European Touch rugby championship

[Mr Mwenda]

Taps off in Vichy next month. I'll post the links to viewing when they emerge. The Sweden no. 9 flies the flag for rugby rebels, you may be interested to know.

[Which Tyler]

Good luck!

[Mellsblue]

If there’s a prize for the team with the best names you guys must be favourites!

[Mr Mwenda]

Fixtures are now out: https://www.internationaltouch.org/even ... 3/mens-30/

I'll return with streaming details.

Sweden will be targeting Spain, Luxembourg and Switzerland, unsurprisingly.

[Mr Mwenda]

Here's the link to Sweden's first game on Wednesday:
https://www.youtube.com/live/y1oQBpVFMzA?feature=share

Many other games are also going to be live on the channel. I'll keep posting Sweden's matches.

[Mr Mwenda]

We had a warm up with a friendly against Italy ended with a defeat. 2-5 in the end I think. I real step up in intensity and heat from what we're used to. Good to blow the cobwebs out. We played over three periods and took the last one 2-1. Still, a much needed wake-up call.

[Mr Mwenda]

Victory for the Swedes in the first game, 6-4 against Spain. I was error free but had few opportunities in attack. Hilariously the little Spaniards were pretty aggressive in doing hard tackles and I enjoyed giving a few back. But the main objective of the trip has been done.

Elation followed by being brought down to earth by getting thrashed by France. Fortunately in some ways for me, I was rested for this one. Continued improvement throughout the game though.

Three games tomorrow, Wales, England and then Luxembourg. The latter beat Spain by the same margin as us.

[Mr Mwenda]

Wales v Sweden tomorrow, 9:25 french time: https://www.youtube.com/live/nOZlImnNBYc?feature=share

[Mr Mwenda]

So. Epic day with three matches, we played Wales first up and went down 6-7 after being 1-4 at half time. They had a lot of big rugby players and were out on their feet. 5 more minutes and we'd've had them. We let in a couple of soft tries which hurts, including one where I lost my man and another where we were backing to the dead ball line.

Game 2 v England the heat is over 30 degrees and we take the expected pumping, 1-18. We continue our theme if improving as the game goes on and their scoring rate drops and a few of them started to moan. I was really pleased to get my first score of the tournament and Sweden's first ever try v England.

Game 3 was a real letdown. Very hot and humid and we lost 3-7 v a niggly Luxembourg side who executed a simple gain well. They got under our skin and we got on the wring side of the refs. Our worst showing yet.

Squad wise the number of knocks are mounting. Our first player has had to withdraw and a couple of others are held together with tape.

However, at least we've played (realistically) our last three matches-day. Two more matches tomorrow beginning with a game against England over 35s. We take on the Swiss in the afternoon heat. We will target the over 35s I think.

[Mr Mwenda]

So bloody hot...

First match v England over 35s was good fun. 4-8 or something in the end. Got a cheeky try but had to let some of my teammates have some fun as well.

Afterwards, we had a 3-11 defeat to the Swiss. It felt closer than that as we had some joy in both attack and defence. It was the hottest and most humid yet. Really tough, all hands to the pumps stuff.

Last game tomorrow in a grudge match play off v Luxembourg. In the morning, thankfully. Looking forward to that keg of Harvey's!

[Mr Mwenda]

The final game ended in a 1-2 defeat in a very tight game played in much better spirit. Luxembourg kept us pinned on our goal line so we seldom had multiple attacking sets even though we defended like daemons. We had analysed their attacking strategy and I think their opportunities were thus limited to long balls, which came off twice. So it goes. Carnage then ensued as we got stuck into the sherbets. Both teams were much improved on the previous tournament.

Totally done in now, hanging on the train home from the airport. Bleugh.

[Mr Mwenda]

In other news, an article what i writ about my experiences ar the 2022 Euros has come out: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 24.2309976