A Day of Firsts!

At the first home game of the season, Agen won their first Top 14 match verse Biarritz! Not only was it my first time watching Kevin play in France, but I got to witness him score his first TRY!!!

In the first half, Agen spent most of the time in Biarritz' territory and after several penalities in our favor, it didn't take long for Agen to score points. The kicker, Valentine, had a marvelous performance as he kicked all 18 first half points, giving us an 18-3 lead at half-time. Biarritz dominated the second half and made a strong comeback to bring them within 5. After a massive hit on defense, the ball got knocked-on and we kicked the ball down field. Valentine ran it down and kicked a ball that was similar to a hail mary football pass across the field to Kevin. In his wide-receiver form, Kevin caught the high ball and ran it in for a try. It was at a pivotal time in the game that interrupted the Biarritz comeback and put Agen ahead 12. Final score, 28-23.

 

The 13,000 screaming fans thoroughly enjoyed the first home game on this beautiful day. It was a great atmosphere.

Rugby in southern France is known for being brutal. We got a taste of it as two fights broke out during the match, with one involving all 30 players on the pitch!

Fellow USA teammate and French superstar, Taku Ngwenya, plays wing for Biarritz. We had a nice chat with him after the game. 

It was a good day. I think Agen was proud of their American.

The House

We decided we wanted to live in town rather than in the countryside. This house is bigger than we need, but it will be nice when guests are in town. The second floor is our main living area with two bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathroom. The entire downstairs will be primarily for guests, with a bedroom, bathroom, and separate kitchen.

Our living room area is wonderful with the French doors that open up. More furniture arrived this week so it's beginning to look like a real home.

Something about this kitchen makes me enjoy cooking. Simple.

Our 1970's bathroom, blue and pink.

This table was our first puchase. We love it.

The overgrown back patio has tomatoes and pumpkins. The fence backs up to a park on the other side. We just got a barbecue so this area will get used more, which means we have to weed.

Weeks 1 and 2 in Top 14

First off, can I say, finally the time has come! Lauren is getting on a flight in just minutes so that she can find her way back home, to Agen. It's been a tough few weeks, as the internet, phone, tv, and purchased furniture have all been delayed, and is just now getting here. The lack of posts can be blamed on me/no internet, but now that Lauren will be here soon...I'll be making her update more often.

The first two weeks of the season have come and gone. In Week 1, we played Toulouse, losing 44-24. A tough loss, and a rude awakening to the Top 14. I did not play in that match, but went with the team as what they call, "van quart," or 24 (not sure if that spelling is correct, I just know how to say it). Anyway, they always bring a 24th guy they know won't play, unless something freakish happens getting on and off the bus. For me, they wanted me to get an idea of how everything works. The coaches said the next few weeks will see a lot of players in and out of the lineup until they find their "group."

This last weekend, we played Bayonne in Bayonne. This is a beautiful city in the Basque country, on the south-western coast of France. About a 3 hour drive from Agen. Unfortunately for us, we also lost this match, 27-0. It was a difficult loss because we started off really poorly, getting a yellow card within the first 5 minutes, and subsequently, giving up 20 points, in the first 20 minutes. The rest of the game was defended much better by us, but our offensive attack was obsolete for the entire 80 minutes. Players don't know if they'll be in the lineup one week to the next, so if you don't make something happen, it's a coin toss for you to be on the field the following week. In my case, without any offense as a team, there obviously weren't any opportunities for me personally either, so that was frustrating.

We have some things that need to be fixed quickly as a team, but with our coaches, and the determination of our players, I believe this will happen. This next weekend we play at home, which I hear is a great spectacle. Luckily Lauren will be back for this and there will be more pictures to come. And stay tuned to see the house as well (hopefully with some furniture in it).

National's & Leeds Match

As a follow up to Kevin's last post, here is a short update on my rugby weekend and his last preseason game. My local rugby team had a good showing at National's in Rhode Island, finishing 6th among 12 talented teams. We felt more prepared and played much better 7's compared to last year in San Francisco. There were numerous USA 7's players in the tournament so it was nice to reconnect with some of those teammates I played with in Dubai and Vegas.

We were assigned a "Gaudy Gold" theme for the post-tournament social. I'm not good at preparing costumes, but my teammates are always good sports!








On Friday, Kevin played in his final preseason match against Leeds - a rugby club from England. Leeds has one of the other few Americans playing professional rugby in Europe, but he was injured and didn't play. Kevin started the game but said it was a relatively unexciting match - he only touched the ball once in the first half. It was Leeds' first preseason match and they never scored a try, but kicked for points. Agen won 31-6.

Next match is verse Toulouse this Friday.

Lauren at 7's National's

Well everyone, I'm not the only one playing rugby this weekend. Lauren is heading to Rhode Island to take on the competition at the Women's National Invitational. It's a two day tournament, which has already started, and her team is ranked second in preliminary seedings. Thankfully for Lauren and her team it won't be a new experience, having played at this tournament last year and finishing fifth. You can read more on the tournament and how she feels about it all in what I believe is her first rugby interview. Click the rugbymag.com link below and check back in a few days to hear the result of her tournament, as well as my third and final preseason match.

http://www.rugbymag.com/news/sevens/clubsevens/womens-7s-nit-this-weekend.aspx

Match #2 : Brive

The Top 14 is a big deal here in France. It's the best rugby competition in the country and arguably the best in all of Europe as two French teams made it to the Heineken Cup Final last year. The Heineken Cup is where the best teams from the four professional leagues in Europe compete. Anyway, the point is that SU Agen has been promoted from proD2 up to the Top14 this season due to their dominating performances of last season, and the club and fans are eager to see how we will fare in this top flight competition.


This weekend was an important gage for us as we took on our first top 14 opponent, Brive, in only our second preseason match. We had a great start to the match as we did last week scoring a try early on. We got in their territory off a penalty and kick to touch, and straight from the lineout we through a simple miss pass to 13, and he got a half break. It was a quick and easy offload to me back inside, and only 10 meters out, I fell short about 2 meters. It wasn't all for none however as we retained ball quickly and scored two phases later on a pick and go from our pack. We scored again maybe 10 minutes later on a nice chip over, we had 4 or 5 chasing and our center, who kicked it, put a massive hit on the opposing player just as he tried to secure the ball. The ball went flying into their try zone for a simple jump on the ball by any one of our three players chasing it.

The rest of the half went back and forth without any scores until about 5 minutes left in the half. And then again 3 minutes later, both very nice tries by them. They were running the ball well and very efficient with their offloads; without good tackles a half break was going to be damaging. It was a slip up for us for about 7 minutes at the end of that half, and now the game was 14-12, our lead.

The second half was a very exciting back and forth territory battle, but not by kicking. A lot of breaks for both teams, but mostly by us...without a single one finishing for points in the 40 minutes. I had a golden opportunity to score as I called for the hip ahead and out paced several players to the ball. It was me and another player racing their and I had a choice, reach down and scoop it up only 5 meters out, or give it a little chip and then I could just fall on it once it's in the try zone. In retrospect, I probably should have gave it a little chip, but there was the chance that the other player would have got to it first as he was inside of me and I would have had to kick it inside as we were near the sideline. Either way, it would have been fine if I just didn't mishandle the ball. So, another blundered opportunity. However, thankfully the lack of scoring so far isn't my only judging point. I've done well on defense under the high ball, rucking and covering the back, so I can't complain. A nice long break happened after our scrumhalf quick tapped, pinned a guy, then hit me along the sideline. I out ran the chasing loose forward and had one defender in front of me, who was stuck on me so I fed it back inside to my teammate. It was about a 70 meter team break down the field, but again it didn't end in points. I came off the field as it was open subs with about 15 minutes left to play. The team played great defense as it seems we have a bend don't break policy. With no time left and pounding on the try line once again to end with a 5 pointer, we got a penalty right in front of the posts and just kicked the three points to end the game.

So it was a good match, winning 17 - 12, but we probably left 15 - 20 points on the field. Another thing to consider is the games are preseason, teams are kicking much less to territory and even when we're in the middle of the field 30 meters out with a penalty, we're still kicking to touch instead of going for points, which we would normally do. So winning is a plus in the end as we're really just trying to work the systems and get our timing down...and obviously the coaches want to see who can play.

So all and all I'm happy with my play. As Lauren wrote in the last post, I haven't been playing much 15s over the last two seasons. In fact, since I've graduated college, I've only played in 14 15s matches! Six of those were test matches. So for me I know not everything will be perfect right away, especially since from week one to two, I've noticed a marked improvement in my vision, reaction, awareness, and even my skill.

Next week we play our last preseason match against the English Premiership club, Leeds, at home. It should be a good one as our fans are really excited to watch us play. Oh yeah, and a fun side note, I got interviewed for my first time by a French reporter, so I obviously needed a translator. But he said they have an Internet site where the fans can ask questions and they've been wanting to know more about me. Looking forward to the next match.