After making the jump from his university team to the local Rugby club that year, Harrier scored his first try in a regional league match on October 23rd, 2010. It wasn't an ordinary game, though, because...
Spoiler
1) There was a game-ending brawl shortly before half time
I still have the newspaper article about this match pinned to a board in what used to be my bedroom, which is now a storage room:
I'll just quote and translate it directly here. Marburg was my team, Hausen were our opponents.
Game Curiously Aborted After The Break
Rugby, Hessian regional league: TSG Hausen refuses to keep playing in Marburg after half-time
The regional league match between Rugby Union Marburg and TSG Hausen from October 23rd will have to be replayed.
Marburg. It is a rare occurrence even in rugby. Citing “unnecessary roughness from the Marburg team”, the visitors from Hausen refused to participate after half-time.
The game appeared to be ill-fated from the beginning: Roughly two hours before kick-off, the appointed referee (name removed) from the association cancelled due to personal reasons.
No substitute could be found on short notice. Since both teams could not agree on a referee, it was eventually decided by mutual agreement that the game should take place after all, under the guidance of a Hausen player. After the big loss in Gießen, Marburg proved to be in much better shape this time, playing quick attacking rugby, defending aggressively with strong tackles and putting their opponents under pressure from the first minute. Hausen tried to combat Marburg's tough offensive game with fouls, further igniting the mood on the pitch. After a beautiful Marburg try for 5-0 by (Harrier88) and a brawl in the 37th minute, the game was stopped for half-time in order to ease the tensions.
After half-time, however, the visitors from Hausen refused to play on. The team directions agreed to repeat the game as a league match under regular conditions. A new date will be scheduled by the association.
Yeah... quite a game. 
I remember when I first arrived at the pitch and got out of my car, someone from our coaching staff was on his phone next to me with an incredulous look on his face, mumbling things like "No way... you can't be serious... you've got to be kidding me...". He just received the news about our referee cancelling.
While this may not have been the most neutral reporting in that newspaper article (it appeared in the local press, after all), it is true that there were some controversial refereeing calls from the beginning and that the game soon began to get out of hand. What it didn't mention is that about halfway through the first half, the Hausen player refereeing the game was replaced by one of our own substitute players, who had difficulties keeping up with the ball. This can be easily exploited in rugby to get a few cheap hits and some other underhanded tactics in during rucks, which naturally didn't help the mood.
By this time, with the score still being 0-0, it was decided that this game wouldn't count as an official league game anymore due to these circumstances, but we still wanted to complete the match. Then it was my turn, I believe I caught a clearance kick from our opponents and made a run for the goal line, in a bit of an arc to the side to avoid my opponents. A few meters in front of the line, a Hausen player attempted to tackle me and made contact, but only managed to knock me off balance. I stumbled forward, and, knowing that I was about to fall, made a desperate dive for the in-goal area. I barely reached it with outstretched arms, right next to the touch line, giving our kicker a very difficult conversion kick, which did not hit the mark.
A few minutes later, the brawl started after another hotly contested situation. All I remember is that a Hausen player brought one of my teammates down and started to beat him up, and just about every player from both sides scrambled to join in. As the newspaper article pointed out, the game was then whistled for half-time a little early, and during the break, we heard that our opponents decided to call it quits, considering that it was already decided that the game wouldn't count anyway. We all got back on the field to shake hands and all - that's the good thing about rugby, you can almost always bring everything to an amicable conclusion in the end, even when things get heated.
I then proudly did my "Zulu", which is a ritual for scoring your first try. It involves taking your clothes off and running a naked lap around the pitch, while your teammates do some pseudo-African chants and usually shower you with beer when you get back. It was a rainy and muddy day, so I made a dive into some mud puddle at the end to do some swimming motions. 
As for the other options, despite the bad weather, the pitch was not waterlogged, and I don't remember an instance when our home field became unplayable, though there were a few other games that had to be postponed or cancelled outright. For example, I remember a planned friendly game against Eintracht Frankfurt (yes, the Eintracht Frankfurt), which had to be rescheduled two or three times before finally being cancelled, one of the reasons was a waterlogged pitch.
We had no talent scouts ever visiting our games as far as I know, but we did once have the national coach of Germany's Rugby 7's team show up to do a scouting session in person. I was brand new to the club at that point, just having made the jump from that university team, so my skills were lacking. When the coach heard from someone that I hadn't yet played any games, though, he was so impressed by my effort and determination that he actually invited me to the next proper try-outs, together with another player. This guy was supposed to give me a ride there, but unfortunately, he couldn't make it due to work (he was a truck driver). Getting to try out for the national team surely would have been a great experience, regardless of the result.
So yeah, that was the story. Congratulations to Saffo once again for making the hat-trick! 
I decided to get my burger stuffer out once again, to fill those patties with some Edam cheese.
