It's TG day, Happy Thanksgiving!

It's probably one of my favorite holidays and all I can remember from back in the day was grabbing the biggest drumstick there was. And at 7 years old that turkey leg was almost as big as my face. I always ate the whole thing though.

This year, unfortunately, Lauren and I are miles apart on this holiday; however, she will be safely with her family in Seattle, and I'm definitely thankful for that. Tonight we'll have a nice Thanksgiving dinner with the team, courtesy of the Radisson of T'bilisi.

Thanks to everyone for keeping up on the blog, it's nice to be able to share our lives with family and friends. Enjoy the holiday wherever you are, with whomever you're with.

Kevin and Lauren

USA 1-2 after Scotland A loss

On a night that was almost unbearably cold, wearing three or four layers to stay warm; apparently it was great for a mid-November Scottish evening. The Scotsman sitting next to me was casually wearing his light overcoat and not showing an ounce of uncomfortableness. In the end, it turned out the conditions weren't too bad for the players.

It was a well fought in the first half, with nearly the same line-up as that of the Saracens 2 weeks earlier. Once again it was a lot of very good scramble defense, with very little possession of the ball. This obviously takes a toll. It was 6-0 to Scotland at about the 20 minute mark, but that quickly changed when our prop was sin-binned. They eventually scored in the corner and made it 11-0, which was the half time score.

At that point there was a lot of promise, some good movement of the ball when we did have it. In the second half it was much the same. They were pressing hard on our goal line, and even after we received our second yellow, we managed to keep them from scoring. We played continuous phases that finally got us into their territory and put pressure on them. An unfortunate turnover, led them into a promising position to attack, but we covered well. However, our tackler was whistled for yet another yellow card (so we were down to just 13 on the field). In the next 5 minutes they put up 14 more points.

That was all we could handle, and without much offense it didn't look promising. The score ended 25-0, but there were some good things to take out of the match, as there usually are. In the end there were only 6 points scored while it was 15v15. We either have to learn how to play better with a yellow card, or better yet, stop getting them.

(A beautiful Scotland sunset while visiting the castle together)

This weekend we play our final match on tour against Georgia. It'll be a very highly contested match and not easy by any means. Georgia beat Canada last weekend, so they're running high on that underdog victory.

USA v. Scotland A

Match summary and more pictures soon.

USA v. Portugal

I traveled to Portugal this past weekend to watch the Eagles 15s squad play in their first test match of the tour.  I haven't seen Kevin play 15's for the USA yet, so it was worth the hectic day of travel to be there.

Kevin is now in Scotland continuing on the tour, so I get to write a brief opinion of the Portugal match before he has time to edit it all.

Even though Portugal fought close for the entire 80 minutes, the stadium was shockingly quiet from start to finish. It seemed like this lifeless atmosphere translated to the field as the Eagles started off a bit sluggish and sloppy, with numerous dropped balls and a quick knock-on within the first few minutes. After an early penalty, the Portugal kicker took the opportunity to slot the first of his numerous kicks.  

It appeared like Todd gathered the boys to get their heads in it, which helped a bit but the game continued to progress at a pretty slow pace. To be honest, the majority of the match was unexciting despite the close score. But thankfully there were some solid moments that ended with some points on the board. Taku scored a nice corner try in the first half, Paul ran over a guy that led to an easy 40 meter run down the sideline, and the backline strung some passes together for a team try in the second half.

Final score was 22-17. In the end, a win is a win. It's always hard to put together a clean and solid game after only a couple trainings together. Many of the guys have been playing overseas in different systems, so it takes some time to adjust.

Next match is verse Scotland, but it's not a test match so several players will be rested.  

The progression of Kevin's "MO."

  

We stayed in the surfer town of Carcavelos - very close to the capital city of Lisbon. This huge fortification, Forte de São Julião da Barra, was a short jaunt from the hotel. It used to protect the Tagus river entrance from enemy ships, but is now used as the residence of the Ministry of Defense. Thought I'd throw in a little history to the mix! 

USA v. Saracens

(Thanks from Saracens.com)

Played at the Honourable Artillery Company Grounds in the middle of London, you would have never guessed that this was a match in which neither team put out their strongest side. Pounding defensive hits, hard running, and extremely high work rates from both sides made the match a very exciting game. We put up the first 3 points, only to give them back on the ensuing kick-off 2 minutes later. It was back and forth a bit in the first half, but the majority of the possession found its way into Saracens hands.

There was a swirling wind, mostly going our way in the first half, so that helped with possession. However, in the second half, the possession percentage would find itself almost completely with the Saracens - nearly 80% of the time. Playing this much defense is near impossible in such a grueling match, but the boys stuck their toes in the ground when they had to, scrambled when they needed to, and turned the ball back over to prevent scores countless numbers of times. In the end, it was just too much for them (or any team) to bear and the Sarries finished the game off with two tries, one with no time left, to win 18-6.

There was a lot of pride shown in this match and the guys proved that everyone is pushing for the spot on this team, and everyone deserves to be here. A win would obviously have been nice, but we can walk away from that match with pride and determination going forward. We have our first test match on Saturday against Portugal and will be traveling there tomorrow.

Ronnie's visit

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my good friend of 20 years was visiting us in France and has just gone back home. We believe (and hope) he had a good time here in France and it was nice to share our lives with such a good friend. Here's a quick peak at some of the stuff we were able to do while he was here. Thanks for making the trip Ronnie.

Carnival in Bordeaux

                                                                                       Dinner in Nerac

Wine tasting at Buzet Winery - trying very hard to be a wine connoisseur.

Celebrating the big win!

Agen wins before vacation!

It was our last match before a four week hiatus of matches, and a 10 day vacation for all the players at the club. Needless to say, we could leave it all on the field with this in mind. That's exactly what happened in the 21-20 win over 3rd seeded Racing Metro.

                                    With no time left, our near perfect kicker on the night, slotted a 40m penalty to win the match. It was a perfect night, with a packed stadium, and great rugby on display.

A pic of the winning boot below.

 Also important to mention was the excitement Agen fans expressed as the "Caveman" took some hard hits throughout the night.

It seems like we've come together as a team and are finally playing some passionate defense, and go-forward rugby offensively. That's two in a row for Agen, after previously only having one win all season. With just one match left before the half-way mark on December 4th, it's a great time to start getting wins.

I've just left Agen and joined up with the USA team for our November tour, and it's great to be back! Exactly one year ago we qualified for the World cup against Uruguay, and that was also my last match with the USA. I'm extremely excited to get back in the mix and put on that jersey again. We have high hopes on this tour and must put together a lot of things in order make a nice showing at next year's World Cup.

Lauren is working hard this week (which is no different than any other week) so she can come to Portugal next weekend and quite possibly Scotland the weekend after. Stay tuned for those updates and hopefully some pictures.

Movember!

Did you know?
- In 2010 tragically more than 32,000 men will die as a direct result of prostate cancer.

It's that time of year again, and let the growing begin. This is a very serious issue in which the charity has produced a fun way to help promote men's health. Everyone involved grows a 'Mo' in order to bring up conversation. And when someone asks, "what's with the mustache?" The wonderful line in response is, "I'm trying to change the face of men's health." This slogan is only as fabulous as the Mo you grow, and the help that comes with it. So for the first time in a long time, I've shaved my beard off and began the process of raising awareness. I will grow my Mo and post throughout the month of it's progress and the amount of donations made.The money raised goes to support the Prostate Cancer foundation and LIVESTRONG, so please, whether it is $3 or $50, look below to follow the direction on how to donate for this very important cause.

Thanks to all our readers, we will continue to keep our lives and rugby endeavors more up-to-date.

Best,

Kevin and Lauren

------------------

To help, you can either:

-  Click this link http://us.movember.com/mospace/486219/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account
-  Write a check payable to Movember, referencing my name or Registration Number 486219 and mailing it to: Movember, PO Box 2726, Venice, CA 90294-2726

The money raised will help make a tangible difference to the lives of others, through the world’s most promising prostate cancer research and LIVESTRONG’s programs that support young adults and their families battling and surviving cancer.

For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please visit
http://us.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs/.

2 week Summary

First off, apologies for not posting the last two weeks. We will definitely try to keep more up-to-date on everything.

Games: We've played two games since our Amlin Cup Match against La Rochelle. We first played Castres, in Castres, and there's not much to talk about except we lost 38-11. It was still fairly close at half, 16-6, but our issue has been we're just playing too much defense. After about 60 minutes it seems we start to give up most of our points.

Last week we played La Rochell at home, breaking our 7 game losing streak and winning! It was obviously a very important win, but not just for standings and points, for moral. We won 29-14 and definitely left some points off the scoreboard.

Today we play Racing Metro, who is 3rd in the Top 14 standings and has one of the most famous French rugby players in Chabal (aka Caveman). It'll be a tough challenge, but hopefully some of the confidence will remain from last week's win.

Life: Over the past 2+ weeks my good/old friend Ronnie of 20 years has been staying with us.. He's thoroughly enjoyed his time here, learning some meaningless French, disgusted everytime he tries wine, and seeing some old towns and castles.

Lauren has been back for just about 1 week, and of course that is always great for me. Saturday I leave to London for the start of the USA National Team's November tour.  We will play the Saracens, then Portugal, Scotland A, and finally Georgia, all in the respective countries. Lauren is going to travel to Portugal and Scotland, as these are two wonderful places for her to have an excuse to visit.

Lastly, the month of MOvember, formerly known as November, has started just 4 days ago. It's the month where men grow mustaches in order to raise awareness of men's health by "changing the face of men's health." It's a great cause, to support prostate cancer and the "Live Strong" foundation. More info to come on this issue and how you can help.

Many pictures to come as well, and look forward to postings during the month to see my "MO," updates about the USA tour, and Lauren's relaxation (while she's still working) in some beautiful countries.

Tough Loss in La Rochelle

It was our second week of Amlin Cup, but this time we took on another Top 14 counterpart, La Rochelle. The game was mostly played in our territory and with them holding on possession, which obviously meant a lot of defense for us. We took on the challenge quite well, except for their driving maul, however, which they scored three tries from. It wasn't our best side, as the coaches saw these last two weeks as a good time to rest some players, but especially this week. It is more important for us to get wins and score points in the Top 14 matches against La Rochelle, than the Amlin Cup.

In the end, we still had a chance to tie it, and oh was it close. They scored with 3 minutes left in the game to go up by 7 points. At that point I looked around and every single teammate of mine had the look in their eyes of, "we can still win this!" However, it looked all but over 2 minutes late when they got a penalty with only 30 seconds left and just needed to kick to touch and win the lineout for the game to end. Instead, they missed their kick to touch, and we played from our own 10 meter line. From one sideline to the other, we swung the ball, got a half break, and continued from there. Pushing the pace, running with the ball, cutting, slashing, offloading, we were down to their 5 meter line, and had just played some fantastic rugby. And then our chance came, we had a massive overlap out wide. As we tried to get it out there, their defense rushed up on the outside. Our flyhalf pump-faked and found a gap behind the defense for a long pass to our wing who walked in for the try with no time left. It was an amazing finish...but just as the Ref was looking to raise his hand for the try, the touch judge motioned to him that it was a forward pass...game over!

It was a nice effort and we still have three more matches against La Rochelle. And like I said, this one was the least important as it wasn't at home and was the Amlin Cup. We play our next match at Castres, but then La Rochelle is the week after, in Agen.

Barcelona...what a city!!!

Ever since Lauren's last semester in her MBA program, when she traveled to Barcelona for her international business course, she's had a lasting affinity for Barcelona. Any time someone brings up the city, her face lights up and she enjoys a nice, reminiscent conversation with that person. I had travelled all over the world myself, but have never found a place that I could say I enjoyed the way she enjoyed this place.

After 3 years of hearing from her about it's greatness, I was finally able to experience it for myself, and I can't blame her one bit for her appreciation of it. It's a city that never stops. It has hotel after hotel, restaurant after restaurant, shopping after shopping, and endless amounts of people from all over the world walking the streets. The funny thing is I didn't even get to enjoy the beach and most of it's scenery, but it was still fantastic.

We left straight after the match on Friday night and drove the 4+ hours across the border into Spain. Calling at least 15 hotels, and unable to find a single room to stay, we decided since we were arriving so late that we'll just stay at a Hostel (a first-time thing for Lauren). This was a typical hostel, pretty much dorm bathrooms and a big room with about 12 bunk beds (sorry we didn't get a picture of it). When we woke up in the morning Lauren asked me if we should just stay there again Saturday night, and my response, "Absolutely not." It wasn't because the small, uncomfortable beds, nor the loud obnoxious people that you could vividly hear all night, and it wasn't even the hot, stale air, in the muggy room all night that I didn't want to stay again. No, it was because I knew we would want to take a nap later on in the day.

We walked no more than 50 meters down the same street, walked into this beautiful building and Lauren looked at me like, "no way." In my head I just thought I would get a price comparison, however, it turned out we could get the room for half price and we took it.

The shopping was amazing, the food was unbelievable and we enjoyed ourselves in a great city and comfortable hotel room.














Now Lauren is back in the US, fulfilling her commitment to travel back and forth in order to continue personal meetings with clients and ensure things are still running smoothly without her there.

Gloucester...what a win!

Played on a pleasant friday night in Agen, the match couldn't have been scripted any better. After 6 straight losses, confidence becomes an issue for any team; however, no one could tell that this was an issue by watching the game. Our players were exciting to watch - pressuring on defense and imaginative on offense.

At half it was 13-3, but with 2 missed penalties by our kicker, it could have very well been 13-9. Either way, there were opportunities being given to us, but it was in the second half where we would finally take advantage. It was quite the show to see such an amazing comeback, and after much pressure and time in there half, we tied the game at 13. There was still 25 minutes to play and the territory and possession went back and forth a bit with them scoring a penalty at the 70 minute mark. Just 3 minutes later we returned the favor to tie it once again. But with time winding down, it was there possession in our territory and everyone was trying to figure out how we were going to pull it off.

The players on the sideline knew it, the fans knew it, the coaches knew it, and in the end, the players on the field knew it too, Agen couldn't just tie this game, we needed to win. There was a missed drop goal with 3 minutes left by Gloucester, which took the breath out of everyone watching. Gloucester quickly had the ball in their possesion again and were playing in our half of the field waiting for a penalty and ultimately a game-winning 3 pointer. However, with 20 seconds left on the clock, they conceded a penalty and it was our ball. With almost no time, our Fly-half quickly kicked the ball to touch in order to gain territory just before the buzzer sounded. Then, with no time left, we were still allowed the lineout, but the next turnover or penatly against us would end the game. The lineout was won, and the forwards began mauling (in Leyman's terms, the two teams were in a big group pushing in opposite directions), from there it looked like the Red Sea opened and our earlier try scorer, the #8, peeled off the back of the maul and went for it. The giant of a man, with his deceptive speed broke one, then two tackles, he was still going and with just 5 meters left, his last advesary would finally bring him down. After being tackled his momentum carried him 1 foot from the try line and as he reached his hand out to touch the ball down the ball got caught up and it almost looked like he lost it.  But he just continued his motion and touched the line with the ball. Impossible for the ref to see it perfectly and with no time left, it was either a try, or no try, and he had to go to the video ref to answer that. Looking at the slow motion was painful, it honestly could have gone either way, but we could only hope it would be our way. Just one minute later (which is very fast for the video refs), they awarded the try and the kick was good...Agen 26 - Gloucester 19.

Having the weekend off, I didn't take part in the match. However, this weekend I'll be starting on the wing as we take on la Rochelle in our second Amlin Cup  match.

Clermont - Kevin scores only Try in loss

Agen played Clermont today, the defending Top 14 Champions in their home stadium. I was not at the game, but apparently Agen played great for the first 50 minutes of the match, before letting the game run away from them in the second half.  Kevin scored the first and only try for Agen in the 8th minute of the game which hushed the stadium and stunned the Clermont team. Our center did a grubber kick in front of Kevin's territory which sent both Kevin and Clermont's full-back racing to the ball. They both arrived at the same time, but the full-back apparently moved out of Kevin's way to avoid a collision just as the ball bounced into Kevin's hands. He ran it in for a 20-30 meter try. From there, Kevin said it was one of their best defensive games of the year as they only trailed 19-13 at half-time. But 10 minutes into the second half, the game started to go downhill and the score closed at 45-19.

Hopefully the first half performance will stick in their minds and will give them motivation to keep pushing forward and work on their weak areas. They have a break from Top 14 matches for 2 weeks as they compete in the Amlin Cup starting next Friday against Gloucester. This break could be very beneficial as it will give the team some time to iron out weaknesses and hopefully return to their next Top 14 in better form. The coaches might also rest many of the starters, which will give players some time to heal nagging injuries.

 

Picture from last week.

Week 8 vs "The Pink Team"

This weekend's game may have ended with the same result as the last few, but the style of play and sense of urgency was much better for us. Only down at the half by 2 points, we were playing a more expansive and exciting type of rugby. I probably touched the ball more than I had in any other game, coming up just short of scoring my second try and having a few nice runs. In the second half we had a swirling wind behind our backs and felt the need to kick for territory a bit more, which didn't go our way. We also lost our 3rd center in 4 weeks, and therefore had to play with a number 7 in the backline the entire second half. This hampered our attack a bit and we weren't able to keep the same flow we had in the first 40 minutes of the game. The final score was 12-27.

Brendan, a good friend of mine from the good ole days at Saint Mary's Collge visited us this weekend. He enjoyed the french lifestyle and had a good time at the match as well. It's always great having guests, especially when they leave happy that they came. He brought us some amazing homemade Irish jam from his family in Ireland. (And by the way, there was this creepy guy at the train station trying to talk to us when we took this picture, hence my wandering eyes. I couldn't focus on the picture after he said to Lauren, "you are so beautiful, I want to French kiss you!" He could see that it was time for him to go after that.  

Other Top 14 scores:

Bayonne        25 - Perpignan   26
Clermont        24 - Castres       6

Racing Metro 17 - Biarritz       12

Brive             16 - Toulouse     16

Montpellier    26 - La Rochelle  6

Bourgoin         3 - Toulon         26

Next week we take on the reigning Top 14 champions, Clermont, at Clermont. It'll be an interesting week with several injuries and some guys needing a rest.

Miscellaneous

Some random pictures from our last week.

Nice shot of Kevin in the last game that was posted on the Agen website.

                     Flowers from Kevin

Hand-made rug from a local market.

Our neighbors gave us an old armoir for free. We decided to paint it because it was a faded, uneven lime green before.... but now it is really blue which wasn't our goal either. We were going for a slate grey with hint of blue.. oops. It was a fun project for us though.

Potanque (or Bocci ball) is a popular and competitive pasttime here in Southern France. We could sit and watch the locals play for hours.