13 Vienna Touch players went to sunny warm Nice in South of France on March 10th to play Touch in the first Cote d'Azur Touch Tournament.
8 Teams played under beautiful cloudless blue skies on a fantastic professional rugby grade Kunstrasen pitch.
We only lost to the 2 Teams that were in the final.
Results (pretty sure...):
Vienna 8 - Monte Carlo 1
Vienna 3, Zurich 5
Vienna 7, Brussels Kitaro 6
Vienna 4, Edinburgh SuperCats 7 (Semi Final)
Vienna 7, Nice (Touch Azur) 6 (3rd/4th Play-off).
(There was Italian Team and Brussels Celtic also there).
First touch of the ball in her first Touch Tournament ever for our new recruit Michaela Gerstl (Michi) from a long pass she caught it and scored in the corner.
She had many others as well, so big congrats to her.
Amy organsied everything and Captian Hans led us and kept us focused and happy all day. Hans, Phil and Evi reffed also, so thanks to all these folks. Off the field antics typically and well led by Shani, Marek and USI Michi...
One thing we noted is that the general level of Touch from the Vienna players is much higher than previous years. A few years ago, the Edinburgh team were beating us by 12 or so. Now they beat us by a few points only. We had no Team training, no set moves or tactics for this Tournament - we just played decent Touch, and defended mostly really well. Most teams were faster than us, with fancy switches and that jazz, but we played simple effective stuff most of the time. In addition our Girls were really matching the men from the other teams and were in general some of the better girl players at the Tournament.
Summary :
Nice touchdowns by wingers Hubert & Frank, great attacking combo of Kathi S and Amy, big defence by Phil, some typical penetrating runs by Eva Weissenboek, Marek was a playmaker, some really big defence especially in the crucial last game from Mighty Shani and USI Michi (who left everythnig he had on the pitch!) plus some nice quickies by Evi and Dan, all put together by Capitan Hans Hoewllwerth.
The catastrophy of the day was that Kathi S. ended up in Hospital with a seriously damaged knee after a collision with a Scottish Player. So we wish her the best recovery.
Sunday was chillin in Nice, not a bad place to be...
