THE AUSTRALIA TRIP - A Preview
The Cup is held in memory of an American rugby player that died during the terror attacks on 09/11/01. He was a passenger on United flight #93 and was one of several passengers involved in confronting the terrorists, and ultimately the crashing of flight 93 into the fields of Pennsylvania. Many believe the terrorists were targeting either the White House or The US Capitol Building with that flight. Many of his friends and teammates went on to organize and create rugby clubs across the globe devoted to being open and culturally diverse rugby clubs, using the sport of rugby to build bridges, bring people together and foster a sense of inclusion not exclusion. Why? Well rugby is the ultimate team sport, and has historically been a fairly inclusive sport, and as such provides a tremendous opportunity to reach people that otherwise may have never taken up sport of any kind, and allow them to achieve success and build self-confidence and a sense of team. An international association of clubs was formed to further this endeavor. My club is just 1 of as many as 50 clubs world-wide that aim to carry on the legacy started by that one American rugby player and his friends.
The Sydney Convicts are the current defenders of the Cup and have the support of the national rugby union in Australia and some of Australia's most famous professional players and national team captains (past and present). The picture below shows players of the Convicts (in blue & white) presenting the Cup to the head of the Australia Rugby Union and David Pocock, former captain of the Australian National team, the Wallabies. (click to enlarge the photo) The Cup is one of only a handful of amatuer trophies to be housed in the national headquarters of any sport. An historic achievement worthy of what it represents.
Past hosts of the tourney include: San Francisco, London England, New York City, Dublin Ireland, Minneapolis, Manchester England, and now Sydney Australia. The 2012 tournament featured 40 teams from 17 countries. I am not sure how many clubs will make the trip to Sydney. It is an expensive proposition to take a full rugby team of 25 players plus coaches and supporters to Australia. Just the travel aspect alone is tough, not just the financial aspect. For example, players from the team from Bristol England fly London to Abu Dabi to Sydney. Quite an ordeal! For the Phoenix ruggers, the trip to Sydney is not much longer than the trip to the United Kingdom in years past. But even we are experiencing a tough time getting folks there.
Tournament activities begin Monday August 25 with many social events such as: Beach Rugby day and BBQ at the famous Bondi Beach; Opening Ceremonies with government dignataries and pomp and circumstance; Team Photos at the iconic Sydney Opera House and numerous pub crawls. Mix in some practice time on the fields and that makes for a busy week leading into the tournament. Tourney play will begin on Friday August 29th and continue until the Cup is awarded on Sunday August 31st. Sunday night, a formal banquet and awards and then a closing night party will close the 2014 edition tournament.
It's too soon to know what bracket we will be assigned or what teams we will be facing. We expect to find many composite teams from Europe and America. A composite team is made up of 2 or more clubs that combine to form a tourney team. We expect this due to the high costs associated with bringing clubs to the Southern Hemisphere.As a result, many clubs combine with other clubs to form a tourney team of 25 players. Ideally you would wish to bring your entire team, but finances can make that tough. My club will be competing as a composite team, but more on that in a future post.
For now, it's all about logistics, and coordinating the travel for all our guys, making sure all of our paperwork is in order such as personal travel documents like Passport and Visas. But to take a rugby club overseas you must get official permission to tour internationally from your home country's administrative Rugby Union, then submit that to the destination country's home rugby union and request permission to compete in their jurisdiction. We've obtained all approvals, from all requisite jurisdictions, and should be good to go.
In addition to the rugby tournament, many of us are spending some extra time in Australia and I will chronicle that as well. Some are going a week before the tourney and others like myself staying a week following the tourney to get some rest and relaxation as well as sightseeing done.
Right now, it's time to get the guys prepared for some rugby Down Under! It is going to be a tough tournament, with some very strong rugby sides. I wish I had our full team from this past Arizona rugby season going (pictured below, in action back in February here in Phoenix). That team was a mix of guys from my club and Camelback Rugby club. We competed as team this past season as a means of benefitting my players and their exposure to upper division rugby.
As it stands we will have a team participating and representing our local club along with some alumni that are going with us to represent their old club (us) and their new club (Denver).
I'll end with the quote that is inscribed on every trophy awarded at this tournament. It has become part of our team's rugby lore and tradition ever since we won our division championship at this tourney in 2010. The quote comes from Shakespeare's Henry V -
"For He Today That Sheds His Blood With Me, Shall Be My Brother"
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