Howe Tour 2009

Flanders Open 10 a side Tournament, Dendermondse, Belgium

Principal Tourists
Captain : Ewan Jack
Tour guide : James Smith
Cultural Attache : Paddy Crawford

Supporting Cast

Graham Armit
Jim Honeyman
Graham Thomson
Graham Paton
Steven Player
Stewart Lathangie Chris Mason Ruaridh Watts
Paddy Crawford
Mike Black Andy McLean Girvin Imrie
Matt Daly
Gavin Maitland Josh Fox-Clark David Smith
Allan Booth
Lewis Wilson Iain Wilson

Friday 29th May
After an uneventful journey west to Prestwick courtesy of St Andrews Coaches, the tourists checked in for Ryanair flight to Charleroi with the 3 late arrivals on tour expected to join them later in the day via Dusseldorf. Arrived Charleroi at 11.30am am local time. There followed mirth aplenty as the tourists tried to find the correct yellow bus to transfer to the Charleroi Sud train station. This was successfully achieved and trains were taken from here to Brussells then Dendermonde with the party arriving at their destiination , the Lebbeke sportscllub , Dendermonde at 4pm. The 3 late arrivals , messrs, Smith, Thomson and Jack joined the party and the tour began in earnest.

Dendermonde is a smallish town roughly the size of St Andrews between Brussells and Antwerp in the centre of Belgium. It plays host to the largest 10 a side tournament in Europe with over 2000 participants from 48 countries taking part in mens, womens and veterans tournaments. 30 referees from East Midlands society officiated throughout.

Tented accommodation with a leaky roof (!) were shown to us, and assorted fights took place for prime positions ins the tent before the party mingled with the 78 teams from 43 countries taking part at the official welcome party in the evening. The weather on arrival was hot and sunny, a feature of the whole weekend .

Saturday 30th May

Tournament rules ensured that the teams in the men’s tournament were in groups of 5, each playing each other in round robin fashion, with matches lasting 20 minutes each way. 10 a side laws were used meaning no conversions following tries. Howes ‘tournament got off to a flyer with the opposition failing to turn up on time for the first match which meant a forfeit and early points on the board. An early friendly against the Royal Army logistics corps helped loosen the journey from the system.

Match #1. Howe of Fife 35 Utrecht RFC ( Holland ) 25
Utrecht were the Dutch Prem 1 champions and early play indicated they were a big strong and skilful team. The Howe lads buckled down and some excellent support play gave them scores. A feature of this match was the offloading in the tackle by several players which worked so well in regular league games. After a good fightback Howe retained the lead with a cracking break by Graham Thomson who scored the winning try. Utrechts coaches reactions indicated just how seriously they were taking things. This was in marked contrast to the good humoured relaxed approach already evident in the Howe tour party !

Scorers : tries : Jack x 3, McLean, Thomson, Wilson, Lathangie


Match # 2 Howe of Fife : 50 Gypsies RFC ( England invitation team): 5
Gypsies posed a different threat with a set of strips which could not take the Howes aggressive tackling. At least 3 strips were trashed in this game which was as the scoreline suggests very one sided. In fairness to the Gypsies they had lost x2 players earlier in the day with broken legs on the tournament back up pitch which was a converted field. This match however had some great individual performances and a superb support try for Gav Maitland.

Scorers : Daly x 3, Wilson, Smith, Smith, , McLean, Fox Clark, Lathangie, Maitland

Match # 3 Howe of Fife : 30 Beauvais (France) : 5

Clearly cherry beer in between games was having an effect as none of the tour party can remember this game !
Scorers : Thomson, McLean, Imrie, Daly, Lathangie, Smith


Followng a hugely enjoyable day on and off the field, Howe found themselves as Group winners and into the quarter finals the following day.


Sunday 4th April

Match # 4 Cup Pool Game 1 : Howe of Fife : 15 Armentieres( France ) : 10

Howe men dragged themselves onto the pitch for a 9am kick off. This was a major achievement in itself following the club party on Saturday night but the play hard, work hard of the season had been maintained ! Further advance in the tournament required coping with the after effects of a night in Belgium courtesy of the tournament sponsors, Mr Cherry lager and with the stiffness associated with day 1. Sadly the French opposition were more interested in fighting and disrupting play at every opportunity through the worst behaviour seen on a rugby pitch for some time. Their behaviour degenerated further following a forward pass decision from the English referee. To the Howe lads great credit they took some terrible punishment including punching ,stamping, eye gouging, head butts and spitting to win the match deservedly. The opposition coach was shown a red card and the way the opposition behaved throughout earned them reprobation from all involved in the tournament. All the lads playing held their discipline and ensured the best outcome i.e. a win playing some fantastic rugby on the way.
Scorers : Thomson, Mclean, Smith
Match # 5 Cup Pool Game 2 : Howe of Fife : 15 Kamakaze (England): 30

Good start then we decided to give them a chance! This team were a mixed group of semi professional players from the top leagues in England, mainly from London. They had some very big units who had fantastic skills which the Howe lads struggled to contain, particularly in the contact area. That said the Kamikaze lads were very complementary about the Howe’s never say die attitude.
Scorers: Thomson, Mason, McLean

Match # 6 Cup Pool Game 3 : Howe of Fife : 25 Les Planners (France): 0

Must win match to qualify for semi’s. Howe were too good for this team on the back pitches and a fairly one sided game was won with ease, allowing the tourists who had been playing most to be rested . A great break by Graeme Armit ended with the whole of France hanging off him in one of the funniest runs of the day !
Scorers: Daly, Imrie, McLean, Paton, Wilson


Match #7 Semi Final Howe of Fife : 20 Godfathers rugby ( England) : 10
As in the 2007 tournament Howe had reached the semi final with all contributing to the performances on the pitch. The business end of the tournament saw several invitational sides from England containing pro players. These teams had some fabulous players who certainly played good 10’s rugby. The Godfathers were one of these teams and were runaway favourites to win the semi against the Howe. Howe would need to match their skills with a huge level of commitment to progress to the final. This match contained some of the best defence seen from any Howe team in recent years. The play ebbed and flowed with each side taking the lead and several Godfather attacks being demolished by the sheer guts and work ethic of the Howe lads. The result of the match turned on two pieces of play. Firstly following an interception by the Godfathers a footrace from their own 22 line took place .Surely the Godfathers flyer would score with the electric pace he showed. However similar to many sides, this Howe team had been underestimated and Matt Daly, playing his usual committed game frantically chased the attacker, making his tackle right on the goal line and forcing the Godfathers player into touch. This eventually led to the Howe clearing their lines and scoring at the other end themselves. Secondly, with time running out the Godfathers piled on the pressure. The last 2 minutes of the game saw tackle after tackle being made by the Howe in their own 22m. With the tournament organisers commentating to the crowd and encouraging the Howe on the large crowd of 1500 got right behind the lads. Stars of this defensive effort were Josh Fox Clark, Stewart Lathangie and skipper Ewan Jack. Howe’s outstanding player was Graham Thomson who showed his class in attack creating and scoring several scores. The final maul of the game went dead and Howe had won a fantastic match. All of the tourists celebrated accordingly knowing that they had not for the first time given a team a real fright. This was also the first time in the 16 years of this competition that a Scottish team had reached the final. Sincere congrats to the Godfathers however as they took this result with grace and were very sportsmanlike and sociable later that evening. So much so that the Howe have received an invitation to play in their tournament near Bath in 2010.
Scorers: Wilson x 2, Thomson, McLean

Match # 8 Final Howe of Fife 20 Kamikaze Rugby ( England ): 35
After a short break with the hosts youth section conducting a training session in front of the now swollen grandstands a packed house of approx 3000 awaited the arrival of the teams. This was preceded by the match ball being delivered by helicopter onto the centre of the pitch with the Belgian Minister for sport handing the match ball over prior to kick off. The two teams were marched onto the pitch to huge applause. Having confronted Kamikaze earlier in the tournament Howe knew what they were up against. Howe had successfully rotated the players throughout so despite the obvious effects of the heat and some very hard games the spirit of the tour and the sheer hunger to win seemed to give the Howe a real burst of energy having reached the final for the first time. Howe started well but found the going tough in the contact area against the bigger Kamikaze players with any possession quickly snuffed out. As a result and the exertion of the semi final telling they went behind by 4 tries to one by the time half time came. The team rallied however and this combined by some complacency by the opposition led to a few turnovers of possession. King of these was Paddy Crawford who played his heart out in the final and this graft , matched by a huge never say die attitude by all the boys on the pitch helped contribute to the 3 scores by Howe in the last 5 minutes. This gave the crowd something to really cheer about but sadly this was not enough. So in the end the final proved to be one match too many but the congratulations seemed to be equally shared as the Howe performance in the final and semi final was outstanding against arguably more professional players.
Scorers: Wilson, Smith, Mason, McLean
While losing the final was a disappointing end to the tournament the crowd were hugely positive about the way the Howe had contributed with many plaudits being given from all airts and pairts. The team were congratulated by the organisers and awarded the 2nd prize and cup. The crowd requested an airing of Flower of Scotland which was duly provided to great applause.

The statistics speak for themselves as to how successful this tour was and is clear evidence of the
commitment to the cause shown by all 22 tourists who all played their part through the tournament.

Tour Stats

Played 8

Won 6

Drawn 0

Lost 2

Points For 300

Points Against 115

Overall the club can be proud of its tourists from the youngest at 19 years old to the eldest at 44 years old .They acted as ambassadors for their Club and country , won many friends from many different countries from Cameroon to Russia .There have been several requests made from opposition teams to come to Scotland , due to the style of rugby played .More importantly, Howe won many friends as shown by the support during the final due to the friendly and sporting manner in which the party conducted itself at all times both on and off the field.

Grateful thanks from all tourists to Captain Ewan Jack and James Jinky Smith for all their hard work in organising the trip.