GRANTS EDINBURGH

The first of the New Zealand imports Les Tipler-Kelleher arrived in Edinburgh by train and checked in to the Tudor Bank B&B. He was soon joined by Andy Ducat-Macdonald and Grant Toeaava-Muru. The pre-match press conference was held at the Edinburgh Walkabout where the kiwis met their Edinburgh Northern club liason officers Cahill, Damien, Paddy and Tony. Paddy introduced the boys to the Northern ritual of the "super atomic wedgie". Put plainly you atomic wedgie yourself. The other lads made the Kiwis feel very welcome. Home 12:30am
Saturday morning the 3 kiwis were woken early by the last of the honorary kiwi players to arrive Dave Huxley MaCaw arriving after his 8 hour nerd bus trip from London. As prepared as ever Dave turned up without boots shorts or sox so instead of the usual captains run on game day the boys had the captains shop. Luckily Andy was keen to to see more of the city so in between sports shops they took in some of the sights.
While walking the Royal Mile Grant spotted All Black legend Andy Leslie. Mr Leslie commented on Dave's England jersey saying he saw a real good take on England's sponsor. Instead of O2 on the front it had O -36. Sorry Dave but England are rubbish. The lads got the mandatory photo and thanked him for his time.
Pre-match nutrition and hydration was taken at the Worlds End Pub on the Royal Mile with traditional haggis, neeps and whiskey sauce. After lunch the lads met up with another of the Northern players Paul who shared a taxi to the Inverlieth grounds. Kick off was at 3pm and for the first time in the teams history they had an excess of players. Les was the only kiwi to make the run on team with the others warming the bench. The game was a forward dominated affair which set a firm attacking platform for a "man of the match" performance from Les. He was in dynamic form giving great service to his fly half topping it off with a 30m dart only to be brought down 10m from the try line. Dave slotted in 15 minutes in for an injured player adding some much needed impact on the inside channels. Andy, in his rugby debut, was given his chance shortly after half time. At full back he was strong on defence and added to the attack. He did come up with a novel defensive ploy which involved smearing himself in dog poo to ward off opposition. Unfortunately it was just as effective on his own players. Grant "10 minute man" Muliaina was left to wait and wait for yes the last 10 minutes of the game. Absolutely desperate to touch the ball, instead of playing in the centres he spent most of his time in the tight. It got so bad that even when penalised for holding on to the ball in a ruck he refused to let the ball go and was heard crying "this is my precious, steals it from me they did". After the game the boys spent the evening in the clubroom's known as the bunker. When the 1st team arrived back from the Borders the Kiwi lads knew they had the right club to socialise. Half of the team walked in butt naked led by Paddy the lads liaison person. This was but the beginning as beer bongs, naked back slapping, helium haka's and national anthems followed. The evening at the club ended with a full rendition of "Ka Mate" met with rousing applause by the grateful crowd. From the club the kiwi lads went to town in search of the Medina night club but ending up in Drop Kicks. Home 4am Test day the lads wounded and battered from the day before pried themselves out of bed. Keen to join the pre-test atmosphere of Edinburgh they quickly had breakfast and headed to town. Dave the choir master taught the kiwi lads the Scottish national anthem while Grant ran through the words for the haka. Major objective for the day was to get a photo of one of the lads with a current All Black. However, after a few bad leads, dead ends and fading light the major objective was proving elusive. Alas, a last minute reprieve as Grant's criminal tendencies found himself in the Murrayfield grounds with a chance meeting with Rodney So'ialo and Graham Henry. Mission accomplished!!. The game was comprehensive, however punctuated with a few mistakes, the result was never in doubt. The boys remained at the grounds 'til 8 pm socialising with the locals. Grants mates also got to meet his brother-in-law Marty and his family also in Edinburgh to watch the game. That night the lads met up with Ryan another one of Northern boys and some ex Dunstable people who took them to Rose Street. Home 1am
Last day on tour the lads had to say their goodbyes early. Les was the first to train at 9.30am followed closely by Dave on the Nerd Bus to London at 10am and finally Andy and Grant at 12.30 on "Difficult Jet". Rumour has it Grant had to take another day off to recover from "'food poisoning". He said it must have been the chicken from the night before as the other lads had the fish. Yeah Right!!!!

Cheers Boys

OCK! OCK! OCK! OOOOOCK!