The sounds of laboured breath and the smell of bitterness, permeated the Douglas rugby grounds recently as old boys from all generations strapped on their boots for a chance to relive past glories against current Wanderers rugby talent.

A good time was had by all old boys, and we hope that the young ones aren’t too upset about the boots.

here is the video highlights from the game punch video to follow

But really by Mr. Adrian Thorogood.

It is the 2010 Wanderer’s home opener against Sherbrooke. Social networking guru and winger Matthew Barazin gives the pre-game speech: “Let’s show these farmers how men with Twitter play rugby!” Perhaps finding Matt’s incoherent clichés hard to digest, second row Adam Barrette slinks off to one side of the huddle and pukes his guts out. Despite only clocking 15 minutes, he still manages to leave ‘it all’ on the field.

Sick rugby from the Wanderers ensues. Here are the Try-lights, in no particular order: Stu Young breaks out like that Mexican kid’s acne and dishes to center Jon Dextras to score first. Ryan “Lawnmower-man” Leenhootz slices through the defense for a 5-yarder. Matt Barazin beats his man on the wing, exasperates his own team by cutting away from his support players, but his speed burst shows he doesn’t need them as he goes in from 40. A miscarriage in the Sherbrooke line-out is booted up field by Karl “kick-the-baby” Cernovitch. He demonstrates his youthfulness by outpacing everyone and smothering the ball in the corner like it’s one of his palliative care patients.

Jon “greedy as Berlusconi” Dextras spurns his winger and fullback waiting for the pass outside and muscles his way in for his second try. Wing Maxime Lessard snarls through to score in the corner. 2nd row Ted McGregor gallops down the sideline for his own try – conjuring up images of a young Forrest Gump.

Several more tries are scored with Sherbrooke only mustering a single, albeit impressively long, penalty kick. The last nail in the nail-ridden coffin is a rainbow pass from Stu Young to Dextras but frustrated fullback Adrian Thorogood picks off his own teammate’s pass to score the final try.

The Final score, 58 to 3. The Wanderer’s bask in victorious sunshine after the game. Caleb Balloch, especially intimidating when shirtless and doing a hipflexor stretch, debates rugby rules with the referee. Celebrations commence at Bar de Rapides, where a drunken, bibbed Jaffrey tells stories of debauchery, Max Lessard evens out his tan in a cut-off T and Jon Dextras makes advances on the Barely Legal Bud Light Lime Girl.

To close with a couplet when all’s said and done,
Wanderer’s rugby – keeping it classy in Verdun.

Saturday May 29th – Sherbrooke @ Wanderers

Seconds XV kickoff at 1:30

Firsts XV kickoff at 3:00

Wanderers,

Pat Laurin was kind enough to put together a highlight video recapping some of last year… Great way to get excited for opening weekend!

Remember to email me or Adam Sommer by Wednesday if you are unavailable for practice this Thursday or game on Saturday.

Cheers,

Beemer

Practices have moved to the Douglas  you find directions on our training page.

Tuesdays and Thursdays R2 be ready to go at 6:30

Royal West Academy Juvenile boys team, show us some good skills during their first match up against Westwood high school. The boys showed good raw rugby talent with lots still to learn! A team of coaches from Wanderers RFC and TMR RFC are working with them and they are improving at a steady rate. We all look forward to seeing these young players improve their rugby skills over the next few months.

You can take a look at their game below.

RWA VS WESTWOOD PART 1 (10 MIN)

RWA VS WESTWOOD PART  2 (10 MIN)

RWA VS WESTWOOD PART 3 (10 MIN)

RWA VS WESTWOOD PART 4 (10 MIN)

Practices

Registration

Media: Multimedia regarding Rugby:if you are new to the sport, check out the classroom section

Guys,

Don’t wait for the Dome dates to come out and practice.  Attend indoor trainings Tuesday nights at Loyola gym – 8:00, directions here if you don’t know how to get to the corner of Sherbrooke and West Broadway.

Unfortunately, due to escalating registration and insurance costs passed on to us directly from Rugby Canada and the FRQ, dues this year have increased: they will be $300 for regular players, $200 for those 21 and under.  In order to be registered, you need to fill out a registration form, pay a minimum of $150 up front or make other arrangements with me, and submit a digital photo if you haven’t played before.  Everyone on this list should be covered photo-wise and have a card already.

The registration deadline this year is April 10th – even those who don’t expect to play a full season need to get registered now.  I will be at Tuesday practices with pens and registration forms – you can also print out page 1 of the form and fill it in yourself.  If you can’t make Tuesday, I’ll also be at the Orchard downtown this Saturday (April 3rd) for the Habs game starting at 7:00.   Make this the first stop for your Saturday night, have a beer among friends, and submit your registration material and dues.  We’ll also arrange another mid-week date next week when folks can get registered at a central location where beer will be provided – more news to follow.  Last chance opportunity will be Saturday afternoon’s practice on the 10th next week.  Payment can be cash, cheque (made out to “Montreal Wanderers”), or an email money transfer for those who are technologically inclined, to me at this address.

REGISTRATION FORMS

Jon Crago

why does this make me laugh?

Stade’s David Attoub 70-week eye-gouge ban upheld

From Da prez,

Hey guys,

It’s finally time for our annual awards dinner! We’re having it next Friday (Feb.12th) at the Ye Olde Orchard downtown starting at 7 pm. The meal will cost $25 / person and will get you a choice of 4 main courses, a pint and dessert. The bar will be providing us with some free beer tickets and happy hour prices on drinks. This is a shirt and tie event so get dressed up and since it worked so well in NY; mardi gras beads are also required (they can be used to huck, since no hucking of food will be tolerated at the bar).

This invite is for Old boys and active players alike so spread the word and let’s get a good turnout next week. As usual new recruits are welcome and the club will provide drinks for them.

We are still looking for a place to go after the dinner, anyone have any suggestions/connections?

Anger

Wanderers,

Let me start by saying Thank You, I did not relish the position I was put in this spring, and each and everyone of you have made coaching the Wanderers this season a pleasure. It is extremely disapointing to have finished another season with a loss, especially since I feel that we had the better team on the field yesterday, things just didn’t go our way.

To put things into perspective, We lost a total of 3 games this year (7 wins, 2 ties, and 3 losses) in Quebec’s top division. Our 2nd side really learned and improved a lot this year, putting up strong results, winning 3 of their last 4 games. We have a lot of new blood to the Wanderers and a lot of young players making major contributions to our First side.

I have received comments throughout the summer from many different and unexpected sources. Old boys showing up at games or emailing me to tell me how excited they were to hear that we were undefeated after almost half a season and how exciting our games seemed to be. I have had referees that came up to me saying they were happy to be refereeing our game because they had heard that our team had become “dynamic”, were really moving the ball well and playing strong defense. I share all of these compliments with you, as everyone who was a part of this year is deserving of them.

We will try and do some things this offseason. We may be able to rent some indoor field turf and will be renting gym space in the new year. We have built a solid foundation this year and I hope everyone realizeds the potential this club has to dominate Quebec rugby in the upcoming years. If you are interested in renting the field turf over the winter and playing some rugby please let Rob Ahnert know.

Enjoy your offseason this year, be proud of what we accomplished and expect bigger and better things for next year.

That’s my final recap.

Cheers,