Road Trip and Close Games Make up Weekend

Posted by Peter Parker | Date created 2010-07-19 13:20:51

Juniors, Firsts and Reserves visit Sherbrooke, while women play Quebec at home

Like most good road trips, this one was all about the bus. If there is one thing that we do well as a club (other than looking good) it’s a road trip. Over the years the club has pretty well perfected the bus trip, right down to cold beer and pee breaks. But more on that later…

This weekend, the bus trip took a new twist. Instead of one bus, there was two, as Lavery’s juniors were in action before the 2nds took the field at the beautiful BCS field in Lennoxville. Lavery’s boys played hard against a much larger and older Sherbrooke team, and they fell just short of what would have been a massive upset. Mickey “The Body” and Shaq were stand outs, but the whole team played their guts out. Can’t wait to see these guys when they play teams their own age!

The 2nds took the field right after, led by the Jedi Master John Macintosh, and played the open game that “Le Boss” has been trying to teach us since the start of the year. There were plenty of duels and most were won by the team in white. Gordie had a good game on the wing, and Palmer seems to be finding his old self again, which is good news for us all! Myles had a stand out game, and Spooner continues to improve with each week!

The game was well reffed by Charlie Goode (can anyone explain to me how this guy is not reffing the higher level yet?) and he was a part of the games finest highlight. Yes, the game saw the triumphant return of Brad Belvedere to the field, infront of his wife, son and father, who were all at the field. Brad needs little introduction. Longtime club captain, winner of countless cups, he truly is a SAB legend. And the legend played well in his return…all 7 minutes of it. He saw the familiar yellow card, and that was that! Classic Brad!

The Prems took advantage of the fast field and tried their best to emulate the 2nds display of running rugby, and for the most part, they succeeded. There was a lot of scoring, and some great support play, notably from John Antonechia, who seems to be in the best shape of his life (rumor has it his girlfriend forces him to jog every morning…) and both the forwards and backs ran rampant all game. The game was a try fest, and highlights included Hayden scoring his first try for the big team, and Bryce passing backwards over his head to no one. The game also saw Too Tall’s first ever in game kick, and most would agree, it was better than most of Fly Half decaffs.

As we have come to expect, Sherbrooke hosted us very well at The Lion pub, and after some excellent beers (I think one was blueberry…) it was back on the bus for the ride home.

It was the usual stuff on the bus ride back, with some great singing that included a new addition from the French Connection (just 3 weeks ago it was the 3 Musketeers…now there is 5 of them!), and a bare chested wrestling match between Frank and Bryce. And then, it happened.

We had already stopped once for a pee, but there was clamouring in the back that we needed another. It’s true, we were only 30 minutes from home, but how do you argue with 20 rugby players who have to pee? So, in an effort to save time, our driver Billy pulled over to the side of the highway. Out we spilled onto the shoulder, some even jumping into the ditch to relieve themselves (Palmer actually fell). A couple of players (no names) had decided to shot gun some beers right there, and were just finishing up when someone said “I think we are in trouble…”

In a cruel imitation of the famous last scene of the best selling book “Sweep” (on sale at 23 St Pierre) there was an SQ cop car, lights blaring, stopping behind our bus. Everyone piled back onto the bus, but it was too late, and the cops had already started running over.

The mood inside the bus was tense. Questions abounded: Was it the beer? The illegal stop? Maybe they were after Stone, like in the book! Was Billy actually a Chinese spy? Either way, we knew we were toast, and we were just thankful that JM had driven home early! But we sure could have used Murray. Robbie was being his usual helpful self, screamiong from the back to invite the girl cop onto the bus, and to take her pants off, but despite his best attempts, we managed to escape un scathed, and all we owed was a $142 ticket! We quickly collected the money for the ticket, thanked the rugby gods that noting worse happened, and all cracked another beer…

Meanwhile word came in that the women's 2 had tied Quebec 14 all and the firsts had dropped a close match.

Yes, it was a classic rugby day. Great weather, good rugby, cold beer, and Brad in the sin bin. It seems something’s never change, and life does sometimes imitate fiction.

<< Back to List | 2010-07-19 13:20:51