25 posts tagged “lums”
yes yes yes yes... YES!!!!!11!!!1!!11!!!11!
the exams have finally ended.. not exactly on a positive note, but then again, any news of exams ending is instrinsically positive in any case..
need to work hard in the summers and be the behemoth that i want to become.. !! grrr@!
that wretched night.. cant believe some of us are smiling.. a humiliating defeat to a team we should never have lost to - a team that throws punches in scrums - fights more than it plays - pompous windbags - a team we had never conceded a single point against in the 2 previous meetings.. the photographers did their best to try and mix the two teams up randomly for the picture, but one can almost smell the repulsion - the fact that we dont want to be with each other in such proximity. we would ve been snuggling at one corner of the picture if left to our own devices..
if there is anything on our mind, its nothing more than a turnover and nothing less than revenge!
what a relief.. pakistan win the abu dhabi series.. not a bad first series for shoaib malik as captain.. there were a few individual mistakes from players but generally, the outlook gives me positive vibes, and so does the captain.. granted, sri lanka had some big names not playing, but then again, any international team is a force to be reckoned with.. they came to play and not to fool around.. besides, i think that it was a necessitated move for them since vaas and murali are at the end of their careers.. same with jayasuria.. they need to find backups, and soon, because the trio formed the backbone of their side throughout the late ninetees till this world cup.. they also needed a backup for sangakkara.. hence the moves.. but good to see my beloved pakistan win again..
a good day for all madridistas too.. what a cracker of a match.. thrills and spills with a red cherry on top.. the old warhorse roberto carlos running the whole length of the pitch in the counterattack and scoring the goal in the 92nd minute.. very nice.. madrid look like a choking ageing engine badly in need of an overhaul but with enough left in them to cross the finishing line somehow.. raul has been mediocre for the past 5 years.. its high time roberto carlos hung his boots up.. beckhams moving to LA and will be swimming in a pool of crisp green currency (much like uncle scrooge) - not that he didnt already.. gago and higuain look VERY ordinary.. cassano looks unsettled.. capello is as good as gone.. theres no credibility in the midfield.. van nistelrooy is the only real goalscorer at the club.. like i said, a massive overhaul is needed in the summer, but this might be enough to complete the 'smash and grab' for the la liga this season.. barca running riot against atletico madrid at the moment - the club for the 'proletariat' of madrid, so to say..
rugby season ended on a sour note with the away defeat against bahria.. miguel is leaving in the summers so we start next year without a coach and without a ground.. with certain players graduating, we will be needing reinforcements from the new batch.. it will be hard to do things without miguel, but lets see.. we WILL move on! had the photograph day for all the sports at lums.. our turn came 2 and a half hour later during which time we kept playing around with lineouts and imaginary scrums/rucks.. and catching up and unders.. to playing baseball with a rugby ball (which ended on the rooftop - believe it or not).. it was fun.. we then headed off to the pond for some unofficial pictures after which our 010 batch was unceremoniously dumped in the smelly swamp - a retarded excuse for a pond..
i m attending the irb coaches workshop and hopefully by the end of it, i can be an irb certified level 1 coach.. =D!
its from 9 to 5 though, for three days, and if you couple it up with the absolutely ridiculous schedule at lums, it isnt a pretty picture.. plus the heat
the instructor is really nice though.. heh.. hes a new zealander and the first thing he said when he came was
"hello. my name is bruce.. i m from new zealand.. i guess one thing all of us have in common is that we all hate to hug the australians"..
hahahahaha.. that was pure class :D cracked all of us completely.. and then his small short-armed jab at jonny wilkinson while talking about drop kicks: "well, drop kicking for drop goals isnt always recommended and isnt done alot in matches, unless its a certain world cup final"..
haha :D
fun guy..
the interbatch 10s rugby tournament went underway last night.. we had quite alot of boys on our side and i must say that the spirit and the enthusiasm that the new people showed was commendable..
due to the lack of experience of other people, i had to play scrum half.. it was quite teh learning experience for me as well.. our first match was against the 2008 team which is the most balanced team out of the four batches..
i made a few early blunders as scrum half but we nearly won all of the scrums with our new guys as well as the lineout.. unfortunately, the overenthusiasm of the new forwards led to our demise.. at the end, it finished 5-5.. zubair scored a sublime try from a penalty after i had been tackled high while making a run..
near the end of the match, i got tackled and landed awkwardly - to be more precise, on my posterior.. it shook my whole spine up and i couldnt continue.. i wasnt able to play the next match.. after having slept over it, it seems a bit better now but i m still having difficulties walking.. its getting better though and i ll just check with a doctor in a little while..
midterms coming up :(
the coverage by 'the post' of the super 6.. bahria catching us on the counter-attack.. ali inayat is the one putting in the wonderful tackle while the bahria player is fumbling the ball.. the other players from left to right are tariq, boxy, omar, fadi (the confused fly half who has somehow ended up between the pack of forwards lol) and mansoor..
very nice i say..
phew.. the super 6 is finally over, and well, we finished third.. being arguably the 3rd best team in the country isnt too bad.. heh
on the last day, we had the bowl final between bahawalnagar and krfc, the plate final between lums and bahria, and the cup final between lrfc and the irfc jinns
while we were warming up, bahawalnagar were thrashing karachi with try upon try going unanswered.. all they did was soak up pressure and then break on the counter-attack.. since alot of the bahawalnagar players were former kabaddi players and were quite fast, it was easy for them..
then we had our match with bahria.. i was deployed as an outside center once again with umair as fullback.. golu had reportedly overheard the jinns telling bahria to attack our backline which was weaker so to say, and was concerned about that.. their backs never even got the ball after the first time they tried breaking through us and bumped into yours truly.. after that, we pretty much ran the whole show and that too, quite easily.. perhaps playing the 3rd match in as many days was taking its toll on bahria but they looked completely toothless.. and they didnt even play in the spirit of the game.. they were grabbing necks and throwing punches in the scrums and rucks but none of us lost cool.. halfway through the match, umair asked me to switch with him.. i agreed since these were his final few matches for the team while i have 4 more years to look forward to.. besides, with their backline toothless, there wasnt much need for more steel in the backline, and umair looked better when going forward as a center.. i made a beautiful run on the outside of junaid (the winger) when i was fullback but somehow he didnt pass it to me and went infield and was brought down.. would ve been a clear try for me.. oh well, thats why they say that rugby is the only team sport, you cant get anywhere alone (unless its 7s, heh).. our backline was running the show with three tries coming from our wingers and two more were added by qasim (no. 8) and omar (lock)..
quite teh good match i say..
the final between lrfc and the jinns was tough.. the jinns were the better team for most of the match and had scored 3 unanswered tries.. with the score 15 - 0 deep into the second half, lahore started its revival and scored two tries (the second one with only 2 minutes to go).. last play was announced and somehow, lahore managed to score a try and convert it to end the match winning 17-15..quite the thriller i say with alot of pitch invasions and all..
it was a great way to end a successful tournament..
now i m on a weeks hiatus from all physical activities.. =D
last night:
lums 0 - 32 islamabad jinns
they slaughtered us.. although the scoreline was a bit flattering.. we are a much better team than what the scoreline suggests.. before any scrum/lineout/ruck, our backline were lining up against their backs quite confident since the numbers were even, but as soon as the ball broke for them, i dont know what sort of tactics they were playing but they turned from 4 to 6-7 and we always ended up outnumbered.. as a result, there were gaps in our line and when there werent, they scored from the wing..i being the fullback did put in a few last ditch try saving tackles but it was just quite weird.. what hurt me most was not the scoreline, but the blame game that the whole forward contingent turned the match into.. constantly claiming that no one ever scored from their side of the pitch and they always broke through the backs.. well, part of the reason us backs couldnt even line up properly was because we had lost all confidence in the forwards.. we won a single lineout the whole night!.. we hardly ever won a scrum, when we did, their flankers were amazing.. our rucks were always turned over into their rucks.. that resulted in the centres fearing that they would be blamed if a someone were to break between them and hence got too close to the flyhalf and the flyhalf got ridiculously close to the scrums/rucks leaving acres of space for them to exploit.. but it had to be the blame game.. anyways, they were a bit apologetic today and bah, fair enough, they did their best too and none of us liked losing by that big a margin.. it wasnt that bad.. it was just 5 - 0 in the first half and we had most of the possession.. anyways, all i want to say is that if someone doesnot criticise you, it does not mean that you re doing everything correctly. if you want to be a critic, be critical at yourself and get the best out of yourself..
i had a bloody nose and had to be substituted for around 5 minutes.. the nose still hurts though.. tariq injured his shoulder (which he later found out was because of his wrong technique).. and the worst of all was sherry who suffered ligament damage.. it was really ugly!
today:
lums 20 - 5 bahawalnagar
since tariq was out, we had adeel as the prop.. ali raffat (left winger) was replaced by junaid.. but the real shocker for me (although somehow i had a premonition sometime back) was that i was moved out of the fullback position and was made the outside center (a position i have never played in my life) and umair (last nights outside center) was made fullback.. but the intentions of miguel were clear.. he wanted a strong backline that didnt miss its tackles.. i somehow feel that was a positive signal from miguel about my performance last night; i put a few big men down which was surprising for many people being as small as i am.. we played under the scorching sun and i looked a bit out of my depth because of the fatigue and the confusion because of the new position.. however, our defence was much better i think as were our lines and we even managed to complete alot of our setplays (something that we hadnt done in a match - and the record stretches back to before the game against bahria some time back).. although alot of people were critical of my passing :p lol.. it was confusing because i had the mentality of running into players.. i wasnt thinking like a center and i thought no one can bring me down, if someone gets hold of my shirt, i ll pass it then.. that resulted in a few wayward passes.. i learnt my lesson halfway through the game.. unfortunately, after that, the bacline didnt get to see too much of the ball and didnt use our line much.. the forwards with their obsession of pick and drive resulted in us being inside their 22 for around 20 minutes without scoring a try.. but it was an okay match.. the bahawalnagar team are a really new team and quite inexperienced so i cant really be too proud of our performance.. but it was an improvement..
the other match last night was lrfc (the national champions - with alot of people playing for the pakistan national team) against bahria.. it ended 70 - 0 in favour of lrfc.. and i was calling our match a slaughter.. hmmm
the other match today was krfc against bahria.. miguel was playing for krfc since they had a few problems and had alot of people missing from their lineup.. he scored a sublime dropgoal from open play under pressure and his play generally was quite impressive.. no one expected this from him though, heh, but he played really well.. way to go coach! it was nailbiting with the score being at 11-10 in favour of krfc till the last 4 minutes and then bahria pushed on and besieged their 22 and scored a try..
although we have a round of matches tomorrow, the final set of matches would be held on sunday for the 1st/2nd place (most probably between lrfc and the islamabad jinns - the top two teams in pakistan), the 3rd/4th place match (most probably between lums and bahria) and the 5th/6th place match (most probably between bahawalnagar and krfc)..
but i still feel good generally.. miguel said there isnt a single sport at lums which can say that we have locked horns with the best teams in the country.. lums rugby now can say that!.. although we didnt come out of it unscathed.. every muscle in my body is aching pretty much so i gotta go now.. later!
a stupid photograph taken the night before our first match tomorrow - miguel has given us the lums rugby shirts (which btw are uber cool.. i have the no. 15 jersey.. christian cullen, here i come!) for us to parade infront of the college and let them know we are up for it.. shamefully enough, these shirts will go back into miguels office and will only be given to us on matchdays, which i guess is fair enough.. this is original canterbury and they just cant give it to everyone who turns up on practice even if they re shit.. so the deal is we get to show off these shirts on matchdays and we get one for ourselves permanently when we graduate (provided we have played a few matches for the lums team)..
so yay for rugby! nice shirt - i look ultra-stupid though.. i hate the bunny teeth!
