Ireland Spring Break Travel Diary (March 11, 2010)

The Tuesday night Continental Airlines flight from Newark, NJ to Dublin, Ireland went smoothly and while the choice of movies was many but a tad depressing in nature, Sandra Bullock provided enough recompense in the "Blind Side".

Both Vassar teams practiced today and yesterday. Jet-lag and lack of sleep made it difficult on Wednesday but it was a good 90 minutes of handling and contact work. Today, Thursday, the team had a guest coach in Tony Smeeth. The Trinity coach has an impressive resume and did a great session dealing with the contact area. He has coached in the States before and did a good job challenging the Vassar players in this aspect of the game.

On Wednesday, both squads took a tour of Croke Park the home to Irish Sports and the GAA. It is also the temporary home for Irish Rugby Union and Irish Soccer and it is an impressive stadium and accompanying museum. It will be full on Saturday afternoon with 82,000 fans as Ireland play Wales in the 6 Nations Championship. Dublin will be awash with the green of Ireland and the red of Wales.

But before that international game Vassar face Dublin City University on Friday and it's a tough assignment for sure. The Brewers haven't had a game since October 2009 and will hope to compensate with plenty of enthusiasm. Six players missed practice today as they were late for the bus and they had overslept! But the weather here has cooperated with two sunny days and that has kept smiles on peoples faces. After their own game tomorrow both squads will watch the international game Ireland v Wales then head to Cork on Saturday.


-Tony Brown