The Boise Bombers like us have been a staple at the RISE tournament for the last 3 years. If there was ever a international rivalry outside of the paralympic’s it would be between Boise and Edmonton. We play each other at every US tournament. 9 times over the last 3 years. Our games are always close and seems to bring the A game out in everyone. Although the competition on the court is fierce, off the court it’s totally different. For the past few year we have got to know each other very well in fact the Boise team joined us for dinner last night. We laughed and talked about everything but rugby. The following morning as we boarded the bus to the gym and I felt happy to finish the weekend of competition against each other. Boise had a strong line to start the game. Steve, Shane, Spencer and Josiah have been playing together for a while and match up good against us. Unlike previous years this Sunday’s game did not have the same importance because unlike previous years, this year Boise was (0-4) and Edmonton was (2-2) and fighting for a spot on the podium.
I am not sure what it was but something was different. It started differently. Skyler lost the jump, Boise scored first and our first time out was used with in the first 2 seconds of our first possession. Our huddle was different. Everyone came in after calling the time out and in their faces they ready to be disciplined but was surprised by me joking about that being the fastest time out called on a teams first possession ever. For the first time we took the lead early in the first quarter and kept it until the final whistle. It wasn’t until the final 60 seconds of the game did I realize that was so different in this game than any other game we played this weekend. Friendship…Boise was outplayed today in fact Boise had the worst weekend of rugby for as long as I can remember going 0-5. Edmonton was no stranger to going 0-5 and knew what it was like for teams to run up score. We played under 7 points, we dropped in the key after every goal and we held the ball for the last 60 seconds because we didn’t want to run up the score against our friends.
We finished the weekend (3-2) but unfortunately so did Kansas City and Denver. In the points for and against Denver and Kansas City finished 2nd and 3rd and we finished 4th. No one hung there heads though. Everyone is talking about what a great weekend we had as we sit in airport waiting 3 hours for our flight. I am happy with what we accomplished this weekend. Never before have we started a tournament 0-2 and finishing by winning 3 straight. To be honest I am just as excited to go home. Thanks RISE for being great hosts. Thanks Dallas for sharing the temperature record on Saturday (88 degrees) and thank you Paul, Peanut and Ken for being so much fun.
Steel Wheels...OUT!!
I am not sure what it was but something was different. It started differently. Skyler lost the jump, Boise scored first and our first time out was used with in the first 2 seconds of our first possession. Our huddle was different. Everyone came in after calling the time out and in their faces they ready to be disciplined but was surprised by me joking about that being the fastest time out called on a teams first possession ever. For the first time we took the lead early in the first quarter and kept it until the final whistle. It wasn’t until the final 60 seconds of the game did I realize that was so different in this game than any other game we played this weekend. Friendship…Boise was outplayed today in fact Boise had the worst weekend of rugby for as long as I can remember going 0-5. Edmonton was no stranger to going 0-5 and knew what it was like for teams to run up score. We played under 7 points, we dropped in the key after every goal and we held the ball for the last 60 seconds because we didn’t want to run up the score against our friends.
We finished the weekend (3-2) but unfortunately so did Kansas City and Denver. In the points for and against Denver and Kansas City finished 2nd and 3rd and we finished 4th. No one hung there heads though. Everyone is talking about what a great weekend we had as we sit in airport waiting 3 hours for our flight. I am happy with what we accomplished this weekend. Never before have we started a tournament 0-2 and finishing by winning 3 straight. To be honest I am just as excited to go home. Thanks RISE for being great hosts. Thanks Dallas for sharing the temperature record on Saturday (88 degrees) and thank you Paul, Peanut and Ken for being so much fun.
Steel Wheels...OUT!!
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