May 27-28,
2000: "Philly" Atlantis Competes at Benidorm Sevens
(Atlantis tournament #76)
Emil Signes
June 30, 2000
JUNE
25, 2013 (rev. July 15,
2013)
Note of
June 2013: This is an article I wrote for Rugby on June 30,
2000. It appeared in an edited form
in Rugby's July 28, 2000 issue. Here
is the
article as printed in Rugby.
Atlantis at Benidorm Sevens 2000
Top: Emil Signes, Keith McLean, Jeremy Revell, Marc Frey,
Jim Brill, Jack Foley, Dan Campbell
Bottom: Scott Palena, Andy Newcombe, Jon Campbell, Brian
Driscoll
Welsh Wizards Repeat At
Benidorm: "Philadelphia Atlantis" Goes 2-3
Benidorm, Spain. May 27-28,2000.
The professional-laden Welsh Wizards won the 14th version of the
Benidorm Sevens, but not before losing to Tunisia in their opening
game. It was an excellent tournament where six full national
teams were warming up for their World Cup qualifiers in Heidelberg
and Madrid.
Atlantis, with seven members of the national sevens championship
Philadelphia-Whitemarsh squad, ended up its campaign at 2-3,
losing to Portuguese club champion Cascais (featuring Fijian
Sireli Bobo, the tournament MVP) in the Plate SF.
Benidorm
Benidorm is in Spain geographically (in the province
of Alicante, Community of Valencia), but that's about its only
connection to the rest of the country. One evening a group
of us jumped into a cab, and I asked the cab driver [in Spanish], "Please, can you take us to the old
part of town, to a quiet bar where we can have a glass of wine,
and -- no English people, please!" He thought a moment and
said "No English, huh? I don't think I can do that."
Benidorm is like a seedy fantasyland for Brits, especially those
from Manchester and environs. I go only for the
sevens. A few other redeeming qualities: the Mediterranean,
the Go Kart track (mandatory for all Atlantis teams that have ever
participated here), and Taff's Bar (although it's a virtually
all-Welsh place, the owners, Reg and Brenda Jones, are great rugby
fans and supporters of the sevens. And that made it all
right.)
For all its defects, and there are many, in my eyes Benidorm has
two redeeming qualities:
1. The Benidorm Sevens.
2. The fact that it is less than 25 miles from my father's
hometown of Gata de Gorgos, and that my first cousin Antonio
Signes Signes (in Spain, people take both parents' last names, and
both of his were Signes) owns a bar-restaurant there. The
entire team visited Thursday night for paella, the local specialty
of the Valencian region.
Benidorm Sevens
Although the Madrid Sevens gets more sponsorship,
the Benidorm Sevens provides for me the quintessential sevens
experience: a tournament abroad with a mixture of teams from many
countries. There are several brackets and the level of teams
varies from the hopeless drinkers only to the skilled, athletic
and dead serious.
In this case, the countries represented included, besides the US
and Spain, France, England, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Portugal,
Morocco, Italy, Holland, Tunisia, Belgium, Hungary, Russia, Sweden
-- the last six with full national teams in preparation for the
2001 RWC qualifiers.
Atlantis
Begun in 1986, Atlantis has attended 48 overseas
sevens tournaments, usually with good results. Given the
fact that, with few exceptions, Atlantis players have to fund
their own expenses, this is remarkable.
The Atlantis men had participated at Benidorm in 1988, 1994, 1995
(champions!), and 1996-1998. This year, as a reward to my
Philadelphia-Whitemarsh team, I invited all ten members of the
national championship squad to represent Atlantis. Seven
accepted. The three non-Philly guys were a) Jon Campbell,
formerly of NOVA, the East and US, now the general manager of the
Kuala Lumpur Ritz-Carlton, b) Dan Campbell, Jon's brother (Rosslyn
Park [London]), and c) Jeremy Revell (that's now Doctor Jeremy
Revell to you) of the Tempe Old Devils.
In addition, we were really lucky that an incredible staff
supported us. Philly's Chris Ryan was the manager.
Richmond's Tom Gardiner, who had signed up to manage an Atlantis
O-35 team that eventually folded, assisted him. Philly's
"massage therapist of champions," Beet McKinnon, joined the tour
party to work his magic. Doc Sue Bercuk, chiropractor and
member of the US national women's sevens team staff, had a
seemingly infinite supply of "stuff" to hold people together and
was always available for repair, prevention, and advice.
Finally, Anna Ojala, a visiting Finn who volunteered her physio
services, assisted Beet and Sue. Nearly 40-year old captain
Keith McLean reckons that he can play at this level till 45 with a
group of care givers like them.
The team (name preceded by Atlantis number):
493 Jim Brill, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh
494 Dan Campbell, Rosslyn Park (London)
265 Jon Campbell, N.S. Wanderers (Malaysia)
154 Brian Driscoll, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh
402 Jack Foley, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh
495 Marc Frey, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh
123 Keith McLean, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh (captain)
496 Andy Newcombe, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh
497 Scott Palena, Philadelphia-Whitemarsh
321 Jeremy Revell, Tempe Old Devils
Manager: Chris Ryan
Assistant Manager: Tom Gardiner
Massage Therapist: Beet McKinnon
Team Physician: Sue Bercuk
Assistant Physiotherapist: Anna Ojala
Coach: Emil Signes
Benidorm Sevens
2000
The Benidorm Sevens comprises three division: Junior
Club, Senior Club and International (there was a women's division,
but unfortunately it's been inactive since Atlantis won it in
1992). The clubs begin play on Friday, but the International
Division is quiet until Saturday afternoon. Atlantis' first
game, in fact, wasn't until 6 PM Saturday.
There were 12 teams in the International Division, in 4 brackets
of three teams each. The top 8 went to the Cup Division, and
the bottom four to the Plate, where they were to be joined by the
four losers in the Cup quarterfinals.
The divisions were:
A. Welsh Wizards - Netherlands - Tunisia
B. Russia - Sweden - Morocco
C. Euskarians (French Basques) - Atlantis - Belgium
D. Froggies - Cascais - Hungary
As Morocco had their first side in the Paris Sevens, this was
really a Morocco "B" team. The Euskarians are a select side
of French Basques, and the Welsh Wizards a group of professionals
from Wales. Cascais, the Portuguese club champions, had added
visiting Fijian Sirilesi Bobo to their already strong squad.
At the end of the day, the bracket champions were Russia,
Euskarians, Tunisia and Froggies, with Morocco, Belgium, Holland,
and Hungary relegated to the Plate. We joined the Welsh
Wizards, Cascais and Sweden as the 2nd place finishers moving on
to the Cup.
In Sunday morning's games, the Wizards kept themselves alive by
upsetting the Froggies, with the other three division leaders
staying on top. In the semifinals, a surprising Russia
defeated an equally surprising Tunisia 14-7 to get to the finals,
while the Wizards eked out the Basques 12-7.
The final was a very exciting game, with the Russians hanging in
there against a far more seasoned and professional Welsh Wizards
team, 28-14. The Froggies, early favorites to win the
tournament, barely scraped by Cascais in overtime in the Plate
Final.
Atlantis Results
Atlantis was able to garner two more national sides
to its list of victims, but little else. In two games in
which we should have been competitive (Euskarians and Cascais), we
made far too many mistakes. From the sidelines the game
against Russia looked like men against boys. Still,
given the fact that we were basically a club side (and that Jeremy
Revell was injured and out of the tournament in the first half of
the first game, after having scored two tries), it was a good
weekend.
Jon Campbell's try-saving tackle vs. Euskarians
National sides that the Atlantis men have beaten include the
following eleven:
France (1992)
Latvia (1994)
Uruguay (1995)
Ukraine (1995)
Chile (1996)
Switzerland (1996)
Trinidad and Tobago (1996)
Malaysia (1997)
Portugal (1998)
Belgium (2000)
Hungary (2000)
Add Wellington (1993) and Queensland (1997) to that list, and it's
something to be [very] proud of.
Atlantis game summaries:
Atlantis 31 Belgium 5
Euskarians 31 Atlantis 10
Russia 38 Atlantis 0
Atlantis 42 Hungary 0
Cascais 24 Atlantis 7
[June 2013: I could not find any individual
scoring data.]
2001: Iberian Sevens Circuit?
I spoke to Ignacio Davila, organizer of the Benidorm
Sevens, and it appears that the organizers of the Benidorm, Lisbon
and Madrid Sevens are working together. They are trying to
put together a sponsorship package to get teams to come over for a
three-weekend stint that would include all of those tournaments in
what would become a full-fledged Iberian Sevens Circuit.
Budapest Sevens?
Mark O'Driscoll, Australian coach of the Hungarian
national side, was pushing for participants to take part in the
Budapest Sevens. He gave conflicting months of June and
September, but . . . another country is always a good thing for
Atlantis, who will have visited 20 foreign countries by the end of
this year.
Find these photos --
Brill scoring!
Paella at Antonio's
Go Kart experience
Check my 1995 article to see if there's something I should / can
add . . .
Photos:
Jon Campbell makes try-saving tackle against Euskarians.
Antonio Signes and his daughter Marķa Teresa display the paella
valenciana, at the Bar Pou in Gata de Gorgos.
(Emil passes Jon @ Go Kart track.)
(Jim Brill scoring try vs. Belgium.)
Atlantis at Benidorm Sevens 2000:
From left:
Emil Signes, Sue Bercuk, Andy Newcombe, Scott Palena, Jim Brill,
Jon Campbell, Jeremy Revell, Jack Foley, Marc Frey, Brian
Driscoll, Keith McLean, Dan Campbell, Chris Ryan, Tom Gardiner,
Anna Ojala, Beet McKinnon.