Published: Thursday, 18th October, 2007 09:00
PL youngsters show plenty of French flair
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PRESTON LODGE Rugby Club’s mini-sevens team had the trip of their lives representing Scotland at the Junior Rugby World Cup in France.
The weekend started early on the Friday morning as the young players, much to their surprise, were taken to Edinburgh Airport in three limousines.
The tournament began on the Saturday with a parade of all the players and officials from all teams. The teams had national flags and walked behind a band though the streets of Rodez.
PL looked fantastic in their kilts – with all the other teams desperate for pictures with the boys.
Afterwards, the youngsters were told of the competition rules. . . rules that proved to be very different from those played in Scotland or the rest of the world!
Having watched the game format over a two-day period, everyone agreed that it helped speed up the game enormously.
The biggest difference was that two balls were used. If there was an infringement, the referee placed the second ball down immediately and after three steps by the ref anyone could play the ball, so the ball had to be picked up and played quickly and any lapse in concentration would cost a score.
If a team scored they had to get back to halfway as another ball was waiting and the team who had lost a score could just go up and play the ball. This meant teams lost a score as they were ambling back!
On Saturday evening, there was a civic reception and all teams were presented to local officials. The Scots were again in kilts and were piped onto the stage by Craig Law to great applause and a silver quaich was presented on behalf of East Lothian Council. It was then a case of getting food and managing to secure transport to watch the Scotland v Italy match.
The Sunday was again a very early start to get bussed to the tournament. Once there, the teams were all lined up and the various national anthems were played with flags waving.
Again the Scottish team received the biggest round of applause as the only team who sang their national anthem.
In the tournament, PL were drawn in a very tough pool against French outfits Rodez, Bezieres, Stade Francais and Selection Catalogna.
The tournament saw the top two teams from each pool going forward to another pool, then a knockout competition to decide the final places. Teams not qualifying were placed into losing pools to get more matches throughout the day.
It was not until later that PL were informed that Bezieres had been the beaten finalists by Toulouse the year before in the European event.
PL played Rodez first and won 2-0, but went down 3-0 in the next match to Bezieres – no disgrace against a team who went on to lift the trophy.
The third game against Stade Francais was much closer, with PL unlucky to be edged out 2-1 after having a try disallowed at one-apiece and then their opponents scoring straight after.
In the other games, PL played all French sides: Selection Catalogna, Albi, Carnaux and St Afrique.
English, Welsh and Irish teams also took part, but none qualified from the pool stages.
Overall, it was a fantastic experience for the boys. In terms of skill, they were more than capable of competing, but it was the size, speed and aggressive competitive nature of the game played in France that was the big difference.
Pics courtesy of Glyn Satterley
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