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heavensgame recently spoke with Graeme Douglas, blogger and champion for the Andorra Rugby Union.
Douglas' connection to Andorra is tenuous at best. He is a native of Scotland who visited Andorra in 2002 for a skiing holiday and that appears to be his most significant association with the country UNTIL he was browsing through Wikipedia one day and clicking on the profiles of the third-tier rugby nations. Andorra (and a couple of others) stood out, in Andorra's case due to their position as whipping boys in various football qualifiers. Douglas also recalled reading their place as opening the 2003 tournament with their games against Denmark and Switzerland (coincidentally they also opened the 2007 tournament against Norway). Once Douglas began to realise they were punching so far above their weight, he was hooked. So, heavensgame was wondering, what bought on the blog? Douglas told us "I write for various magazines, and help promote a band and am in the middle of a novel (who isn't?). I wanted a place to blast and give me a break from the more serious writing. Plus I've always been a bit of a statto. The title was an homage to their place as openers of the 2007 title (as well as a shocking way of attracting more visitors in the run up to RWC)". Douglas' advises us he is aware of just one rugby team in Andorra, VPC Andorra,who play in the southern section of the bottom tier of French rugby. Andorra also has an under 17 and an under 19 teams. Sadly their web details (already hard to negotiate as they are in catalan) are at least a year out of date. In regard to Andorrans playing for other countries, there may be some playing in Spain or southern France, but this is yet to be confirmed. heavensgame would love to hear from any Andorran rugby players, past and present, who could tell us their story. Douglas can confirm that there is a Georgian international playing in Andorra at VPC. Douglas' journey has taken him all over the world (via the internet). He has found a Kiwi selling phone cards online containing pics of Andorran Rugby, other people selling stamps, and he has also had people contacting him to see if they can buy replica shirts! A further enthusiast has also contacted Douglas to get try scorer details as he is compiling a database of all international try scorers. My crowning glory was realising that the IRB results for Andorra were lifted from his blog!!!! There were some silly errors in the list which Douglas has since corrected. A good case of the tail wagging the dog. The time spent on his Andorran rugby blog varies, but most of the large scale statistical projects are completed so now it is a matter of keeping in touch. Initially he built the results database by entering "Andorra Rugby" in google and then looking at EVERY result. That took a while! By now though, Douglas has reliable contact with the (very surprised) Andorran Federation.
Douglas has also been busy with supporting the womens 15s page on wikipedia as well as overhauling the Andorra Rugby page and creating a womens sevens page. SHOULDN’T THIS REALLY BE THE WORK OF THE ANDORRANS? Douglas believes there are many of the smaller rugby nations' unions not doing much to promote themselves. For example the Portuguese press has barely covered the game against Romania despite their exciting World Cup performance.
For the time being, Douglas doesn't envision himself watching the Andorran rugby team playing due to the fear of bursting a mystery bubble if he does!
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