With the seasonal weather changing rapidly, we were quite surprised to wake on the day of the final competition to a scorcher with no clouds in sight. Clear blue Estonian skies, and not a hint of the heavy rain that had dominated overnight. With the Baltic International XV Competition being played in the National Rugby stadium – we were looking forward to having an opportunity to play some rugby on a nice even surface in front of a stand. The competition was a three way affair – The National Estonian XV, the South West Wanderers Select XV and ourselves. With the now customary pre-match preps of marking the pitch and erecting the posts (somewhat reminiscent of an USMC ep...
After a fairly bruising bus ride south against an extremely fierce Baltic Summer Gale, we arrived late at the National Defence Academy and were shown to our Barracks. Very reminiscent of a ‘Full Metal Jacket’ setting with bunks all around and wash rooms at one end, the lads quickly established themselves under the watchful eyes of the management. As a place to hole up for a rugby squad overnight – this wasn’t too bad, all the lads together, plenty of space for our kit, and even enough room to rehearse those last minute lineout changes! A squad of 30 all snoring in unison is interesting though!
For the game - Unfortunately the National Stadium was being re-seede...
After the excesses of both a tough first match and a very late finish to the post match entertainment, getting up for rehab the following morning was tough to say the least. The inability of the sun to go down properly out here always seems to lead one to draw a false conclusion that it is never that late, and as such when the alarm goes the following morning it always comes as a bit of a shock! The morning after the night before and with everyone assembled early – a brisk jog out to the quayside to inspect the ex-RN stock before a couple of laps round the camp allowed the lads to shake out their tired bodies before coming back for a consolidated period of deep stretching in ...
The morning of the first game provided a nice surprise for the squad, as the customary grey drizzle (not too dissimilar to our Cornish weather!) had given way to a bank of sea fog. As the heat of the day kicked in, so the fog rolled back and revealed a very bright summers day with clear skies and light winds. Possibly a little warm for hard running rugby, but certainly better than the torrential downpours that we have been training in! The boys had been looking forward to this first game with the excitement building throughout the weekend. With the standard last minute special strappings, and a full bag of bananas and bottles of water, we made our way to the Hippodrome Race track where ...
We’ve arrived! I must admit it was an interesting trip out - Boarding the bus in the very early hours of Friday morning seemed a little draconian, but it was a necessary evil in order that we could get to Stansted ahead of the rush, and judging by the roar of the lads snoring Jack and Royal weren’t missing any of their beauty sleep. Stansted was absolutely jammed packed (is it ever empty?) with similarly minded budget airline customers apparently all funnelling themselves towards our check-in desk! By the time the squad had checked in, we had thoroughly earned our Airport breakfast. As we sat and ate our rations together in the remaining early hours of the new da...
