Rugby games go on as Bali bombing hits close to home

Geoffrey Atkinson Contributor/Denpasar

There was a minute's silence as Bali counted its dead last weekend. And rugby footballers from around the region bowed their heads as they ringed the playing field at Sanur -- in the heart of the island's oldest tourist district -- on Sunday.

Some wept as they remembered 27 teammates, family and friends killed in the first Kuta bombing three years ago. Many had the number 27 embroidered on their left sleeve.

Among them was Dave Letchford, who was badly injured in the 2002 bombing which claimed 202 lives in Kuta. At the weekend he had returned to Bali as a key player with the ISCI Club from Jakarta.

"It was just gut wrenching," said the 39-year-old father of three from his office in Jakarta this week. "Here we were playing rugby on Sunday while they were still counting the dead. How many were killed and how many were injured? We just didn't know.

"For me there were just so many mixed emotions -- rage and fury at the depravity of people who could do such a thing, feeling sorry for the victims, the injured, their families and the people of Bali.

"When it happened the first time (2002) we all thought it was a once off -- but when it happens a second time, it's not so easy to pass off."

In 2002 the carnival was canceled after many teams lost players and supporters in the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar bombing at Kuta. Last week, there were no rugby casualties and organizers called on players to decide if they wished to continue with the country's showcase rugby event.

Clubs had come from Jakarta, Australia, Singapore, Guam and even as far as Taipei. Only the undefeated Sumbawa withdrew on orders from the mining company that employs most of the team.

Most players were tour veterans more interested in rugby's camaraderie than the cut and thrust of 10s football.

"When you let terrorists start dictating your life, it means they have won," Letchford said. "We owed it to the friends we have lost and the victims of the night before to continue. But I felt numb and hollow. It just destroyed the weekend."

In 2002 Letchford had been in the front seat of a taxi nearing the Sari Club when the bomb exploded. The windscreen shattered in his face, his glasses were blown off, both eardrums perforated.

He got out of the taxi disoriented, covered in blood and with shrapnel-type wounds all over his face and upper body. A deep cut gushed blood from his wrist as he saw people horribly maimed.

Even with these memories, he plans to holiday in Bali with his family in a few weeks. "You have to stay positive ..." he said.

That seemed to be the consensus as a rugby crowd of more than 500 players and friends gathered for an open-air dinner in the grounds of one of Bali's oldest hotels on Sunday night after the carnival.

The organizers spoke of taking Bali 10s to the "next level". And the 16 remaining teams that drank and sang late into the night last Sunday were bound by a common thread -- to return to Bali next year.

Geoffrey Atkinson is the media officer of Indonesian Development Rugby, an organization working to develop the game nationwide.