Well, what a great weekend it turned out to be! After a depressing start, depressing because of the numbers dropping out by the hour, things picked up when the Fab Five arrived at the hotel in Prague, where I had been since Thursday. I had already checked us in, so a quick shower for each and we were off out on Jakes Mystery Tour, so called because it was a mystery to Jake where he was going, but like sheep we followed. After 3 tram rides (one going back the way we came) and a 2k climb up Mt. Olympus, we arrived at the event where they were to show the rugby World Cup game between Fiji and Georgia. It was certainly buzzing there with crowds queuing for lager and fast food, only they were there to celebrate something other than the rugby w/c and we soon realised this was Jakes second mistake.
Never mind, we are on tour and Jake knows a bar where they definitely will be showing the rugby, so our little herd follows the leader all the way down the other side of Mt. Olympus to the bar, which is showing a bloody football match. “Oh!”, says Jake “if only Sparta were not playing today”, forgetting we are in Prague and it is Sparta Prague playing and forgetting it is Saturday and Sparta play every Saturday!
At this stage, Jake has already won the Dick of the Day shirt for the second time, having won it for introducing it in the first place on our previous trip to play in Prague. Like winning the World Cup 3 times and keeping the cup, if Jake wins again, he gets to keep the shirt, which will be appropriate as it is his after all.
Back to the mystery tour, we are now wandering around fruitlessly looking for a bar in Prague that is not showing their team playing football. To the rescue one Michal Homola, who finds on that bit of equipment that I use only as a phone, the location of an Irish Pub that is advertising ‘Irish Ale, Irish Food and Rugby’. It’s a fifteen minute walk, but the prize will be worth it, except, when we arrive they are showing Tottenham v Liverpool Premiership Football. For those who are unaware, Liverpudlians consider themselves more Irish than English and the whole Irish nation support Liverpool in English Football and Celtic in Scottish football. They do not talk about Irish football! Anyway, the kind barkeeper, in between his apoplexy when Liverpool’s goal is disallowed, puts the last 20 minutes of the rugby on a small screen some distance from the only free table we have secured, free because it is directly underneath the screen showing the football.
Finally, some luck. The football finishes, the pub half empties and we move to a comfortable area ready for the late rugby w/c game – Sweaties v Gypsies. We are already into our third pint of cloudy Irish Ale (guaranteed to keep you over-regular for more than a week) having eaten as well. We enjoyed the game, although Scotland trounced Romania, reminding us of our match against Sparta Prague U.23 rugby team two weeks earlier. I would just remind the boys there was no shame in losing so heavily to a side of such experience and organisation. On the contrary, they should be ashamed of putting such a team in a development league. We were also kept amused by a Glaswegian who joined us. He spoke no Czech, Slovak or English we could understand.
Time to get back to the hotel and Jake nearly wins the shirt outright when the cab he ordered fails to turn up, but he quickly remedies the situation, saving face and keeping the next Dick of the Day presentation for the next tour. Fun and games back at the hotel, which I will not talk about, as I have not got a clue what the boys were laughing about, deep into the night, except it had something to do with Esues’ unique ability to find ‘special’ hiding places for his chewing tobacco.
On Sunday we awoke to the sound of cloudy ale retaliation and we had to put a notice in the loo not to cause any sparks for fear of an explosion worse than those occuring naturally. Showers, fresh attire and hotel check-out, before going off to Lidl to buy breakfast, or if you are Esues, eating breakfast before the check-out. We are now in rugby mode and messages come through from the lads motoring to meet us. When we arrive at Olymp Rugby, Slavo and Buch are already there, as are David and Mirek, but the car from Pie is stuck in a jam on the motorway. They manage to arrive shortly before our match against our hosts and hardly time for a decent warm-up. Consequently, we are sluggish and even Buch misses a couple of tackles. We are heavily down, but before the half time whistle, we are showing a revival and Buch is back in the groove with some brilliant tackles. The scrum is clearly dominated by us and we make a few good moves in the backs. The second half continues with us getting stronger, but our opposition is well drilled and fast in the backs. We narrowly failed to score, but showed immense improvement from any game I had previously seen us play in 9 years.
So, onto our next match against Kralupy, when again we start a little slowly, but not for long. They score first, but from the restart, they knock on, Adam gathers cleverly and sweeps through for our first try. Some minutes later the forwards win a ruck and the ball goes all the way to the wing, where Buck outstrips the defence to score our second. We reach half time ahead and confident, with spirits high, despite the strength sapping heat. Kralupy come out fighting and manage to score, but we remain in front by 2 points. Adam seals the victory late in the game with a chip ahead, a sprint through the defence to collect the bounce and score under the posts. All that kicking training on a Tuesday has paid off. The final whistle goes and we have won our first match in this Czech league. The celebrations begin and Esues produces a bottle of rum, which I trust was not hidden with his chewing tobacco. Unfortunately, we have to curtail serious triumphalism as we need to start the long journey home.
I saw, on Sunday, some of the best rugby we have produced and against some of the best opposition we have faced. I am so proud of the boys who have participated thus far and travelled all the way to Prague to represent Piestany. Those players will be given priority in selection when we entertain the whole league in Piestany, when I am sure almost everyone will be available. Special thanks must go to Slavo, now a dual Pie/RKB member who has travelled and played all 3 trips and saved the day twice by driving to take players.
If you ain’t been on tour, you do not know what you are missing!
Piestany representatives at our first Czech league victory: – Alex Kandra, Slavo Surgas, Marek Chalas, Mirek Basta, Michal Homola, Jake Klco, Matus Gasperik, David Drozd, Simon Senkarik, Adam Scherer, Martin Kucerer, Vincko Petruska, Michal Buchman, Samo Sulgan and yours truly. 🙂