What an epic tournament!
Let’s set the scene. A 20 strong squad, most of us never having played a game of touch rugby before in their lives. A quick trip to Sports Direct for quality rugby boots. Two ‘training’ sessions, yes two! One ‘how to play touch rugby’ YouTube video later and we’d arrived in Belgium.
We stepped off the tour bus to a flurry of TotalEnergies paps and the Black-Eyed Peas ‘I gotta feeling’ belting out (hands up who’s just sung Woo hoo at this point) and it was game on.
Top row: Rob Lay, Harry Wright, Kenny Hallett, Matthew Chapman, Sarah Sheen, Sam Boughton, Jillie Odedra, Melanie Pick, Alfie Williams, Ben Spry.
Bottom/middle row: Reece Johnson, Luca Federico, Sam Posner, Sander Kostar, Lauren Terry, Rebecca Hills, Ban Langmead, Jennifer Arnold, Rebecca Smith.
We had a quick strategy meeting in the sports bar, then it was on to the first night’s shindig… Represent your country night. After a variety of fancy dress ideas were knocked about pre-tournament, we decided on The Peaky Blinders and so all donned our waistcoats and flat caps and off we went, not really knowing what to expect. Maybe something low key on the first night? We didn’t expect to step into the 1990s Hacienda! 400 TotalEnergies employees, all representing. There was a ‘chip’ presentation, chip limbo, classic tunes from the DJ, and some questionable dancing well into the early hours, and it was almost as if we all forgot we were there for a touch rugby tournament…the 6:30am alarm soon sorted that out.
Day 1 of the tournament. We were off to a strong start with intimidation tactics on the bus onto the way to the stadium as we belted out a few golden oldies such as Sweet Caroline, Atomic Kitten’s Whole Again and everyone’s favourite, Three Lions, gearing ourselves up to do battle. We stepped off the bus to a flurry of TotalEnergies paps and the Black-Eyed Peas ‘I gotta feeling’ belting out again…
🏉 Game 1: LES POITOUCH
As our first game approached, we all started warming up. Lunges, swinging the arms about, running laps that sort of thing, anything to make us look like we knew what we were doing. Then it was heads down for the team talk by our esteemed El Captain, Ben, and kit man Kenny.Kenny had wise words: pass it through the hands, keep formation and push forward with final words from Ben to say enjoy ourselves and don’t worry about the result. Ok Ben, none of us were until you said that! Any questions…yes, what are the rules again?
We had a solid starting line-up, and off we went to get into position on the pitch. Then the whistle blew. Our formation quickly went to pot, we didn’t push forward, and we spent a lot of time running across the pitch rather than towards the goal line. We’d pulled ourselves together by the 2nd half though after another team talk from Kit man Kenny asking us what the hell we were playing at (as it wasn’t touch rugby) and managed to finish with a 3-2 loss, with Alfie scoring twice…not bad ey!
GRP Legends 2 - Les Poitouch 3
🏉 Game 2: ROMANIAN OAKIES
In game 2 we were hitting our stride and powered through to victory with a 1 – 0 win! We had efficient passing, a solid defence, and quick feet covering both wings. We were still a little chaotic but that worked to our advantage as we bamboozled the Oakies with our unstructured gameplay. We were thinking at this point that we could win this thing…
🏉 Game 3: BERLIN BEARS
Game 3 saw us come up against our ‘best friends’ the Berlin Bears! We’d forged an alliance with this team throughout the day as we cheered them on after they came up against the infamous and somewhat brutal SAFT Power team. Matt Chapman acted as VAR official for their game insisting the ref not award a try and this cemented our allegiance….as did Luka’s hard work on international relations. A nice friendly game which saw us take an impressive win.
GRP Legends 3 – Berlin Bears 0
🏉 Game 4: SAFT POWER
Game 4…the game we’d been dreading! We were hot, tired, and ready for a cold beer, but we had one last game to get through, and our hardest one yet. SAFT Power. 6ft 4 Vikings who were quick, mean and played dirty. It was an argy-bargy game with high emotions, but our toughest player Mel secured a try, taking on the power gauntlet with grace and speed! We held out and finished on a respectable 5 -1 loss.
GRP Legends 1 – SAFT Power 5
All aboard the tour bus back to the digs for a quick dirty beer then off to get changed for ‘A touch of Belgium night’. Now, you might be thinking as the first night was monumental, it couldn’t get any better, and as it’s the first night after game day it would be pretty low key. After all, everyone would be tired and ready for an early night ahead of play on day 2. Wrong. Night 2 got bigger and better. Although our Belgium Touch fancy dress was thwarted somewhat. We went as the Belgium Flag with coordinated colours but got split up for dinner and so the flag formation went out the window. We did, however, get to sit down and eat with other teams from TotalEnergies and they’re a good bunch just like us. There was dancing on the tables, singing, and chanting as the quiz got underway, then the live band started, the dance floor was packed, and Belgium night was in full swing.
Day 2 of the tournament.
A slightly less enthusiastic start to day 2 as the aches and pains were setting in, as were the astro burns! Some of us hobbled off the bus, struggling to navigate the steps, but still we soldiered on.
🏉 Game 1: TOUCH IT'
A 0-0 draw. I think the French TOUCH IT team were as slow to start as we were. A nice friendly game to start things off while we found the fire in the belly once again.
GRP Legends 0 – TOUCH IT’ 0
🏉 Game 2: TEAM MELTING POTES
Its all going to ‘potes’ at this point as we struggle to get going! We are also missing our El Capitan who’s out of action with a pulled hamstring, so kit man Kenny is making tactical changes and appointed Sam P as stand in. Just as we begin to regroup and find our rhythm the whistle goes, and we suffer a devastating 2-0 loss.
GRP Legends 0 – TEAM MELTING POTES 2
🏉 Game 3: WAFFLE WARRIORS
To face the Waffle Warriors one must eat waffles. Mid afternoon treats from the waffle wagon gave some of us a much-needed sugar boost and served us well. Forget the orange wedges, Belgium waffles covered in cream and chocolate it turns out is the treat of champions! We went on the attack, kept the line, pushed forward, and secured a 3-1 win.
GRP Legends 3 – WAFFLE WARRIORS 1
🏉 Game 4: PARISIAN TOUCH
Game 4 was finally upon us…our last match in what had been an epic tournament. With some insider knowledge gathered from the night before, we knew who their key player was and we had eyes on him…not for long though, as he ran rings around us! With some extra support from the Berlin Bears who turned up, marching with a boom box singing our National Anthem we gave it all we had…we left everything on the field, we fought to the end...this was what our two-training session and one how to play touch ruby you tube video were for…our final match. The it was all over with a final score of 1-1!
GRP Legends 1 – PARISIAN TOUCH 1
The finale
All aboard the tour bus back to the digs for a quick turn-around as excitement gathered for ‘Award Night – Casual Chic’. Some teams had gone all out, with sparkles, bowties, and cravats. Our interpretation of casual chic was very different (jeans and a nice top all round!)…as was the team who misunderstood the brief and rocked up in LA Lakers jerseys thinking ‘awards’ meant an award-winning team! No matter what the dress code, we all came together to celebrate the tournament of 100 teams and everyone’s commitment and participation. As they read out the team names of everyone who took part, we were merrily clapping away until we realised, we’d not been mentioned. The GRP Legends had been forgotten!! No no no, we weren’t having this. We started chanting UK, UK, UK and before we knew it, our friends the Berlin Bears had joined in, then the whole 400 strong crowd! We finally got our accolade and could then tuck into the well-deserved scallops, steak, and vino. Before we did though, El Capitan, getting emotional wanted to say a few words while we were all together and before the night got going and live band karaoke kicked in…we had a couple of spectacular performances on stage, but that’s a story for another time…
El Capitan, over to you…. 🎤
What a weekend! A huge honour to captain the squad and immensely proud to come 14th out of 24 teams with almost zero rugby experience against some tough opposition. Our MVPs Mel Pick and Sam Posner got the awards, but this could have gone to any of the squad, heroes to the last! The real highlight for me though was seeing a team of 18, many of whom had never met before, come together so quickly and form such a close-knit squad. Also feel fortunate to be part of a global organisation that puts on events like this, giving people opportunities to travel and meet others from different parts of the company.
Ben
#squadgoals
The squad:
Ben Spry / Kenny Hallett / Sam Posner / Rob Lay / Rebecca Smith / Rebecca Hills / Melanie Pick / Matthew Chapman / Ben Langmead / Reece Johnson / Jenny Arnold / Harry Wright / Jillie Odedra / Sarah Sheen / Sam Boughton / Lauren Terry / Alfie Williams / Sander Kostar / Luca Federica
* Ross Halliwell – Kit man no2 who didn’t make it.
