April 30 - May 4, 1993. Atlantis Tours Irish Republic and Northern Ireland


(Atlantis tournaments #31 & 32)
Emil Signes
May 1993
JUNE 15, 2013

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Atlantis Tour of Ireland

Atlantis & Wellington in Belfast
Atlantis and Wellington (NZ) following our match in Belfast (the 3rd on the tour, resulting in 8 tries each)
Top, L to R: Emil Signes, Kurt Seecharan, Marty O'Connor, John Flamish, unknown, Wellington, Grant Butterworth, 2 Wellington, Al Dekin, Bill Gardner, Pavel Berzin, Andy Dujakovich
Bottom, L to R: John Redmond, 3 Wellington, Rory Lewis, Wellington, Dave Priestas

This is the article as I submitted it to Rugby; the final version (June 21, 1993 issue) was somewhat modified. And of course shortened ;).

The American sevens invitational side Atlantis this year made its second trip to Ireland, where it participated in international sevens tournaments in both Limerick and Belfast.

In Limerick it had its second successful result in two years, losing in the championship final to Wellington (NZ) 19-17 when a game-ending touchline conversion barely missed.

Atlantis suffered key injuries to Mike Siano and Andy Dujakovich early in that match, however, and were forced to play two days later in Belfast without either of these stars.  Their Belfast record was 1-3. Ironically (and happily), however, the one win was a tough and exhausting come from behind 14-12 victory over Wellington.

Atlantis

Atlantis was founded in 1986 to increase the playing level of sevens in the US by a) mixing sides of experienced players and novices for tournaments in the United States and b) putting together teams representing top level sevens players for tournaments abroad.

Itinerary

Atlantis departed from JFK on Wednesday evening April 29 and arrived at Shannon airport Thursday morning April 30.  Following two practices on Thursday and one on Friday, they participated in the Limerick Sevens on Saturday, celebrated Saturday night, took a 7-hour bus trip to Belfast on Sunday, and participated in the Belfast Sevens on Monday.  They left Belfast for home at 8 AM Tuesday morning.

The squad

Mike Siano (Life College, prop).  Finally recovered from a broken jaw suffered in February, Mike, who in the opinion of some is one of the few worldclass sevens players in the US, would make his rugby comeback in this tournament.

John Redmond (Maryland Exiles, prop and hooker).  A regular Atlantis player and one of the more underrated sevens players in the US, John is a great sevens scrummager and ball winner.

John Flamish (Philadelphia/Whitemarsh, prop).  John had played very well both at Limerick and the ITT 7s in 1992, and has been named to the 1993 Eagle sevens squad.

Andy Dujakovich (Kansas City, scrum half).  The only member of the 1993 World Cup squad on the Atlantis touring side, Andy is always a great addition to any team.

Dave Priestas (Bethlehem, fly half and scrum half).  Another underrated player, Dave is a veteran of selectside play for more than 10 years, in both sevens and fifteens.  Dave was the Atlantis captain on this tour.

Al Dekin (Hartford Wanderers, center and fly half).  The most valuable player at the 1992 ITT 7s, Al has been playing for the Watsonians (Edinburgh) in recent months and has been selected to represent the US at both the Sicily and Lisbon Sevens.

Rory Lewis (Washington, wing).  One of the top finishers in the US, Rory has been an Atlantis and US player for several years.

Grant Butterworth (Life College, hooker).  A South African Eastern Province player now at Life, Grant is relatively new at the sevens game, but turned into a real asset on this tour.

Marty O'Connor (Manhattan, center and wing).  One of the real up and coming young players in US sevens, Marty first made his mark in the 1992 ITT 7s, where he represented the second place East "B" team.  Marty will represent the US at Lisbon in June.

Emil Signes (Bethlehem).  It was my pleasure to coach this team.

Bill Gardner (NOVA).  A charter member and former captain of the Duck Brothers, and now a spokesman for the NOVA Rugby Club, Bill joined the tour in the capacity of raconteur, social commentator, public relations director, philanthropist, and management trainee.

My wife Heide Signes accompanied the tour as mother figure.

Limerick Sevens

Limerick

Limerick, with 76,550 inhabitants, is Ireland's fourth largest city.  It stands mainly on the south bank of the Shannon River.  It gained prominence in the 1920s when Ireland's first hydroelectric power station was constructed nearby, and again in 1945 with the opening of the Shannon International Airport, less than 15 miles away.

Tournament and Sponsors

The second Aer Lingus Limerick International Sevens Championship was organized by the Munster Branch of the IRFU. Along with main sponsor Aer Lingus, sponsorship was provided by Beamish and Crawford, Bus Eireann, Shannon Development, and several hotels: we stayed at the Great Southern Shannon, which is the nearest hotel to an airport arrival lounge I've ever known: we walked through the custom gates and 100 yards later we were in our hotel lobby checking in, luggage still in carts.

Thomond Park is the top rugby ground in Munster, and its playing surface was in excellent condition for the tournament, which took place on a cold, cloudy, windy but dry day.
Atlantis men at Limerick Sevens 1993
Atlantis men at 1993 Limerick Sevens: When we were all healthy
Top, L to R: Emil Signes, Marty O'Connor, Jim Bradshaw, John Redmond, Rory Lewis, Al Dekin, Bill Gardner
Bottom L to R: Mike Siano, John Flamish, Dave Priestas, Grant Butterworth, Andy Dujakovich

Participants

The tournament consisted of four international sides and five top club sides and was broken up into international and club divisions.  The two top finishers in each division were to meet in semifinals, with the winners progressing to the championship.

International Division

Atlantis
English Penguins
Irish Wolfhounds
Wellington (NZ) Club Division

Club Division

Bohemians
Garryowen
Old Crescent
Shannon
Young Munster

The local teams were included as an incentive to get local interest and a large gate; unfortunately it did not work.

Furthermore, there were two major lastminute dropouts  last year's champion, France, who on Wednesday informed the organizers that their poor performance at the World Cup had caused them to cancel, and the Italians, who on the same day claimed they weren't allowed to leave the country.

Atmosphere

Limerick, despite the best of intentions and the hard work of many people, has struggled with attendance, disappointingly small for a second straight year.  Besides what appears to be inadequate publicity, Limerick offers nothing but the games themselves as an inducement to spectators; they should perhaps take a page from Belfast, whose tournament is described below.

Results

Atlantis vs. Irish Wolfhounds.  Atlantis won its first game with a relatively easy win over an Irish Wolfhounds team that contained two players  Alain Rolland and Richard Wallace  from Ireland's World Cup Sevens semifinalist team.  John Redmond led off the weekend's try scoring, and was joined by John Flamish, Mike Siano and Al Dekin.

At this point we realized that we needed one more win to advance, and we figured that we were more likely to get that win against the Penguins than against Wellington.  Therefore, we sat Siano & Lewis vs. Wellington, to rest them for the Penguins match.

Atlantis 17 Wellington 21.  We surprised ourselves by how well we played against Wellington: we each scored three tries (ours by Dujakovich, Flamish and Lewis), but their 3 conversions unfortunately beat our one.

Atlantis 29 Penguins 12. Watching the Penguins play, we noticed their commitment to shutting down the passing lanes near the ball while abandoning the space away from the ball.  Our game plan, therefore, consisted of recognizing these situations and using the American football pass over the top.  It worked, and a surprisingly easy 29-12 win, featuring two Rory Lewis tries, followed.

Semifinal: Atlantis 29 Young Munster 12.  Young Munster, Ireland's national 15-a-side champion, won the club bracket. We were concerned about this team, because a) it was a successful club side, and therefore used to both playing together and winning, and b) it clearly had lots of pace.

In the end, however, we again took advantage of a team that overpursued and produced a convincing 29-7 victory.  Marty O'Connor, playing in front of Irish relatives, produced a hat trick.

Wellington.  Wellington, a top New Zealand province, was participating in the Limerick and Belfast Sevens in preparation for its participation as a guest side in the Middlesex Sevens the following week.

Wellington's side included most of its top sevens players, including Phillipe Rayasi who had represented New Zealand at the Fiji Sevens in March.

The team was coached by Andy Leslie, former All Black #8 and captain (1960s), and also included his son Martin, the current Wellington #8.

Wellington players all had great upper body strength, were hard as nails, and hit for keeps.  Wellington's Tim Perez remarked to me that "when we hit players back home like that, they stay on their feet; here they all go down like a ton of bricks."

Prior to the final, Wellington's only difficult game was Atlantis: it easily dispatched the Penguins, Wolfhounds and Club Division runnerup Shannon.

Championship Final

Atlantis-17

1 Siano **
2 Butterworth (T,C)
3 Flamish
4 Dujakovich *
5 Priestas
6 Dekin
7 Lewis (T)

* Replaced by O'Connor (T)
** Replaced by Redmond

Wellington-19

1 Christie (T)
2 Leslie (T)
3 Murphy
4 Perez (T, 2C)
5 Rayasi
6 Karam
7 Telea

* Replaced by Schmidt-Uili
** Replaced by Adams

Two minutes into the game, we had already lost Andy Dujakovich (dislocated shoulder as the result of a violent tackle) and Mike Siano (sprained ankle).

Rory Lewis opened up the scoring with an 80-yard try.  Unfortunately, a missed conversion between the posts left the score 5-0. A Grant Butterworth try brought the half time score to 12-0. Wellington then scored three quick tries early in the second half and immediately brought in their two reserves.

With no reserves, and our players looking dead as they stood behind the try line, I figured this for a 20-point loss.

Nevertheless, the boys reached way down and sucked it up, regaining strength as the second half progressed. With no time left, and Atlantis trailing 19-12, Rory Lewis set up Marty O'Connor for a long try scored near the right touchline.

At any rate, with the entire crowd almost eerily totally silent, Grant Butterworth's touchline kick momentarily looked good, then curled in front of both goal posts, preserving a 19-17 win for Wellington.

It was a hard, hard game.

As in 1992, when we lost to France, Atlantis was second again.  This time it was a respectable showing, but still, as we were reminded later by one of the banquet speakers (who was, to be fair, speaking of another topic), no one remembers who came in second.

Acknowledgments: Limerick

Once again, I would like to publicly thank Michael Wallace and Brendan O'Dowd of the Munster Branch, my two contacts, as well as Munster Branch president Cyril Downes and tournament organizer Tom Collins.

Gerry Boland of Aer Lingus and David Deehan of Shannon Development also provided valuable help.

Finally, it was wonderful to renew the friendship forged last year between the team and liaison Jim Bradshaw.

Pavel and Kurt

Andy and Mike's injuries were serious, and we were now faced with the prospect of heading to Belfast the next day with only seven healthy players.  Because it was a holiday in the UK but not in Ireland, we couldn't get any Irish players.  We did find two players from the Penguins, however, that were available.

One was Pavel Berzin, capped 36 times for the Soviet Union, who had been playing at Bedford.  Pavel's English was less than fluent and we were a little apprehensive about how he'd work out.

The other was Kurt Seecharan, an outstanding flanker from Bristol University.  Kurt was an excellent scrummager and open field player, but at 5'11" wasn't going to be able to give us the lineout and kickoff ballwinning ability of 6'5" Mike Siano.

The bus ride

Although they're a country and a half apart, Limerick and Belfast aren't that far by American standards: approximately 230 miles.

Nevertheless, the quality of Irish roads isn't the best, and from the time we left our hotel until the time we arrived in Belfast seven hours had elapsed.

Wellington joined us, and we are both convinced that the trip adversely affected our play in Belfast.

There was much beautiful scenery along the way; we were most intrigued by large, expansive fields of bright yellow plants that none of us had ever seen before.  We were to find out that these were rape fields  rape, a Eurasian plant, "Brassica napus," is  cultivated as fodder and for its seed, which yields a useful oil used as a lubricant and in the manufacture of various products.

We were told that many farmers are plowing under other fields such as corn for the more profitable rape plant.

The area around the border between the two Irelands, and a good stretch to the north as well, was exceedingly beautiful.

We knew we were in Belfast, however, when we were stopped by armed soldiers three times between the city limits and our hotel.

Smithwick's International Sevens at Ravenhill

Belfast


With a population of 296,900, Belfast is the second largest city in Ireland and the industrial capital of Northern Ireland.  It has also been the site of much violence as the result of the lunacy of Ireland's longstanding religious conflicts.

I was surprised to be impressed with Belfast: from our little time there, it appeared to be a clean city with many beautiful buildings and nice neighborhoods.  The ubiquity of machinegun toting British soldiers and barricaded streets was, however, a bit daunting.  The locals all said it was just one of those things one gets used to.

"Most bombed hotel"

We stayed at the Europa Hotel, once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most bombed hotel in the world." Supposedly, once its English owners sold it to an Irish concern the bombing stopped.  Immediately across the street from us, however, was the shell of a recently bombed-out building. (Note of 2013: I looked up the Europa online and found out that in May 1993, a month after we stayed there, the IRA bombed it again. By 1995 it seemed safe enough to host US President Clinton on a state visit; the presidential entourage booked 110 rooms at the hotel. "The Troubles" are officially considered to have ended with the Good Friday agreement of 1998.)

Despite all the above, my overall impression of Belfast was positive.

Tournament and Sponsors

The third Smithwick's International Sevens at Ravenhill was organized by the Ulster Branch of the IRFU and held on Monday May 3, a holiday (May Day) in the U.K.  The weather was wonderful: high 60s and sunny!

Ravenhill, the top rugby ground in Ulster, is an excellent facility with a fine playing surface.

The tournament sponsors were Swithwick's Brewery, Air Miles, Coca Cola and Positively Belfast.

Participants

The tournament participants were divided into two pools:

Pool A

Atlantis
Hawick (Scotland)
North of Ireland
Ulster
Wellington (NZ)

Pool B

Bangor (No. Ireland)
Irish Wolfhounds
Scottish Saltires
Ulster President's VII
Wasps (London)

Belfast, as did Limerick, had their share of dropouts, with the French Barbarians, Italy and Spain all late withdrawals.  The Ulster President's Seven was a team selected to fill out Pool B.

Atmosphere

Belfast has come much further than Limerick in successfully promoting its tournament as an event for the public to enjoy.  Several thousand people not only occupied the grandstand but also stood in the area at the open end of the stadium.  Attractions here included food, drink and souvenirs, as well as entertainment in the form of a jazz band which continued throughout the day.  And a moonwalk for the kids.

The beautiful weather no doubt helped, but the Ulster Branch can congratulate itself on a job extremely well done.  It was a fantastic tournament.

Results

Exhausted from Saturday's five games, a late Saturday night and a long bus trip, and missing two absolutely crucial players, our three first games were a nightmare.

Atlantis 17 North of Ireland 21.  North of Ireland, a club side, should have been a 30point win for us, but our sluggishness was apparent from the start and they surprised us with three consecutive tries.  We came storming back to make the score 21-17, but time ran out.  Wellington put 40 points on North.

One positive note of this game was the play of Pavel Berzin, who not only scored a try, but looked a bit like a Russian Charlie Wilkinson.

Atlantis 7 Ulster 24.  The Atlantis/Ulster game was tied 7-7 at half time, but two questionable refereeing decisions plus Atlantis mistakes gave an international laden Ulster (3 players from the World Cup Sevens team) a 24-7 win.

Atlantis 19 Hawick 21. Atlantis then proceeded to squander a 14-0 lead over Hawick and lose 21-19.  To those of us that had watched our team play Saturday, a lot was missing.  Wellington put 40 points on Hawick.

Atlantis vs. Wellington. Wellington, however, was also showing the effects of the Limerick tournament and the bus ride: although they crushed North of Ireland and Hawick, they lost 24-14 to a fired-up Ulster side.

Atlantis' final game brought a chance at redemption.  Just as a victory in an intense rivalry such as Army / Navy, Texas / Texas A&M, etc., can redeem a losing season, we felt that a victory over Wellington would at least give us something positive to remember about the Belfast tournament.

The locker room atmosphere was loose and joking, and a relaxed team took the field for the first time that day.

We took the lead, 7-0, when Grant Butterworth broke a Wellington tackle at the 22 and went in for a score that he converted.

The key play of the game, however, took place late in the second half, when Wellington scored its second try to take a 12-7 lead.  Kicker Tim Perez, obviously looking to kill time, had made an extremely baroque sand castle on which to tee his ball, and spent nearly the next minute admiring it when the referee blew him up for wasting time.

It was a costly decision, because less than a minute later John Flamish picked up a loose ball and bulled through for a 20-yard try which Butterworth converted.  We knocked on at the ensuing kickoff, but just as Wellington were about to put the ball into the scrum my watch hit 7:00 and the referee blew up the game, giving Atlantis a 14-12 win.

It was a another very hard match, and all 14 players were extremely tired.  Before leaving the field, however, both teams got together for a joint picture: after three hard games and a 7-hour bus ride together, it seemed appropriate.

Scottish Saltires.  The Saltires are one of the top invitational sides in the world, and, more often than not these days, contain only a few Scots.  The Saltires visited the US in 1988 when an Eagle-laden Atlantis side scored a rare victory over them in a "full-length" sevens match.

The Saltires waltzed through their pool matches (only the Wolfhounds came within 30 points of them), and met Ulster in the final.

Although Ulster took a 14-0 lead, the Saltires took over the game in the fifth minute and never looked back, scoring a 40-19 win.  Six of the seven players (all but Farquarson) scored tries, and Simon Burns converted five.

The Saltires team in the finals:

1 Paul Brady (Harlequins)  captain
2 Clive Miller (Kelso)
3 Mark Thomas (Rosslyn Park)

4 Grant Farquarson (Gala)
5 Simon Burns (Edinburgh Accies)
6 Audley Lumdsen (Oxford University and Bath)
7 Everton Davis (Harlequins)

Lumdsen was selected tourney MVP, and based on their play, I suspect he and Davis could have made England's World Cup Sevens champions even stronger.

Acknowledgments: Belfast


Our main contact in Belfast was the Ulster Branch's Scott Gardiner.  He, Alan Holmes, and the other organizers made the event a joy in which to participate.

Atlantis wrapup

Kicking woes

Over the course of the two tournaments, Atlantis only played one game (Ulster) in which the opposition scored more tries.  Until the Wellington match in Belfast, in which referee intervention probably cost Wellington two points, we had played four games in which we had scored the same number of tries as our opponents, and lost every one of them on conversions.

If tries had been the sole scoring criteria, instead of winning 4 and losing 5 we would have won 3, lost 1, and tied 5.

Kicking-off woes also plagued Atlantis, as they had the Eagles earlier this year.  Under the new laws, a team without an extremely accurate drop kicker will always be at a great disadvantage when they have to kick off.  We coaches need to rethink this situation in the near future.

Iron men

Dave Priestas and Al Dekin played every minute of all nine games, and the Johns  Redmond and Flamish  took part in all games as well.

Scoring

Atlantis outscored its opponents 173 points to 149.  This represented 29 tries for us to 23 for them.  Our opponents, however, kicked 17 conversions to our 14; their conversion rate was 74% to our 48%.

Deadlock with Wellington

After three games with Wellington, Atlantis ended up with 8 tries for and 8 tries against  a good record by any American standards against a New Zealand provincial seven.

Game by game results: Limerick


Game
 Result
 PF
 Opponent
 PA
Pool
 W
 24 Irish Wolfhounds
 12
Pool
 L
 17
 Wellington (NZ)
 21
Pool
 W
 29
 Penguins
 12
SF
 W
 29
 Young Munster
 7
Final
 L
 17
 Wellington (NZ)
 19


Game by game results: Belfast


Game
 Result
 PF
 Opponent
 PA
Pool
 L
 17
 North of Ireland
 21
Pool
 L
 7
 Ulster
 24
Pool
 L
 19
 Hawick
 21
Pool
 W
 14
 Wellington (NZ)
 12


Individual Scoring Totals
Limerick


Belfast


Total
Name
 Tries
 Conv
 Pts
Tries
 Conv
 Pts
Tries
 Conv
 Pts
Berzin
 ----
 ---
 ---
1
 0
 5
1
 0
 5
Butterworth
 1
 4
 13
3
 4
 23
4
 8
 36
Dekin
 2
 4
 18
0
 1
 2
2
 5
 20
Dujakovitch
 2
 0
 10
---
 ---
 ---
2
 0
 10
Flamish
 3
 0
 15
2
 0
 10
5
 0
 25
Lewis
 4
 0
 20
1
 0
 5
5
 0
 25
O'Connor
 4
 0
 20
2
 1
 12
6
 1
 32
Priestas
 2
 0
 10
0
 0
 0
2
 0
 10
Redmond
 1
 0
 5
0
 0
 0
1
 0
 5
Seecheran
 ---
 ---
 ---
0
 0
 0
0
 0
 0
Siano
 1
 0
 5
---
 ---
 ---
1
 0
 5
TOTAL
 20
 8
 116
  
9
 6
 57
  
 29
 14
 173

Grant Butterworth was Atlantis' leading scorer with 36 points (4 tries and 8 conversions). Marty O'Connor led in tries scored with 6, followed by Rory Lewis and John Flamish with 5 each.


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