Third Bavarian Open Mixed Competition

Köln isn't a problem. They're breakfast. ;-)

Drive like you did on tuesday. Defend like you did on Tuesday. And by the time the game is finished they'll be wondering what hit them. Whatever happens you've only 90 minutes total playing time in the group games with no back to back games. Sub aot and run alot. Visualize your game on the S-bahn together if you can. As Duncan said, the game plan is to keep it simple. Keep it controled and keep posession. 3 Drives up. Sixes and Scores. Good line defence. And talk talk talk talk.

Absolutley! DO NOT just be focussing on one game, you are aiming to win them all. If not, don't bother getting out of bed. Its going to be 3 cocks to the c*nt all the way!

These are the key elements, already got something up my sleeve to help us along in the morning with this.

I suspect they know what it's like to be hit by IW

Did I hear correctly that Chaka Demus out of popular beat combo Chaka Demus and Pliers will be presenting the trophies?

Hey Guys,

Belated good luck! I hope that you kicked arse and that is was a Munich versus Munich final, and that you all behave badly tonight. How did Rich injure himself? If be some miracel he didn't tell him not to worry, Tenique isn't there to beat him up tonight so he should be fine!

Is that a euphamism?

There's nothing like a bit of gentle encouragement from your team mates.

Pictures from yesterday are here

Gideon - you should look at this one and this one.

If anyone wants any of them removed, please ask. Team photos in high res versions are available, and I'll probably try some prints later this week.

More pics from yesterday up in the gallery now.



Ditto on what Poots said about getting anything removed.

Sadly after this my chin went down, her boot came up and the touch wasn't given *mutters*
Great pics though!

Great pics Poots!

super Bilder, klasse!

great pics guys - thanks a lot for coming up and taking them. We appreciate it!!!

Could one of our leaders do a write up for the open thread?

Kathrina could one of our followers do it? Leaders are having a day off from doing stuff.

I am hungover, tierd and happy as a future bacon sandwich in mud, and I can"t remember much after we left the Vereinsheim. He he apparently I got home at 5. Me?

All I can say is piratingly awsome. Big applause to everybody for playing so well. Pirates - mission accomplished and then some. Awesome - mission accomplished again and then some. Proud as judy's husband of all of everybody.

We also managed to drink them out of helles yesterday. Ouch. 200 litres...

Thanks for the great pictures guys too. I"m off to sleep this headache off now..

I am not sure where I should put this, the official thread isn't in the touch rugby group so it may be a bit hard to find. So here it is again:

Tournament Report - Munich Team Awesome

Match 1: Group Match 1 - Munich Awesome def Vienna 3-2
A few jokes between the sides while waiting for the opening hooter could not hide the importance of this match. It is Vienna's first tournament match, and the Munich Awesomes have a high expectations to fulfill. The traditional shaky Munich start was again there, and the Viennese played solid touch rugby. For the Awesomes, the basic building blocks were there, but there needed to be big improvements to win the tournament.

Match 2: Group Match 2 - Munich Awesome def Frankfurt 6-5
After the Cologne tournment we had expected to do well against Frankfurt, but when they sneaked in the opening try not long after tap-off, we knew that this was a much improved team. The score was tied at half time (I think), but the Frankfurt twins and some other guys were giving Munich a lot of headaches through their pure pace and the changes in direction of their play. Munich pulled out a lead in the second half to get to 6-4, but when Frankfurt ran into our end zone as dummy half and found an open player to score, it was all very tight at 6-5 with Frankfurt probably having the slight ascendency at that point. In the end though, Munich held out for a 6-5 win and with that was assured a place in the finals.

Match 3: Group Match 3 - Munich Awesome def Prague (unknown large margin)
This was really a training game for the Awesomes since Prague was quite a new side with little competition level experience. They were still able to expose some holes from the Munich defence but in general the Awesomes outclassed them.

Match 4: Semi-final - Munich Awesome def Cologne (unknown but comfortable margin)
The grudge match of the tournament which is a repeat of the Cologne cup final, except that Cologne are missing some players. While the Cologne offence was quick and fit and did push the Munich defence, they were not able to easily crack the line. On the other hand, the Munich team was looking increasingly well-oiled and working better together, and this resulted in significantly less errors. While the scores were close in the first half, the Cologne defence started to open up wide gaps under pressure from the hard running Munich attack, resulting in a convincing win for the Awesomes.

Match 5: Final - Munich Awesome def Frankfurt (unknown but comfortable margin)
This is a repeat of the group match, but Frankfurt was missing one of their play-makers Matt and also one of the fast running twins (Mark?). With that disadvantage, the penetrating power of the Frankfurt attack was not enough to put much pressure on the much-improved Munich defence. There was now better communication and much better gap coverage across the park. On the other hand, the Munich attack is now running in top gear, with the tired legs fuelling themselves on the midday museli bars and adrenalin. Substitutions became fast, regular and organised, and the Frankfurter were not able to withstand the pace and the variety of the Munich attack. In contrast to the first game against Vienna, where Captain Baxter highlighted that we were playing on a 20m wide field, this time there were multiple width of the field tries, culminating in a memorable one which went through 5 or 6 sets of hands to get from the right to the left, with Amanda putting (Nomis? well, somebody) in the corner. It was, quoting our captain, "Champagne Touch Rugby".

And that was our fantastic run to the final of the Bavarian Open.

Can someone please fill me in on the scores so I can include them? Unfortunately, unlike Paris where we only scored a handful of tries, I cannot remember who scored our numerous tries in each game. Simon and Keith collected quite a few, but pretty much everybody had managed to score and have a direct hand in setting up a try, and also in performing try saving touches. It was truly an awesome team effort. Roll on Berlin!

We now with great anticipation await a report about adventures of the Munich Pirates.

Final scores for all games were as follows (include -4 tries for teams where applicable):

Munich Pirates

Group games
Cologne 3 - Pirates 3
Zurich 7 - Pirates 1
Pirates 2 - Berlin 1

Pirates finished third in group 1 on points difference

5th/6th Playoff
Pirates 2 - Vienna 6

Munich Awesome

Group games
Awesome 3 - Vienna 2
Awesome 6 - Frankfurt 5
Awesome 11 - Prague -2

Awesome finished top of group 2

Semi Final
Awesome 7 - Cologne 3

Final
Frankfurt 2 - Awesome 7

Dont know exactly but Mully scored 7 or 8 think I grabbed 9 or so and few others as well grabbed a number of tries. Good to see Ann grab a try. Its not really the individual efforts but more the team effort both in defence and attack that won it. We was absolute shite in the first two games then slowly clicked. Finished with some great open Rugby and Frankfurt had no answer both in attack and defence to Munich. Kathi, Annie and Ann had all good games to complement the more experienced guys and girls.

Thanks everyone for a great day - whoever I was talking to said they were absolutely enjoying themselves...
@Gids, I left at 4 while you were still dancing (oh yes!!) in the Schrannenhalle club at the gays and lesbians night
@all saint: could not find you anywhere, I hope you found some place to stay and your keys.
See you all soon!
TR

Well done everyone! This is great news to hear.

Now that I'm a bit more coherent just a few more words to say - it was a well planned and excellent day - great rugby, great weather, great venue (not to mention great beer too!!)

Well done everybody!

I unfortunatley didnt get to see much munich action. I only reffed both the teams once, and helped Prague out alot with tips ruling and playing, and just generaly giving them the encouragement they deserved and the support needed. (I'll get them back for fining me though!)

Just like to thank everybody again for all the work thats been done both on and off the pitch. The whole training crew, the willing helpers on saturday Tiff, Susie and Seb without whom we'd have been absolutley buggered. It was difficult on Saturday evening to thank everybody fully as much as I'd like to have done, as it would have just come across a bit Munich biassed. So here goes...

First off all the coach and trainers and anybody else who's pitched in ideas on how we can do things better on the field, without which we'd be no where. Simple. Fact.

Then its the Captains on the day, the quality of the on pitch leadership is improveing game for game, competition to competiton. And not just captains. I'd personaly like to say a big Arggggh to Phil and Kieth IW for their work in providing the stable platform of leadership on the Pirates game. The results reflect your contributions.

I 'd then thank every single one of you for playing the best Touch Munich has ever delivered. And supporting each other and providing a massive contribution to the atmosphere. "Simon Simon give us a wave..." Class. And making everybody feel so at home, that the amount of compliments I got for the comp was amazing. People just kep t coming up to me at the end and saying thanks. I can't remember taht happening before. And that was before we started the evenings sheenanigans.
'
Which leads me to a big big thanks to Bob and Mully for the Kangarooo court and dangerous Pint games. Guys you turned what would have been a great sort of get together into a fab time to be remembered by all. You've enhanced the reputation of Munich as a "fun" team and I hope have introduced a tradition for others to emulate. I'm not sure though If I want to get fined do much next time...

Now that my brain is less ouch. Though believe me it's so blurry after the Ice Cube in my underpants. I can honestly and objectivly say I think that was oneof the best comps we've done and one of the best if not the best I've been to in Germany, both on and off the pitch. Well done all and a totaly positive experience.

Memorable bits:

Rich lamenting the fact that I wasn't reffing his games.

The look on the wirt's son's face as I gave him a ball at the end of the evening.

The look on the wirts face at the end of the evening as he explained he'd never ever sold so much helles in one evening, and was appologising for not everything going right. And Seb and me actualy having to convince him we we're over the moon with it all. Which we were. (They cooked 130 meals, two people complained only)

Having a quick meeting with Rob and our Euro Representative players outside and every five minutes hearing "Dangerous Pint" from inside.

Knowing in th elast two minutes of the final that Munich had won the day and with it the Super Series, and that the only mountain left this year is the Deutsche Meistershaft, facing stiffer opposition.

Koeln giving their cup to the wienese guys.

The Prague Captain Jason saying that the touch family is a pretty good one as disfunctional families go.

I danced. Oh god. How sad.

Cult status already! Turned from Hero to villain though with the sin bin-Still wound up the Silly Cow of a captain from Frankfurt and knew we had won with 3 minutes left.

What was great though was little Oscar shoving water in your face after subbing and telling you "Drink"!

Well done to Gideon and the other organizers and know how hard it is organizing something like this and how much time, effort and stress is involved. Words can never do justice. Nice little set up at the Club up at Herbertshausen. I wont sadly be in Berlin and probably not in Frankfurt. I have 2 years left before I retire from all forms of Rugby. I aim to finish in summer 2009 hopefully playing for Germany in my last ever game of Rugby. The body is struggling and is being held together by bandages and stuff. Ask Kathi how bad I am. Best of luck to you in Berlin and Frankfurt.

I'd like also to thank all organisators and people who helped them out to run this competition. It was a valuable experience to me as well as for some other players whom I played yesterday with. Special thanks to all Pirates for the excellent game and to Colin and Big Keith for putting much efforts in turning our players into the real team-players who are capable of competing at the international level. I hope we're gonna keep improving from day to day and perform better in Berlin. One thing when you're playing TR in English Garden and the other one when you're taking part in the real international comp.

Truly speaking I couldn't understand this TR game at the beginning: people running across the pitch, tossing the ball back and forth trying to score, but I have had this feeling till my third game, I guess. Now I'm enjoying the game every time I come down to the training.

Regarding the photos. Thanks a lot for taking them and sharing with us. The photos are terrific. Especiallly I like two of those the most (have been posted by Keydeck :-) ). I can ensure you guys that having big Keith behind yourself yelling at you is gonna force any player to run at double speed and score no matter what. Beth, thanks a lot for helping me out to score by deterrently staring at the opponents and scaring them.

Longest running joke / encouragement of the Awesomes team (perhaps not so funny to some): Every time a girl gets near the opposition the rugby guys on the team (you know who you are) would scream 'Dive! Diiiiiiiivvvvvveeeeee!!!' Even Susi joined into the screaming at the end, enjoying every 'i' and 'e' of it.

At the end, after we've won, we ran across to the side of the pitch towards our lovely Munich supporters, held hands and ... dived along the ground. I looked up to my right and upwards, and there I saw, holding my hand still - a standing Amanda

Apologies to the Pirates team for calling quite a few penalties on dodgy play-the-balls - Derek gave strict instructions in the morning and I was just trying to ref as the Gideon would have And it was hard to be impartial.

My congratulations and utmost appreciation for the fantastic job that the organisers have done, and then respect for staying and partying until everyone else has gone home! And thanks to everyone else who was there. And get well soon to those who are disfigured bodies or limbs.

I am sorry Gids - you deserved a fine for this and for wearing your shiny level two badge upside down.

p.s. I dont mind my photos being used within facebook or toytowngermany.com - but if you want to use them anywhere else please ask. I can provide must better resolution copies than are on the website!

thanks

Thanks Poots. I'll mention that to the other teams too!

And thanks again for a great and comprehensive set of pictures.

Just a note. If anybody hasn't put their hand up for Berlin and is now inspired after this weekend to come along let me know in the next 24 hours. You have my mobile number or better still email us at touchmuenchen@gmail.com.

congratulations lads and lasses, great day out, fantastic results. my Aunt managed to understand the basics of the game by the end of the morning, and was very impressed at the drinking skills shown later at dinner (more on a "oh my god" than a "well done" impressed-way). oh, and great pictures too!

Crosspost from t'other place:

Tournament Report - Munich Pirates

Cologne 3 - Pirates 3
And so the first match for the Pirates. Nerves were apparent, especially as Cologne is a team with a reputation for speed and skill, so no, not really what a new team would have liked for a first match. But deep was dug and a more than respectable scoreline came out of it. Shock all round at not having actually lost, but tartan, our Mental Genius kept spirits up in a different form than usual (i.e. not liquid) and got the team thinking as one. Subs were starting to flow and the belief kicked in. Lassie showed that several months of beer and pies forced rest do not unmake a player. Discipline excellent, top support from the sidelines, Kin's battle-cry yelling inspirational, surprised other team did not burst into tears at aural assault. If any Pirate can name the scorers, please do, thanks.

Zurich 7 - Pirates 1
Yeah. Sometimes you have to lose. But it is easier to swallow when the win goes to the better team, as was the case here. Zurich were organised, fast, skilled. Was later told that Zurich is effectively the Swiss national side. Think Randygam scored the try for Pirates, that boy's good some speed on him. minigirl excellent on centre, great calling there! FatRascal was also in fine voice. Lost AnRa to injured ankle, far be it from me to criticise a ref *innocent look* but not stopping the game to have AnRa carried off wasn't great. Real shame for him as he'd had some cracking moves on beforehand. This match also featured another travesty in reffing with me trying to make a try-saving touch with my chin to a boot. Thankfully, nothing broken, just a bit of a bruise and a story for the grandkids.
Bugger it, Zurich deserved to win (not least for having the nicest kit of any team) and Pirates can be proud of not giving away any silly penalties for mouthing off. Especially with IW, Lassie and me on the pitch...

Pirates 2 - Berlin 1
Munich Pirates finest match. It was like playing on air, Beth was stunning - fast, end-to-end and hands that caught the lot. Myles77 and Patrick twistly using the whole of the pitch, Nicole and Alix had the positioning down, tartan was quick and smart, Kin went for any gaps, IW & FR solid as always, pushing everyone onwards and causing Berlin no end of trouble, including forced errors.
30m in penalties? Thank you very much.
Derek (a ref) getting pinged for lip? Oh yeah. For many this was the moment of the match, or even the day.
What needs to be mentioned here is the quality of the 3-man drives, yes Pirates did not always make the best of the end zone but they were getting up there in 3 touches, was a joy to watch, full sixes were made, few, if any, dropped balls either. Skills on wheels (or legs, really).
A deserved win and big grins all round.

Pirates finished third in group 1 on points difference - later told than 1 try made the difference, but bugger it.

5th/6th Playoff: Pirates 2 - Vienna 6
Tiredness started to show and Vienna were good enough to capitalise on that with strong attacks towards the wings. Pirates managed to keep their heads up, even though it was often difficult and the half-time talking help lift us.
Think scorers for us were Randygam and Patrick (?), hard game but we did our best. Discipline held up, we've got to be proud of that, defence was pretty good, Vienna are a quick team, we may not be, but there's no shame in that.
Rest of team laughed as I said I didn't mind losing as I'd got big hugs from the Austrian Brothers of Choice at end ha ha ha *blush*

Thus the Pirates became landlubbers again and turned their telescopes towards Team [s]Arseholes[7s], sorry, Awesome.
We came, we sang "Simon, Simon, give us a wave, Simon!" - and he did. Both of them.
We cheered and did Mexican waves and did not spill our beers. Mostly.
We beamed with pride when they won as in a way we had too.

And seeing Beth get the recognition from her fellow Pirates for a tournament well-played was a fine thing to see.

Congratulations Team Awesome - let's do it all again in Berlin (I'll wear a chin guard tho)!

Final scores for all games were as follows (include -4 tries for teams where applicable):

Munich Pirates

Group games
Cologne 3 - Pirates 3
Zurich 7 - Pirates 1
Pirates 2 - Berlin 1

Pirates finished third in group 1 on points difference

5th/6th Playoff
Pirates 2 - Vienna 6

Munich Awesome

Group games
Awesome 3 - Vienna 2
Awesome 6 - Frankfurt 5
Awesome 11 - Prague -2

Awesome finished top of group 2

Semi Final
Awesome 7 - Cologne 3

Final
Frankfurt 2 - Awesome 7

(cheers seb)

And now for the Oscar-winner speechy bit:
Big thanks to all that played, who watched, who took photos, who gave their time and sleep and previously unlined skin to organise the lot, who cooked, served beer, tallied the cash, did the sums, talked the talk, drove the cars, sent the mails, pressed the flesh, kicked the arses, forced the water down our necks (cheers to the real Oscar!) and made the day what it was.
We salute you.

Team awesome were awsome, Munich Pirates were awesome, the helpers were Awesome (inc of course Mrs Peel) and of course the organisers were super awesome.

Pirates: Keith (inflatable) and Fat Rascal what a job at underrtanding the game and passing the knowledge on. Pirates players superb job, we have until Sept 15th to get a little fitter and faster and we can certainly be contenders. We have most of the skills as we proved at the weekend now we have it all to play for. What a gang of Pirates we AAAARRRR.

I can ask at training tomorrow evening? Keep the option open till then? Maybe some have missed your post in this huge thread?!?

Yes you may. I will hold back as long as I can, we've luckily not yet paid any deposits so on that side we're good.

Small amendment to Katrina's post about the pirates because I think she mentioned everyone in the team except herself and how well she played - and I know cos I watching closely, waiting for the call of "sub!". I think the sub-buddy system that the pirate girls had worked really well, especially considering we hadn't practised it before. I was so chuffed when the pirates (Patrick) scored the first try of the day to go 1 up against Köln. Having got nilled in all of the practice sessions leading up to the tournament, I'd been slightly nervous about our try-scoring abilities. What I really learned from the tournament, apart from postioning and defence and unimportant stuff like that, was how every try counts in every game - from what I've heard 1 more try in any game and we'd have been in the semis and a probable 3rd place with Berlin having to pull out, 1 less try against Köln or Berlin and we'd have been playing against Prague in the 7th/8th place playoff.

Huge thanks to everyone involved on Saturday - to all the players - every single match was played in such good spirits, to Susi, Mrs Peel & Seb who made everything run so smoothly, to everyone involved in organising beforehand - Gids, Amanda, etc., to the car drivers who got everyone to the pitch and back again, to the referees, to the waterboys who were always there with water bottles almost as big as themselves as soon as you subbed off - I hope Benny gets his police car with the money he collected cos he deserves it, to the photographers who took some amazing pictures, to tartan & IW who coached us so well leading up to the tournament but I also think a really big thank you should go to - and this will surprise no-one! - Donnie because he has been coaching us week in, week out throughout summer and ok he deserted us in our hour day of greatest need, but I'm sure he was there with the pirates in spirit as we were doing that 4 corners exercise at 8:45 in the morning, right before our 1st match. What sums the tournament up most for me was the pirate who ran over to me at the final whistle of our last match and just said "I've had such a great day." - it was awesome.

Besides learning about dangerous Apfelschorles, I think that Oscar's also learnt to bend the truth in order to get someone else fined at the kangaroo court. I can attest vehemently that during the fight Ani did not say that Oscar is bigger than she is ... Anyway, I did enjoy the court proceedings.

There's not much left for me to say. What an awesome weekend. I'm very proud of the Pirates who did a superb job at their first tournament.
Bis thanks to all!

We'll make a lawyer out of him yet!

so he can drive around in a really quite, errr, "mauve" car?

I just wanted to say thank you to every single one of you for this awesome tournament and all your support! This weekend couldn´t have been any better!

I had a good one too!

Hey, is Patrick around here? I thought that he played rather well for the Pirates too, from what I saw he also put in a big effort to put order into the team, not to mention putting on some tries too. And he generally ran straight!

There was a bloke there on the day from Frankfurt who was taking photographs. Was carrying two cameras and spoke with lots of people. I'd like to get in touch with him. Does anyone know who he is?

@ keydeck - his name is Lee. Dont have any contact details but he always uploads his pics onto flickr here. Maybe you can get in touch with him through flickr? Otherwise Gids may have his details but he is on hols this week.

actually lee's pics from our tournament are here

Perfect, thanks for that, Seb.

If its Lee Mcmillan I have his contact details if you need them still.