First Rugby Match In Mexico

This week I finially sent out an e-mail to the Rugby clubs in the area, and by "in the area" I mean in Mexico City. I got several replies and offers to join their clubs. The problem for me is making it to training and the matches due to the distance and me not having a car. One of the replies was from Fox RFC, and they said that a good day to check them out would be today because they are playing a friendly against the University of Michigan (Every year for spring break they tour other countries and play ball, they have been all over) and this year was Mexico, and I was like "no shit, I'll be there for sure." Some of the other teams play on saturday fairly close, inbetween DF and Toluca, so I will check them out then. They all seem pretty excited when they saw that I have been playing for 7 years, they don't get very many people with experience around here.

I had been anxious all day because I didn't know if I was going to make it there or not. I had e-mails back and fourth with some members of the club the last day or two, they have some people that live and work in Toluca (By the way, there are no teams in Toluca), but none of them were here today so I couldn't catch a ride, and I wasn't sure if Karin was going to get out of work early enough to make it on time, and if she did, I didn't know where (they all practice and play in different places). Kairn ended up getting out early and we headed out to find the place. I took forever due to rush hour in the largest city in the world, but we got around and got there.

I was refreshing to see all the Michiganders and Rugby. We chatted with a few people from U of M and Fox, and watched the game. Then we went to have a couple drinks with them at the bar. The bar we went to was a busy Irish bar in a busy part of town, but we made some new friends. There are a lot of ex-patriots that play for them, a lot of French, Aussies, and Argentinians, and several of them speak English. There was also some spectators from english speaking countries that were cool. At the bar I got a lot of "no shit" from the U of M players due to me playing for GVSU, I got a lot of "who is that dude wearing a MI select side jersey" but they were cool when they realized that I was a kool kat. They said that GV needs to get their act together and go on a tour. I tried when I was the head hancho but I could never get any type of committment. I suppose it's a little harder to come up with the funds when you don't have a filthy rich daddy! I can Imagine that the experience is priceless. They were having a blast singin' songs and shootin' the boot. They are leaving for Acapulco tonite for the rest of their break, I could not imagine being there with a whole Rugby team!

I seems like a cool club to play with but it will be hard to get back and fourth to training. I will explore more options this weekend when I get to see 6 other teams play and chat with them. I'll keep you updated.