Sunday, October 27, 1991

1991 Rugby World Cup - Day 4

Morning: Free

Afternoon: World Cup Semi-Final Match at Lansdowne Road Rugby Park

Evening: Free
There are days in your life that you will always look back on.  This is one of those days for me.  It epitomizes why I enjoy traveling with Tomasin.

Wandering down the street outside the stadium in Dublin, we dove into a crowded pub.  Within 15 minutes, Tomasin had us at the bar laughing and scratching with the locals.  I have always admired and appreciated Tomasin's ability to strike up a conversation and connect with random people.  This is not a skill that I have.

Heading into the stadium, we had great seats for the game and saw a fantastic match.  Australia beat New Zealand by the score of 16 to 6.

The opening try came after seven minutes when David Campese, loitering in the fly-half position 20 meters out behind a ruck, took a pass and set off diagonally left.  Baffling the defense, he ignored a gap and continued his diagonal run to score in the corner.

Campese created the second try. Seeing the All Black defense up in Australian faces, Michael Lynagh chipped ahead from halfway. Tearing up the right wing in pursuit of the kick, Campese collected the ball as Tim Horan weaved left and right in his wake.   Campese lobbed a perfect no-look Geselbracht pass for Horan over his right shoulder while wrong-footing defender John Timu by looking left. Horan completed the score and Australia were 13-0 ahead at the break. Campese's pass was chosen by Fox Sport as the 'Number 1 Ridiculous Pass of All Time.'    

We finished the day with a pub crawl in downtown Dublin.  One of my regrets is that we didn't get to see much of Dublin.  I need to get back to Ireland and Dublin.

One footnote.  The Landsdowne Road Stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for the construction of the Aviva Stadium.  The new stadium opened in 2010.

Saturday, October 26, 1991

1991 Rugby World Cup - Day 3


Morning: Free

Afternoon: Two Matches v/s Delvin RFC

Evening: Entertainment with Host
We did a quick rugby practice in the morning to organize the group. Afterwards, we drove an hour north to Bryanstown to play a couple of matches against a local club. I did not play in either of the afternoon matches. I frankly don't remember that there was actually a second match...

Friday, October 25, 1991

1991 Rugby World Cup - Day 2


Morning: Arrive Gatewick Airport and transfer to Aer Lingus for the flight to Dublin.

Afternoon: Check into Spa Hotel at Luchen. Sightseeing in and around Dublin.

Evening: Irish night out at local Pubs.
One of the nights in Dublin, the whole group went to a funky Irish cabaret show. Looking at the schedule, it must have been this night.

Thursday, October 24, 1991

1991 Rugby World Cup - Day 1

Tomasin, Bachman and I left San Francisco on an America Airlines flight to Dallas. In Dallas, we met up with a number of members of the Tennessee Long Rifles Rugby Football Club. The group included a number of guys that Tomasin had played rugby with in Jackson, Mississippi. Together we boarded a long flight to Gatewick Airport in England.

I took this trip slightly more than two months after I separated from my ex-wife and about a month after the infamous coming home to an empty house incident. To say that I started the trip feeling more than a little reckless would be an understatement.

Depart from your local airport for Dublin, Ireland via American Airlines.