposed to be the Kowloon side, however as all but one of their members had already left for Hong Kong, we ended up playing a team compiled of Kowloon, the Pot-Bellied Pigs, Macau, HKRFC, and God knows what else. Tournament rules aside...we went on with the game, although under some protest, and defeated them rather convincingly, thereby putting us in the Bowl final against Valley - the recent Hong Kong league champions. At that point, the boys seemed to have given all they could...24 minutes of 10s rugby at thd end of a weekend like that was just too much & we were defeated by the boys from Hong Kong by a somewhat lopsided score. Regardless, the Survivors have nothing to feel ashamed of from the weekend & as their captain I can say that I was very proud of everyone's performance.
On a more personal note, I would like to thank the boys that made the trek all the way from the States. Gordo, Dutchie, and Hammer...great to see you boys there & I hope to see you all back again next year. Gordo in particular deserves special mention - not only because he manages to make 2 - 3 tours every year (all the way from Alabama!) but more importantly because he is the absolute definition of a team player both on and off the pitch. Whenever anything was needed over the weekend, Gordo was always there to throw in whatever was necessary to see that the boys got what they needed. It couldn't have been done without him - no question. We'll all look forward too seeing him again soon.
As far as individual accomplishments...well, Gregory Schideler (as always) did a stellar job for us & was our man of the tournament; Trevor Lewis was great at scrum-half - he not only moved the Piano, but played it well, too; & Chris Edwards ran over at least two-thirds of the guys we played against & left his imprint on all the rest. Larry Csonka plays rugby. Also thanks goes to Mark "Scrapper" Barnes who made the trip despite being unable to play due to a bad knee, and still helped us out from the sideline throughout the tournament. That is not to say that the others do not deserve mention...everyone there contributed a lot to the team & it was due to their combined efforts that we were able to bring back some silverware to Geckos; for being the second-best worst team of Manila 2000, that is.
One final note...as is often the case, some new rugby nicknames were acquired over the weekend - Dan "Horse" Waldron (from his galloping running style - not a reference to any body parts real or imagined) and Brian "Dr. Jekyl" McCarthy - (don't ask, don't tell.) Thanks again to all who made the trip - it was definitely one to remember.
