World Footy News

Edinburgh has won the 2007 Haggis Cup, restoring Scottish pride after Ireland's Dublin Demons had a successful raid across the Irish Sea in 2006. Edinburgh also repelled a second Irish raider, the Dublin Swans, who merged with the Brussels team due to travel problems. Hosts Glasgow were also in the mix, and North London, fielding many non-Australians, were brave grand finalists. In surprisingly warm weather the combined Edinburgh team knocked over all-comers, going through undefeated. The following report is courtesy of the Scottish Australian Rules Football League's Eddie McAvinchey. No word yet on whether the vanquished were forced to eat haggis as punishment.

On a rare hot, dry day in Glasgow on 5th May, Edinburgh were crowned the 2007 VB Haggis Cup winners after an engrossing days footy. The Scottish side defeated the North London Lions comfortably in the final, the Scots winning 27-7.

Travel chaos had hit the tournament the night before when the majority of the Dublin Swans side were stranded in Dublin airport. A last minute reshuffle saw the competition played as a 5 team, 1 group round robin, with Brussels Saints merging with the remains of the Swans side who had made it across.

Hosts Glasgow went down to the newly merged side in the first game of the day, losing a close encounter 16-21. It was clear early on that both Edinburgh and NLL were going to be tough nuts to crack, and they each went about their business with relative ease. In the group stages NLL's only loss came at the hand of Edinburgh, which ended 16-10 to the largely Australian-comprised Scottish side, but featuring a few developing and talented internationals including Matt Osbourne.

Of note during the day was NLL's use of the pre-season competition to blood their British talent, which on the basis of this competition will stand them in good stead for the BARFL season ahead. The NLL side offered a useful gauge of where their British player development stood when they met Glasgow in the group stages. Glasgow offered up a similar ratio of Australian:British players (roughly 50:50) but went down relatively easily to NLL in the 2nd half, having earlier held their own, the score finishing 34-4.

Last year's winners the Dublin Demons had a mixed day. They faced a tough start in that their first 2 games were against Edinburgh and then NLL, going down in both games in tight contests by less than a goal in the final score. However they did later pick up wins against both Glasgow and Brussels, showing the form that had carried them through as winners in the previous year in Glasgow.

But Edinburgh deserved their win, with a number of their players offering notable performances. Player of the Day went to Adam Simpson of their side. Best International (non-Australian) went to Razor from Dublin Demons (again, as he won the equivalent award last year).

The SARFL wishes to thanks the following for their assistance on the day: Glasgow City Council, VB, Walkabout bar Glasgow, Collingwood FC and Hawthorn FC. Thank you also to all of the clubs who made the effort to travel to Glasgow for the competition and thereby ensuring that it was a success.

Details on the competition can be found at the SARFL's dedicated Haggis Cup site.