Manila 10's : Nomad Rugby, Endless Beer and Scooby Doo

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March 28th 2010

Published: April 5th 2010

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JonnyL

Mikati, Manila

I had no idea it was this built up!

HELL of a tournament!! Arrived in Clark airport, North of Manila, on Friday 19th March around 2pm. Jumped on a bus and expected a one, maybe two hour journey. As soon as we got anywhere near Manila we hit traffic. The journey ended up taking 5 hours and I had absolutely no idea where I was or where I was going! Fortunately Foggy came out to meet to drop my stuff off at his.

Quick turn-around and straight to Handle Bar. Which looked like the kind of American bar you'd find in Vietnam during the war. Only they were advertising the Burnley match the next day. So the night progressed and we headed to Borgos Street. Dodgy dodgy place!! Ironic because it was named after a priest!! Anyways, there were monkeys breast-feeding cats in cages and kids begging in the street. So I'll not go into too much detail.

Anyways, too many beers later we went home. Only the thing is my first game was at 8.30 IN THE MORNING!! Never played the early before and even at that time the heat and humidity were insane! Played in 4 games that day and met a great bunch of lads.

HAND-OFF

The second the final whistle went in the last game of the day there was a beer in my hand. Perfect! And the drinking didn't really stop until 6.30am the following day. Bearing in mind my first game was at 9.30am!! Fortunately we lost that game and it was the knock-out stages so that was me done for the day. I slept on the side-lines for about 2 hours and then got a massage. Bliss.

When the rugby was done for the more cases of beer rolled out. And it's all San Miguel out here so it's good stuff! There was then a big awards ceremony for the winning teams which lasted about an hour as a few of the teams did some funny presentations. The Nomads Ruby Club gathered in a circle for dick of the day awards. There were quite a few as some funny stuff went on during the day. For example one guy went for a chip ahead and ended up punting the ball through the posts! So he had to drink. Then anyone who scored a try or two had to drink. So I did....

We had these giant inflatable penguins and one

Try Time

got robbed by the Fijian team. We decided the best way to get it back would be for Neked Eddie to go in there and get it. We barely finished the suggestion when Eddie's kit was off and he was headed full steam for the Fijian camp! Next thing you know Eddie pops out with this huge penguin, being chased by angry Fijians! They eventually caught him, tackled him and left with the penguin. But it was all good natured stuff. He then went and put his Scooby Doo outfit on and challenged a Care Bear to a wrestle. (Inspired by the midget boxing he'd seen the previous night in Borgos). So that went well as I think he won. He then had his ass handed to him by a Sumo wrestler.

Don't really remember Sunday night to be honest. So that's it really. Manila 10's. A great laugh! I've been invited by the same team to go and play down in Cebu for the next big tournament so expect more of the same I guess!!

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