On Thursday 17th November, the Tigers team flew out to Mallorca to compete in the Mallorca Bocs Touch rugby tournament. Staying in the beautiful hillside overlooking the Port D’Alcudia, they enjoyed warm weather and amazing views.

The first night started with the obligatory drinking games in which Yorkie was names the 1st night ‘chief’ and donned the indian headdress. This meant his decision was final with all drinking game rules. Needless to say – Yorkie took to being chief like a duck to water!!

It’s safe to say that Lizzie lost at the game ‘ring of fire’ thanks to plenty of drinking nominations and stitch ups from the other drinkers! After copious amounts of Tunel (bright green Mallorcan Jaeger) they stumbled into town to meet up with the Coyote team from Wales.

With very sore heads, the Tigers headed to the pool after a full English breakfast the following day. Friday mainly consisted of recovering, napping, eating, and jumping into a freezing cold swimming pool to the delight of the local onlookers in their winter coats! They did however; spend some time with some cones running through some moves ready for the tournament the following day. Something they were grateful of when it came to implementing these moves on the day.

On Friday night the Tigers met up with Enrique (Kikon) and Gethin from Valentia (Touch Spain) at a local tapas bar. It quickly became clear that Gethin and Kikon were great additions to the team and fitted in perfectly! They enjoyed fantastic tapas together. Kirsten showing off her well-travelled palate by ordering chips and garlic bread! Lizzie thought her luck was in when the waiter offered himself as her pudding, bringing out the squirty cream and chocolate sauce, until she noticed many other women being offered the same dessert option!

The day of the tournament arrived and the Tigers were relieved not to be suffering as they were the day before. With only a short 15 min drive to the tournament the day started well with blue skies and sunshine. The tournament was held on a large fake grass pitch with shaded stands for the teams to spectate from. This meant that there was a fantastic atmosphere from the start, gladiatorial at times, with each try being played out in front of all the other teams.

The 1st game of the tournament was against Bath with preconceptions of this being the hardest match of the day for the Tigers. There was also an air of panic due to 2 team members still being on a flight!! With only 8 players (compared to Baths 12+) the Tigers really held their own. By using a very effective corner/shut defense, the Tigers forced Bath to start diving at the line. The Tigers stepped up their defence even more to ensure tries were scored at the 2nd or 3rd attempt. Gethin and Kikon took control in the mids and successfully put 1 try in. End score 9-1 to Bath (who went on to win the tournament).

The Tigers came against tough competition in the next game against The Tequila Unicorns from Scotland. Having reffed the 2 previous games as part of her level 1 course, Lizzie really struggled to play with no female subs available for the Tigers. However, they were relieved that Alex and Dave from Brighton had turned up from the airport and were raring to go and Suze from Canterbury donned a Tigers top to help alleviate the ladies contingency. After some drives to start with, the
Tigers unfortunately lost their way and the game did not reflect the way they had previously trained and played together. End score 6-0 Unicorns.

The third game of the day was against the host team, Mallorca. The Tigers had high expectations that they could win this game but did not want to be too presumptuous! Having spent time before the match perfecting some driving, 32 shorts and the corner/shut defence, the Tigers approached this game with far more confidence than the last. This confidence was secured when the Gavin and Yorkie set up a fantastic drive only to pass a short ball to Simon who ran through on a switch to out run the opposition on the wing for a well-earned try. Likewise, a simple drive in the mids led to Jo pulling a dummy towards Lizzie and straightening to score a lovely try at link. Kikon and Gethin showed that they worked so well together in the mids and created overlaps not once but twice to give Lizzie 2 tries on the wing (one much to her surprise after receiving a slightly forward pass but blaming the wind!). Gethin put another try on the board to give us the final score of 5-2 to Tigers.

After another break in which Jo and Lizzie reffed, the Tigers were drawn to play against the Berlin Touch team, a well drilled team. The Tigers once more, stepped up to the challenge and defended hard on the line providing plenty of turnovers without scores. Growing in confidence, the mids put in a fantastic effort providing two tries from Kikon (which he made look easy!) and a lovely step and sprint from Alex which put him on the score card. Berlin fought hard in return and managed to score on the wings by stepping us with speed but not with skill. Final score 4-3 Berlin.

The final game of the day was against Lausanne in the semi-finals (having not had to compete in the quarter finals due to score totals). Having watched their last game the Tigers knew they could beat them by driving hard at the mids and using simple set plays like 32 shorts to score. An early score came from Dave who had previously had a knee injury but who was determined to play in the semi-final. Gethin followed this up by a simple but impressive step and sprint for the line (with players urging him to score from afar!). The final try of the game was from Kirsten. Hanging wide and deep at the wing she caught a fantastic ball from the mids and dived from far out to score a great corner try. In fact, Kirsten proved to be so dedicated to the tournament, she threw herself at the try line at every opportunity and achieved countless other injuries across the day. The final score was 3-3 with Tigers having to provide a drop off into extra time. Lizzie took the bullet knowing the fastest players were needed. Unfortunately a miss-pass ended the attempt at a score and Lausanne came back with a step and mid score in the end.

The Tigers were lucky enough to borrow some fantastic female subs across the day, namely Rachel Stevens from Coyote Touch and Suzanne Wilson from Canterbury.
Kikon, Gethin, Alex and Dave were stalwarts to the Tigers team and are welcome to don the shirts again any time they choose! The team’s successes and improvements across the day can be attributed to team work, the ability to laugh at mistakes and the continued encouragement of other teams in the competition.
Needless-to-say, the Tigers displayed great skills when it came to the after party. 5 minutes could not go by without hearing “shark attack”, “where’s your leprechaun?”, “has Lizzie jumped into another bush?!” and “where is Jo?!”.

The hosts, Mallorca Bocs, presented the following awards to the team:
MVP (most valuable player): Gavin
MVP (Female): Jo
Coach: Lizzie
Manager Role: Yorkie
Rookie: Dave
Try of the Day: Kirsten

The Tigers spent the Sunday recovering and sleeping (Kirsten did this for all the team!) and a very weary team returned home late on Sunday evening, buoyant after a fantastic tour.

The Tigers are keen to attend this tournament again…. Keep your eyes peeled for information in 2017!!