Amateurs vs Pros
By Props Are Not Stupid
October 21 2013
As those of you who have already experienced touring to European games with me know, you can guarantee that something will happen which will make people doubt if props are really stupid or not. And believe you me, we are very clever people, just unlucky at times.
My plan for the week was to visit a friend who lives in Southern Spain, only 500 miles away from the game, drive up to the game early on Saturday, and drive back the following day. All was properly planned this time, address of the stadium, hotel pre booked, nothing could go wrong. Well, until we get to the first motorway toll near Seville and I find that I do not have my wallet with me. I must have left it at home, but it is too late to go back as we have already been driving for an hour. Ok, my friend will pay, that is what friends are for, anyway.
We are making great progress and we are aiming to arrive in Lisbon for 1pm. Around 12.30 we noticed a warning light coming on in the dashboard. We look at the instruction book of the Jeep and it basically says that we are going to die if we keep on driving as the transmission is kaput. So, we keep on driving and as we pass through the tunnel we see loads of tv reporters filming. We get to the hotel and that same picture is in the news. There is going to be a great demonstration today in Lisbon against the government which starts at 1 and finishes at 5. Surely it will not interfere with our trip to the ground, will it?
After having a glass of wine at the hotel we decide to drive to the ground, still with the warning light on and the possibility of finding a big demonstration that will block our road on the way. I had all the directions sorted, and the Estadio Nacional was only 13 minutes away. We got a bit lost, but by 2pm we are finally at Stadio Nacional, time for a drink and relax before kick off. Amazingly we hit no traffic and parking was very easy, estrange for a stadium that holds 80,000 people. As we go in we find that not only it is empty, but also closed! Oh dear, I go into the Craic (no, I haven't lost my phone this time) and it says something about Stadio Universitario. I start asking people and they tell me that it is the other side of town, so we head towards there and you guessed it, roads closed because of the demonstration, police diverting traffic and it is all a mess. I love an anti government demonstration as much as the next person, but this time it was somewhat inconvenient. So we drive in the hard shoulder and managed to avoid the police and head towards the centre of Lisbon again, still with the warning light on. It took a few more stops to ask people about the Stadio Universitario, but eventually we get there at 3.00. You can actually see the game from the other side of the fence, but we go into the ground to find a guy selling tickets for 5 euros. As soon as he sees me, the turns around the pack of tickets and now they are 10 euros. We don't mind paying 10 euros per ticket and we are in! We haven't missed any part of the game as we could actually see it while we were walking towards the ground. In the main Stand there are about 200 people, about a third of which are London Irish supporters.
First penalty to Irish and we go for the points. I feel somewhat puzzled thinking that we have to go for the tries since the very first minute as a number of points and tries may be the difference between going through in our group or not. Knowing that Stade Francais had put 61 points against these guys last week, I had that target in my head, ideally with the fourth try scored before half time. Well, it didn't happen like that in the first half, as Lusitanos drew 3 3 and what I thought would be a walkover had become a very close game. Lusitanos were in the game for the first 30 minutes, thanks to their determination and the errors from Irish.
Losi, playing centre, scored the first try for Irish and it wasn't until the second try from Yarde that you could see Irish clearly winning this way, but their dominance in the pack and the set pieces were slowly but surely undermining the chances of Lusitanos to get anything from the game other than the two penalties they scored. Surely you have read about the game elsewhere, and you already know the try scorers, yellow cards, etc, but since this is the Craic match report I will mention that points came from
Lusitanos - Pedro Cabral (6)
London Irish - Stevens (10), Allinson (5), Dorrian (22), Yarde (10), Losi (5), Lewington (5) and Treviranus (5)
After the game in true Craic tradition we gave them songs and they gave us beer until the barrel was empty. Lusitanos is a team made up from a selection of players of the top 6 teams in the Portuguese cup. Not only they are completely amateur, but also they have to pay a fee of 300 euros each to play the game. Most of their travels are paid for, by their club, sponsors or in the case of the Amlin Cup, by the European Rugby Union. It makes me think why would the Spanish counterparts not be able to afford to join the competition if all travels were paid for. Their only player who once had a wage for playing rugby was their captain and experienced number 8, Vasco Uva, who spent one season at French club Montpellier.
On the way back to the hotel the warning light had come off, so things were looking rosier. The following day we had a drive through Lisbon to do some sightseeing from the car. Lisbon is a place where mountains and cliffs join the sea, with many tall bridges, aqueducts and cable cars. I am scared of heights, so we just drove back to Spain to the place where we had last had lunch and guess what, they had my wallet and they gave it to me without asking questions. Not a penny or card missing. Spanish people are very trustworthy until they get to government, then they change completely and become greedy. Anyhow, good game, good Craic, and I wish all the best to Portuguese rugby. This was the first time for most of the players that they played against a professional team, so it was a very important time for them and they thanked us for being part of it.
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Glad you got there OK/got your wallet back safely. In contrast I lost my wallet at the MadStad at this year's Paddy's Day game. Some nice soul handed it in - for which many thanks - alas not before all the cash had been removed.
Looking forward to welcoming our Portuguese friends for the return leg - hope they are able to bring some supporters with them
(Glad it all turned out alright in the end ...)
K
Super story, the things we do for London Irish!
We maybe will sort some flapjacks for the drummers for the return
it was building into 'Murphy's sicknote' proportions at times!!
you sound like a man to travel with!
...on the return journey :¬)