A Northern Ireland expat has revealed how a chance encounter with a Swedish girl in a Moira pub a quarter of a century ago led to a group of Stockholm’s most promising youth rugby players competing in a tournament against top Northern Irish teams.
The Swedish capital’s selected under-14 rugby team are set to go up against Lurgan RFC’s own youth squad, as well as a handpicked mid-Ulster squad made up of some of the best players here.
Moira-born David Taylor, who now lives in Sweden, established the link-up having played for Lurgan’s senior rugby squad as well as Dungannon RFC in his youth.
“When working in a local pub in Moira I met a Swedish girl and to cut a long story short ended up in Sweden and have now been there for the last 25 years,” the 50-year-old explained.
“I now live in Stockholm with my three children Owen (14), Elliot (11) and Leia (7).”
David Taylor (50) and his Owen (14)
His son Owen is among the players intending to take the trip to Northern Ireland and David said it was him that sparked the idea for the tournament.
“Owen said, ‘Why don’t we go to Northern Ireland dad?’ and I looked at him and went ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing’,” David said. “I take no credit whatsoever.
“We were supposed to go on tour with another team and they said no which was their loss, so I began talking to all the other coaches and they were in.”
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A touring party of seven coaches, three parents and a medic will accompany the 27-strong Stockholm squad, made up of six teams from the capital.
David explained how important an opportunity this is for the promising Swedish team.
“Some of these kids live in low-income areas over here. We coaches have made sure we got the extra money for them. We need to show other parts of the world how good rugby is at youth level in Sweden.
“This team coming over is a mixture of Stockholm teams, this is 27 boys that are coming over and they all play for different clubs. We’re a Stockholm select.
“We’re not kidding ourselves, Lurgan are a very well organised team at youth level so it’s going to be a very difficult match. It could go either way.”
After the Lurgan game, players and coaches from both sides will dine together to hear speeches and there will also be a fireworks display in the colours of the Stockholm side to celebrate the new relationship.
Owen
Next the boys will face a challenging test against an Ulster select team consisting of players from Lurgan, Portadown, Banbridge and Dromore. Both games will take place at Pollock Park in Lurgan.
“Rugby is in the family, it always has been,” David explained.
“My brother played rugby, my father played rugby and his father played. I was eight when I started and the rest is history.”
David’s son is looking forward to following his dad’s legacy playing at his former home ground where his granddad will watch him for the first time.
“His granddad lives in Moira and his aunt lives in Belfast. So it’s going to be a family affair with lots of people coming up.”
Having played senior level rugby in Sweden, David said while “the passion is there” the standard doesn’t compare to Northern Ireland due to lack of funding but the standard is coming on.
“The junior rugby is at a very good level and they’re huge. My son is 14 — he’s six foot five and 105 kilos and our front row I’d say is bigger than most of the under 18s teams in Northern Ireland.”
David added: “I’ve played rugby all my life and it brings tears to my eyes how actually good they are and how friendly they are.”
With Lurgan’s youth squad already set to tour Stockholm their own, David believes this is the beginning of something big.
“A guy from Banbridge Rugby club said maybe they can organise a tour as well. Lurgan are definitely coming to us so it’s not a small thing now.”