So, a week late. An account of the last two days of the tournament. There are reasons. Always reasons. Continue reading
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Touch Euros 2016 – Final Postscript
A sporting rival I had in another sport, who I sort of liked and sort of didn’t, once said to me, ‘Think of anything that is meaningful to you in your life. It’s always shared in some way with people you care about.’ (I liked him when he said interesting things like that. I didn’t like him, for example, when he kept pushing into me from behind in a long queue at Dublin airport customs late one Sunday night recently, and blanked me when I nodded hello to him.)
So, a week on from the end of the tournament, I’m thinking of the people who shared the journey of the tournament together. That’s what made the defeat in the final hurt, how much you cared about it, cared about it with these people. Continue reading
Touch Euros 2016, Postscript 1
Quoting Legolas (referring to one of the incidents mentioned below) ‘For me the grief is still too near’ (in my case, to talk about losing in the Final of the Euros.) I’ll write something tomorrow. In the meantime, to cheer myself up, I made my Top 12 List of Sporting & Other Emotional Traumas. These are things that rocked me to my core at one point or another in my life. (Only time will tell where the Euros end up on this list but right now they’re firmly up there at Number 1.)
Enjoy! 🙂
No. 12 Empire Strikes Back
Day 4 Touch Euros, 2016
We lost the final to England 6-5 in a drop off… (Basically, when it’s a draw at the end of full time, each team goes down to 5 players, after another two minutes, each team drops to four players and then to 3 players each and the first to score wins.) It was 5-5 at full time.
I’ll write something tomorrow but right now I’m devastated. The way I’d describe it is that I keep going from room to room in my head but I don’t want to stay in any of them so I just keep going round and round and I can’t find any comfort anywhere.
I think that’s all I can say at the moment.
Day 3, Touch Euros Jersey 2016
First game up vs France this morning. We had to win this game to have any chance of making the final. Remember how we lost to them 8-7 on Day 1…
Remember too if any extra motivation was needed how we lost to France in the football Euros a couple of weeks ago…
Day 2, Touch Euros Jersey 2016
England 8 Ireland 8
‘2 minute warning…’ says the announcer.
What runs through your mind as you stand on the pitch before the start of an international game?
I’d decided that my only pre-game thought for today to get me in a proper mindset would ‘This is a final. I love finals.’
Day 1 Touch Euros 2016, Jersey
Game 1 vs the hosts Jersey. Won 9-4.
Game 2 vs France. Lost 8-7.
Game 3 vs Wales. Won 9-7.
I scored 2 tries.
Those are the facts of how the day went. Continue reading
Touch Euros 2016, Jersey – Intro
The night before another Touch Euros, Jersey 2016 and the build up to this goes back to the end of Euros 2014 in Swansea and waiting for another go at this.
The physical preparation for me goes back to Manchester in the mud in February when I was such pain I couldn’t bend down to tie the laces of my boots and I realised unless I did something I wouldn’t make this tournament.
Home Nations 2013 – Day 1
Touch Home Nations, Albert Park Dublin, Friday 21st, June 2013
Game 1: Lost vs Wales 14-6
It feels like we’ve been here before. There were tries which we conceded where I could see what was happening as it happened but we still couldn’t stop it. Continue reading
MALLEYMAN 