Jason missed a couple of penalty kicks in the first half and we were only down 8-0 at half. It really hurt us losing Bishop as then we basically had no real fullback until one of the Fort Collins boys showed up later in the second half. It cost us a couple of tries as the foreigners had feet and used them effectively for the most part. Didn't have much continuity in the sets either so not a lot of ball for the backs. I played most of the game at inside centre with Laird outside me but ended up at prop when Kyle went out. It was like a game of Maggot musical chairs on the field with the line-up constantly changing.

Hats off to the Fort Collins boys who filled out for us and helped out where ever we asked them to. In the larger scheme of things it was no big deal, but it sucks losing to a bunch of seasonal foreigners. Still we kicked their ass in all aspects of the social and behaved like tried and true, even if we were a tad hungover, tired and spaced out from the altitude, Maggots. By the way, the tour theme was "Oh Maggot Where Art Thou" and we were all dressed in coverall's and straw hats. This went over well and accomplished its desired social impacts with Vail socialites, snobs and snowboarders.

However, I will say that the Vail boys and particularly team prez Scott Marino and a cadre of old boys looked after us while we were in Vail and helped us make all necessary travel arrangements an ensuing logistics. Float trip was a perfect way to spend Friday as it was very hot that day and the Colorado river, despite it's low flow, was very refreshing and water fights abounded. It eventually led through the course of an afternoon of drinking to Vail's notorious "Fuck every hole she's got" Kiwi puking on the bus twice and leading to a double haircut. Two major drunks in Vail on both Friday and Saturday nite with your usual Maggot behavior, Maggots falling asleep on public buses or missing the bus and sleeping in the bus station as Colin and Eat-me can attest to, or Tex getting woken up by the cops for sleeping outside next to the Lodge where we were staying, or Gordo bouncing off walls, tables, chicks on Saturday in an attempt to catch Dicky Dunn in a race for the Big Buzz Bender award for tour.

It was a good time had by all and Vail was a different place for the Maggots to expand their rugby boundaries which helped ease the long drive! It certainly was a beautiful pitch to play on as well. As far as the bus drives, going down was essentially a 33 hour drunk as we didn't roll into Vail until 4:00am on Friday. We left Missoula at 7:00pm from the Ox on Wed. nite. We literally hit the Cowboy Bar's in both Jackson and in Pinedale where Tex has Family and the Maggots also have kin -- Big John -- and can attest that I reached the apex of my drunk somewhere out in the middle of Wyoming when we were throwing rocks at Dicky Dunn on the side of the highway while tourists, cowboys and oilriggers drove past. Let's have one for Dicky Dunn!

Going home was tougher as Gordo got started early and wouldn't leave us alone (i.e. those of us who were extremely hung-over from Saturday nite and were in no position to start drinking at 8:00am in the morning.) Shreck quickly emerged as a force to be cuddled with thanks to him killing the old, angry drunk Gordo and replacing him with the new, cuddly drunk Gordo. In short, Gordo behaved as a man on mission to defy all of the simple laws and bus etiquette the club has established to protect the sanctity of our first and only Clubhouse: the Maggot Bus! He refused to give up until the bitter end around 7:00pm but not before he to puked twice leaving us with some regurgitated, warm bus beer and the privilege and the precedent of having two snips twice on the same trip...not even Jakey can claim this!

We rolled in at 4:00am on Monday morning and all I can is that everyone who stepped on that bus gets a Maggot medal for surviving what was certainly one of the sicker social tours of our time! Thanks to Colin and to Charlo for driving as they performed admirably throughout. In conclusion, I wish we had a few more of our A-side but we'll get them again the future, perhaps a round-robin with Jackson in Jackson.