5/27-28/2006: Atlantis Men at Benidorm Sevens
Emil Signes
June 12, 2006
JUNE 28, 2013
Note of June 2013: I wrote the following article for Rugby Magazine (check - was it
published?)
Atlantis Celebrates its 20th
Anniversary at 20th Benidorm Sevens
Emil Signes
The Atlantis women finished Atlantis’ first 20 years by winning
the Bangkok Sevens and the Atlantis men began the second 20 with
another successful result. Although they didn’t win the
Cup, they notched a 5-1 record to win the Plate. Their
only loss was a well-played yet heartbreaking quarterfinal
defeat by the Zimbabwe national team, 12-7. The Zimbabwe
selection had spent the last two weeks at a camp in England and
were fresh from making the quarterfinals at the Amsterdam
Sevens; the Atlantis players, on the other hand, were shaking
hands and introducing themselves 3 days before the tournament.
The Cup Championship was won by Susie’s Exiles, a group of
mostly Australian and New Zealand ex-pats headquartered in
Europe and sponsored by the owner of Susie’s Saloon in
Amsterdam. One of its squad, Jason Tiatia, is a former All
Black Sevens player. Susie’s participates in about 10
sevens tournaments over the summer, about half of which
(including Benidorm) are fully funded, and were also coming off
the quarterfinals at the Amsterdam Sevens the week before.
Susie’s came from behind to knock off perennial favorites Welsh
Wizards 21-19 on the last play of the game, and then surprised
with the ease of their 33-12 victory over Japan’s national team.
Atlantis squad
The Atlantis squad
comprised the following members:
Atl #
|
Name
|
Age
|
Club 7
|
Club 15
|
Other
|
741
|
Marco Barnard
|
19
|
Kutztown U
|
Kutztown U
|
South Africa Schools 7s
|
685
|
Mike Carvin
|
23
|
|
PAC
|
Northeast 7s
|
715
|
Al Christian
|
28
|
Dallas Elite
|
Dallas Harlequins
|
|
229
|
Thad Hill
|
38
|
Dallas Elite
|
Fort Worth
|
USA 7s
|
742
|
Will Knipscher
|
26
|
Lehigh Valley
|
|
MARFU 7s
|
743
|
Brendan McCarthy
|
21
|
|
Army
|
Combined Services
|
496
|
Andy Newcombe
|
38
|
Wilmington
|
Phila-Whitemarsh
|
|
744
|
Jay Pirotte
|
35
|
Houston
|
|
West 7
|
745
|
Ed Stockunas
|
28
|
Norfolk
|
|
MARFU 15s & 7s
|
746
|
Kevin Wiggins
|
22
|
Shreveport
|
|
MARFU 7s
|
Thad Hill and Andy Newcombe were the
co-captains.
Staff: Dave McPhail of Houston was the manager, Beet
McKinnon of Wilmington the physio & “massage guy,” and I was
the coach.
Atlantis in
“Signesville”
Because my father’s home town of
Gata de Gorgos is only half an hour away, I always enjoy a trip
to the Benidorm Sevens. Fortunately for us, my cousin
Antonio owns a bar- restaurant in Gata and, as is our wont, we
traveled up Thursday night for some authentic and wonderful
paella valenciana. On the way back, we passed Signes Furniture
and had a team picture taken in front of “Carrer Signes,” AKA
Signes Street. (Signes is an extremely uncommon surname, even in
Spain, but in Gata it’s the most common name in town.)
Most of the team arrived on Tuesday with a couple of stragglers
on Wednesday and practiced twice a day. We had a
“friendly” scrimmage with the Japanese on Thursday and were
soundly beaten, but looked forward to a return match during the
tournament.
Our other main off-field event was the annual pilgrimage to a
local Karting track, where we raced around in Go Karts like you
wouldn’t believe.
Round Robin
We began the tournament pretty
shakily with a 19-0 win over a pretty average Belgian Barbarians
team. The game featured a long try by Army standout and
sevens rookie Brendan McCarthy; Will Knipscher and Jay Pirotte
also scored. The next game was much better as we quickly
jumped ahead of a strong Romanian Wolves team, a group of
Romanians playing top-level rugby in France. Ed Stockunas
scored two tries on kicks ahead (one by Mike Carvin, one by him)
and speedster Al Christian added the third try in a 19-12 win.
Quarterfinal vs.
Zimbabwe
Saturday night we watched tape of
Zimbabwe’s great game against the Welsh Wizards (they lost in
the last seconds, 17-14, and planned what to do against their
super-fast wing.
Our plan went well; led by wing Al Christian’s defensive running
angles – and a spectacular chase-down by Ed Stockunas – we
continually boxed him in and held them to 12 points. Kevin
Wiggins scored one beautiful try and came inches from scoring
another at game’s end – between the posts – that would have won
the match for us. In the end, though, we just had too many
turnovers.
Although proud of our defensive performance, we were
particularly disappointed as winning this match would have given
us that repeat chance at Japan. Zimbabwe gave Japan
everything they could handle, but lost 12-5. That result,
combined with our game with Zimbabwe, made us feel we could have
surprised Japan. Oh, and one more thing – getting to the
semifinals would have been worth 750 €.
Plate Championship
The Zimbabwe loss meant we would
have to win 3 more games – 4 on the day and 6 total – to get the
Plate hardware. We started with a rematch against the
Belgians, whom we dispatched easily 28-0 (tries by McCarthy,
Stockunas, Knipscher, Pirotte). Then came another tough
game against a tough Nouvelle Caledonie national side. The
New Caledonian wing had shown tons of speed in their Saturday
performances and we dragged out the Zimbabwe game plan
again. This game featured some brilliant individual play
by Will Knipscher: at one point he single-handedly shepherded
their speed man to the sidelines, stole the ball and then ran
right down the sidelines, past their entire defense, to
score. Later in the game he had another great defensive
rundown. The final score – the other tries were by Barnard
and Stockunas – was 19-5.
Plate
Final
That took us to the Plate Final vs.
the Spanish Viator 7. The Spanish Viator are a selection
of the best available players from Spain and play excellent
classic sevens. Had they won it would have meant the top
five sides were all sponsored. Fortunately we – the only
unsponsored team in the top group – put together a good
offensive game, which was fortunate for us, because this was the
only game in which our defense broke down. The Spaniards
tested us up the middle and we got caught too many times with an
individual going up instead of staying in line.
At any rate, Ed Stockunas and 19-year old Marco Barnard really
shone in this game (they did all tournament long) and, with the
score 28-26 and two minutes to go, Marco scored a try –
initiated by his own kick – that put the game away. Marco,
a student at Kutztown University, is a former South Africa
Schools Sevens player as well as a Blue Bulls U-18.
Other tries in this game were by Christian, Wiggins, Stockunas
and Carvin.
Kudos
Kudos to our 38-year-old co-captains
Thad Hill and Andy Newcombe. Thad injured his foot on a
sideline tackle in the first game and was pretty much hobbled
throughout the tournament (there probably would have been 2 more
finished tries in the Zimbabwe game had Thad been healthy) but
played well and inspirationally to boot. Andy is all about
inspiration (and physical play) and kept the team going with his
pre-game talks as well as doing lots of grunt work on the field.
Both were finished by the second half of the final (Andy tore
his hamstring) and it was left to the youngsters to finish the
game and win the championship.
Atlantis
Individual Scoring
Name
|
Tries
|
Conv.
|
Points
|
Will Knipscher
|
3
|
9
|
33
|
Ed Stockunas
|
5
|
0
|
25
|
Marco Barnard
|
2
|
7
|
24
|
Al Christian
|
2
|
0
|
10
|
Brendan McCarthy
|
2
|
0
|
10
|
Jay Pirotte
|
2
|
0
|
10
|
Kevin Wiggins
|
2
|
0
|
10
|
Mike Carvin
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
Total
|
19
|
16
|
127
|
Opponents
|
9
|
5
|
55
|
Game Results
Game
|
Type
|
Opponent
|
Type
|
WLT
|
PF
|
PA
|
1
|
Pool Play
|
Belgian Barbarians
|
Invitational Team
|
W
|
19
|
0
|
2
|
Pool Play
|
Romanian Wolves
|
Invitational Team
|
W
|
19
|
12
|
3
|
Cup QF
|
Zimbabwe
|
National Team
|
L
|
7
|
12
|
4
|
Plate QF
|
Belgian Barbarians
|
Invitational Team
|
W
|
28
|
0
|
5
|
Plate SF
|
New Caledonia
|
National Team
|
W
|
19
|
5
|
6
|
Plate Final
|
Viator Spanish Barbarians
|
Invitational Team
|
W
|
35
|
26
|
Standing: Emil Signes, Andy Newcombe, Kevin Wiggins, Jay
Pirotte, Will Knipscher, Ed Stockunas, Beet McKinnon
Kneeling: Dave McPhail, Marco Barnard, Thad Hill, Al Christian,
Mike Carvin, Brendan McCarthy
Atlantis on “Signes Street,” Gata de Gorgos – Beet McKinnon,
Mike Carvin, Andy Newcombe, Thad Hill, Jay Pirotte, Brendan
McCarthy, Kevin Wiggins, Marco Barnard, Emil Signes, Will
Knipscher, Al Christian, Ed Stockunas, Dave McPhail