The reason I say that is due to the fact that no sooner had we landed in a lush 30 degrees sun-drenched dessert in search of rugby posts....when suddenly we were back standing in the changing rooms to play Henley with the wind howling in our ears and the usual sound of Miriam strapping up broken things!!!! Back to reality!!! Thud!!!

But it was all worth it.....I don't know how we managed it but everyone was on time at Heathrow - all accounted for, even Fi Pocock who despite being blonde was the first to arrive!!! The Emirates lady behind the desk had worked out we may be trouble so to keep us together and cause minimal annoyance to everyone else on the plane seated us all together, phew! SO just as we all sat down, excited to get under way, we got the message you never ever really want the captain to tell you... "apologies the door won't shut properly"!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! Ollie, given her tip top 999 services training, was immediately to the rescue by stating "well best they get that sorted"!!!! (which is why the police always arrive before the fire brigade at major incidents because stating the bleeding obvious never really helps that much when the chips are down!!!) 

Two hours later, new double mortise locked attached to door from Homebase, off we took.....most of the kids happy as larry as the games worked on their screens!!! Others just immediately conked out - Dawnie!!! Next stop Dubai!!!      

Looking a fair bit sleepy, and a big bit crumply, we somehow managed to get into taxis and make it to the hotel where early check in at 8.00am wasn't an option, but the beckoning comfy sun loungers by the pool were!!! Yes we had arrived....much to the dismay of the beautiful guests and Germans who went down early with their towels only to find rugby kit clad girlies sprawled out snoozing everywhere!!! Fish and Jocks braved the swimming pool, the temperature of which would have awoken anyone from the dead!! But we kept saying to ourselves "its got to be hotter than back home right now" despite having blue lips!!

We set off to the ground to play in our pool matches, a journey which confirmed they do actually just build a stadium in the middle of the desert to host the 7s. The Dubai 7s is actually the opening event for the IRB World Sevens Series, and this year there was a record 156 teams from all over the world attending in 9 different sections over the three days. This years event was also significant - apart from the fact that its the first time a Richmond team of any description, male and female, has gone to represent the club - because its the last time the event will be held where it has been for the past 38 years....so the bottom line is it is huge, and as far as sevens experiences go there isn't anything like it, Stoneygate has a fair bit to go really!!!

We set up camp, bra tops were out in force, and we battled through the pool stage despite heavy legs and sleepy heads, which proudly involved getting a win over Rugby Ecosse (in essence Scotland) 27-12, with some really good tries and a good come back considering they scored first which wasn't anticipated!! Girls did really good though, and then managed to catch a glimpse of Los Banditas (New Zealand and USA combo team) and the Wooden Spoon, who were in other pools.  First day mission accomplished, onwards to the quarter finals!

But not before troughing....big style....we eventually (and I say eventually because one thing you can say about Dubai is that there may be lots of glam hotels, nice beaches, well loaded people but YOU DONT GO ANYWHERE UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN IN A QUEUE. A taxi queue. A bus queue. A traffic queue. A queue queue....they are all over the place.....and if you don't drive and have a car you truly are f*c*d!!!! We persevered though, nearly losing the will to live and Meston was getting frisky, but we held out to get to Spice Island...and what a good decision that was.  As much as you could eat, AND DRINK (!!!) for £20!!!! Well you would have thought we had won the lottery!!! Hey, and if one person says they have had four platefuls....you can bet someone else is going to rise to the occasion!!!  But it was exactly what the doctor ordered.....very happy players, very full bellies, ready to go to kip!!! Alice was really excited at the thought of her head hitting the pillow and getting a long lie....the pillow that was 5 miles away from Amy T thanks to the upgraded room they had been given due to the hotel blundering things!!! V funny!!!!

Long lie and off to the water park for the girls....and what a stir that caused!!!! Primarily because half the team were blondies!!! And there ain't nothing you cant sell a blondie for in Dubai!!! Simon and I could have been loaded, we could have had 5 herds of camels!!! But instead we just let the Arabian male congregation who clearly have never had the pleasure of watching 12 birds dump tackle themselves against a wave machine stand and ogle!!! Nor seen anyone like Selena who was a bit different being as wide as she is tall with dodgy markings all over her body!!!! It was like the whacky races, everywhere the team went, the Arabian blokes followed!!! Albeit I think one got a gobful of someone for ogling!!! 

Having survived the pool orgy, we then played the quarter final - against Aylesford Bulls - which was important for us in that if we got through that we ought to have been in the opposite side of the draw from Wooden Spoon and the Kiwis. Perfect. 

We played great sevens in the quarter final, and won that convincingly 37 - 0, with the majority of the team scoring as individuals but also putting together some great team tries. All good. Following that and watching some of the international mens sevens, which was fantastic, we then headed out to go for food.....ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT WE HAD NO OTHER OPTION BUT TO GET IN THE QUEUE...WHCIH WAS A ONE HOUR WAIT TO GET IN A TAXI!!!!

Now at this point I know you may all think that there was a lot of toys out of the cradles, indeed there were many around us who were completely losing the plot....but to our credit, and to everyone else's enjoyment, Richmond came to the fore in the hour of need...and instead turned our queue waiting into a bit of a jolly.....the minute we cottoned onto the fact that there were others attempting to jump the queue we knew we had a reason to direct our frustration at something and someone else!!!! And soon, along with us, we had the entire queue shouting "SHAME ON YOU SHAME ON YOU" at those who tried, but once identified failed, to by-pass the queue! Followed by a rousing rendition of "GET IN THE QUEUE IN THE QUEUE IN THE QUEUE"!!!!! We amused ourselves and others for a good hour, and eventually made it to Planet Hollywood!!!
 
Semi finals day - game heads on, had to win, and you could tell everyone was up for it. Not sure how, but the draw had changed, so we had Wooden Spoon who beat us 27 - 12 in the final of the Amsterdam 7s. Everyone was switched on, anxiety in the air, but no matter what it was going to be a good semi. Wooden Spoon had Rachael Bursfield, Daisy, Susie Appleby, Nollie Waterman, Rob Clayton, Bronnie Mac (Aussie flanker), Georgia Stevens, Sooty and Rhona Shepherd (Scotland back) so it was a tough team to face. 

We annoyingly lost two soft tries early on which were hard to recover from but we stuck at it and pulled back two.  Final score 29 - 12. AT the end of the day the Wooden Spoon team went on to play the Kiwis in the final and they won, so having been the only club side to progress beyond the pool stages we had done really well.  Albeit the coaches think we haven't yet played the game we are capable of against those Wooden Spoonies.....one day!!! 

Fish was top try scorer for Richmond - five lush tries...go the po-po's!!!!