2nd Leg of European Camogie Tournament
Saturday 17 May 2008
Den Haag (The Hague), Netherlands
Location: Westlandse Rugby Club Haaglanden, Beresteinlaan 52a, Den Haag
All recovered from the fun and games of the weekend? No-one down with colds?
For those of you who weren’t there, I’ll just briefly fill you in. We played two 7-aside games, both against Luxembourg, the first one 15 minutes a side, the second one 10 minutes a side. We had a panel of 10 girls and Rachel, who has an ankle injury, came along to support. Aine Magee had just arrived in from Sudan, via Ireland, and made a big difference in the midfield despite the jet lag – thanks Aine for coming over. Rebecca was the only girl down from Zurich and in order to balance out the teams, she and Michaela from The Hague teamed up with Luxembourg who only had a panel of 8 girls. It rained almost the whole day, the pitch was water logged in places and the ball kept getting stuck in puddles. We had a break of about 2 hours between the matches. Those who hadn’t brought spare socks were literally able to wring the water out of their socks before putting them back on for the second game – not a pleasant experience. So lessons learned – always bring spare socks, spare everything! No major injuries to report apart from the usual bumps and bruises, one which saw Aine (Murphy) who was in goals, having to come off after a belt to the hand and Laura being floored by an opposing player but luckily at the end of the game. Both girls are fully recovered. Conan was unable to make it – Conan, we missed you - but luckily Conor agreed to take over and managed the team from the sideline – thanks Conor.
Unfortunately we were beaten in both matches – I won’t tell you the score as it would give the wrong impression of the games. Suffice to say Luxembourg won well in both matches; Luxembourg’s All Star Couny Cork player was very high performing again burying goals despite the midfielders’, defenders’ and goalie’s best efforts to close her down. But Belgium did not show themselves up and played their best ever yet. There were good puck outs, good defending, running, passing and a lot of team work and team spirit. So no-one should be disappointed and everyone is hopefully keen to keep on getting in as much practice as possible and building up the skills before our next tournament on home ground on 5th July!
Margaret François
Team Captain
19 May 2008
(Participating Players:
Aine Magee, Aine Murphy, Barbara Wynne, Becky Mattes, Catherine Feore, Deirdre O’Brien, Jane Brennan, Laura Whiskerd, Margaret François, Shauna Mullan)
