Alex Østergaard har sendt os denne beskrivelse af Vikingernes tur til Dubai Sevens (artiklen er på engelsk).
The cold Danish weather that hit us as we got off the plane was pretty much just as painful as a perfectly timed tackle from Christian Bobby Nielsen. It also marked the end of yet another rugby action packed weekend for the Danish sevens team.
Having been warned of Dubai’s flare for extravagant and audacious constructions, it came as no surprise when we first saw the massive stadium built 30 minutes outside the city in the middle of the desert. The setup was amazing and the pitches were as green as they get! We played three games on the Friday, winning against Brazil and giving both Hfc Wailers (Cup finalists) and Racing Lagos a very tough time. The rest of the day we spent recuperating by the pool and watching some of the best teams in the world play rugby. Already on the Friday, the atmosphere was incredible with people dressed up from all around the world, singing and cheering at any given opportunity. After watching the very close game between England and Fiji, we all went back home to our respective host families to get a good night’s sleep before our next game against Georgia the following morning.
We needed to win on Saturday in order to stay in the competition. Unfortunately, although playing a very close first half, the Georgians closed down the game in the second and took the win. As disappointing as it was, we still showed that we were capable of competing against some very strong sides and definitely proved that we could live up to the standard required to play in Dubai 7s. Later that evening we watched all the final games of the World Series and attended the biggest rugby party in the world. The rest is history…
We spent Sunday making the most of our last day in the sun, relaxing by the beach, visiting the biggest mall in the world and looking up the 840m tall Burj Khalifa. One last team dinner with some of the sponsors and then early to bed before having to leave for the airport at 6am the next day.
On behalf of the whole team I would like to thank all the sponsors and the DRU for making this trip possible and especially Klaus Veile, without whom this amazing experience would never have taken place.
