10 Broccoli players made the journey to Belgium in the last weekend of April where we found tasty beer, sunshine, lots of food, tough Ultimate and a little bit of rain too. It all started with a 6.50am flight from Dublin...
We all struggled to the airport after nights out, work etc and eventually made our way onto the plane in beautiful morning sunshine with a few beers and a nice early morning gin and tonic to take the edge off the day. Aer Lingus comfort to Brussels then a wee train journey to Bruges was the plan. We hopped on the train in the airport and off we went happy as larry before things got a little strange. We'd sat down in 1st class, been asked to move and were just sitting around getting ready to go when a tall African looking guy walked straight up to where Luan was sitting and slapped him in the face! He said something like 'Stop it now' before leaving the carriage without any explanation. It was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. A brief talking to and an extended stay in the first class carriage were the outcomes. Big team play by Luan.
Friday was dedicated to sampling as many of Belgium's fine brews as was humanly possible. While the majority of the Brocs enjoyed a beer or two, Luan romped through every variety of beer in the pub, including a few extra rounds of the 8% Duvel. He assured us that each and every one of the beers was "taste". Thanks Luan.
The day passed with multiple games of Mafia, Charades and laughing at Luan. All were equally enjoyable until 45 Litre Boy left us at 8pm saying something which resembled 'I'm going home', whilst wandering off in the wrong direction. He was found approximately 10 hours later cold, tired and still somewhat tipsy.
The first day of play saw the Broc struggle a little to hit the ground running. We traded to 4-4 with UFO (an unknown entity, we thought... ended up losing the final by a point). We were beaten 11-7 by Jet Set (including Isaac) in a good battle on an upwind-downwind pitch, and suffered the same fate against the wiley XLR8RS. It had taken a while to get going but we had started to play better as a team.
Unfortunately, the following morning we were due to play 2004 winners Iznogood, who we were reliably informed were in fact rather good indeed. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do was go to the tournament tent and drink their tasty special brew until the wee hours of the morning. With a few stragglers to boot, the sing-song kicked off. Long after everyone else had gone home the security guard informed us that it was time to leave. We were busy singing "Oh, you're all very quiet over there" at empty corners of the tent to notice so he decided to leave us stay. We realised that there was no beer left so we chalked the night down as a success and headed homeward.
Sunday morning is rarely the highpoint of a travelling Irish team's weekend. With no pressure on the Broc team, and the rain pouring down ("This weather suits us lads, they wont like it") we decided to have a bash at the French former winners, Iznogood. At 6-7 the 5 min hooter went . Broc scored the point to go 7-7 and Izno were shaken. In the end their quality showed as the converted offence points and got a big turn to win 10-7. Not the result we could have acheived but a big step in the right direction.
Due to the fact that 40 teams had entered, the knockout stages of the tournament were decided based on 5 groups of 8. As we had lost our 4 group games we were confined to the bottom 8 with 33rd being the highest we could finish. Despite our disappointment that we could not use our new found form in a cross-over, we became determined to win every game for the rest of the weekend. No point sulking about seedings, groups of death or misfortune if you cant win all your games from that point on. Gladly, this is exactly what we did.
Due to the last-minute withdrawl of Pookas, the first European meeting of 2 Irish teams was postponed. Perhaps Basle or Amsterdam will see this great event take place.
Broccoli went on to win their quarter and semi-final placing games to set up a grande finale with Blue Arse Flies of England, who also felt slightly confused in the bottom 8. With BB Mac JB returning from a dose of the stomach evictions, Broc were determined to hammer home a win. A battle royale ensued. With both teams gunning for the winners place in the division, everything got left on the pitch. Some big battled kicked off and some old rivalries rekindled. The spat between BB and the BAF captain was best described by one of the external observers .... "its like a bad break-up".
Despite such a level of intensity on every mark, the game didn't descend into the scrappy affair it may have. The determined Broc won out 11-7 in the end to cap a highly successful 2nd half of the weekend's play.
The Sunday night party was a more tame affair for the Broc, with most only staying out til 2 am and then spending at least 2 hours looking for a taxi. Fortunately, Oisin nominated JTM Shifty to stay out boozing with him for the night and plied him full of the Devil juice they were selling at the cocktail bar. His intentions are still unknown.
The final on Monday afternoon saw Cota Rica edge out UFO 12-10 after some great play. The Brocs enjoyed their last hours together with a few beers and much excitement at the prospect of visiting the playground again on Tuesday.
Safe to say we're gagging for the Broc's next European adventure. Basel here we come!
