Today concluded the season for the Nile Touch rugby. (Last Tuesday was the end of the full contact season.) Both leagues start up again at the end of January, so no worries!

I stepped up my game Tuesday night and had a blast, but today’s rugby tournament was probably the most fun I’ve had playing rugby all season. We won our first match easily, but then two of our players left and when our second match commenced over two hours later, we were down to six players, meaning no subs. We played 15 minute halves as opposed to the easy 10 minutes we’d been playing (and trust me, it feels longer than it sounds). And considering two of our players suffered from the kind of hangover only a late/early morning party with Jack Daniels can give you – one smelled strongly of whiskey even when we got in the cab in the morning – we did pretty well.

Our second match, a real killer, ended in a draw, so we went into “overtime,” which was basically an extension of the game with each team losing a player after a certain amount of plays. We were down to three each when someone finally threw wide and Baptiste scored a try, earning us a place in the finals.

In the end, we came in second. We played the team that won the tournament last year, and they were a great team to lose to. We kept the score at a draw until they finally scored a try in the last 13 seconds. No one was bitter; the score was excellent, and we all agreed that our entire team performed phenomenally. Everyone was on throughout the entire tournament.

It’s days like these I feel completely superb. I can’t help but wonder what I’d be doing in the States if I were there now…probably working, since it’s not a Muslim country who has Fridays off. On the bus ride home, Simon confessed that if he didn’t have this rugby to look forward to every weekend, his weekends would be miserable.

I totally agree.

with valiha, judson, and simon, plotting out our plan of attack

Now off to make egg nog and watch Elf.