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2011/12 Match Reports28 April 2012 RBSRFC 1s v RBS Old Boys This was a fixture which was the natural next step after the RBS Old Boys had shown so comprehensively that they had it all in them by demolishing Guys Hospital 3s earlier in the season. Unfortunately for RBSRFC 1s, the date clashed with one regular prop’s diary and the other regular is nursing a knee problem and two people who have stepped up to prop this season were on the Old Boys’s side and three others who have stepped up were unavailable. End result was that RBSRFC 1s had to admit to lack of qualified front row and adopting a MetLeague convention many referees follow, played with 14 men throughout to suffer for that lack of making a proper fist of a rugby match. The Old Boys showed significant organisational skills from the off and despite the pouring rain and slippy conditions – making the ball more like a bar of soap than normal – we saw good handling and strong running by both sides. Tackling was key too and each side showed a determination not to yield. However the Old Boys crossed the line first with a well run in score from (so it is thought) their full back Trevor Andrews. Conversion missed (no surprise – getting purchase with your planted foot to kick was a nightmare). RBSRFC 1s came back looking for vengeance but worked patiently through phases to get deep into the 22; it looked like Dan Mahoney was going to dance through but he was well wrapped up a few metres short and just got the offload away to Rufus Ballaster who flopped over from 3 metres, hitting the deck to use the mud to avoid the determined efforts of Malcolm Munro to deny him – 5 all. One of the better backs’ handling periods for RBSRFC 1s saw another first half try for them – Mahoney managing to finish it this time himself and loop round to behind the posts, so at the turnaround point a finely balanced 12-5 was the score. The rain lashed down, the referee (Another Returning welcome face in Tim Kirby) took pity on the supporters – who deserve a big hoorah for coming down in such filthy weather – and we got underway again rapidly. Two opportunistic counterattacks got rewarded of 5 points each – Matt Frost after Rocky was denied 5 metres out and Gobbie Jack on a solo effort some might – wrongly? - have thought slightly greedy. One sustained series of forwards’ moves by the Old Boys saw just reward for Dave Longrigg, who had been a prime battering ram all game. Under the posts and slotted for a conversion. 22-12 was a fair outcome – in better weather RBSRFC 1s might have fancied a bit more expansiveness to stretch the lead/ with contested scrums Old Boys might have fancied themselves to grab some ball against the head. (And in that same scenario RBSRFC 1s would have had more lineout options – one can keep wondering “what if”.) We will never know what impact such facts would have had, the reality on the day was better-than-expected rugby achieved in the slime and the mud and a proper physical contest stretched all players of the match who should feel justly proud of their input to the battle. On each side a father and son pairing enjoyed that rare treat of playing together: Adam Twigger – a regular 2s player this season who has played 1s as well - was by invitation an Old Boy/ Rufus Ballaster was by invitation a 1s player up from the 2s for the day. With Steve (Twiggs) an Old Boy and 2s player and Tom Ballaster a 1s player of more than 10 matches this season, there were Ballaster Ballaster as two of the 1s team and Twigger and Twigger as two of the OBs squad. In terms of this season there is only Paris (away this year) to go but plenty learned for the upcoming season.
31 March 2012 So what happened...!??! HSBC 2s v RBSRFC 1s (Spitfire League) – WON 15 – 0 HSBC looked good and ran well and rucked and scrummaged effectively; RBSRFC just happened to look slightly better, to present and ruck beautifully and to have scrummaged better and better as the match went on. Try Harps, Try ? plus 1 conversion and 1 penalty Gobbie Jack saw a 15 point lead at half time – and the clean sheet was as impressive as the over 2 score margin. However, the previous league match we had shipped enough points in the last 10 minutes as the margin was so it was not a point for complacency and rallying calls at ½ time ensured a determined effort through the second half which (a) got cut about 15 mins short (b) finished nevertheless 45 mins later than scheduled (c) identified that even an oppo player does not deserve to be sat on by Jack Marshall (we hope he will recover but the ambulance took a very long time over getting him off the pitch so it is a worry) but (d) saw the famous score from eurovision – nul points. RBSRFC was back in its league winning ways, and against our most proximate league opposition which happens to be also a bank rival – HAPPY DAYS. Back at Copers Cope Road the 2s match had started! RBS RFC missing 3 subs plus one semi injured hero watching the 1s but press ganged into playing for the 2s started with 10 of our own players plus 4 oppo subs on loan until our chaps arrived. It was rugby but at our end shambolic: the Bromley 4 subs were good and cared and worked hard but we were more out of position than in it and we struggled. We shipped a couple of tries early on through indecisive defence. But we gradually got the guys we are used to working with and 10 mins in we were no longer dependent upon borrowed oppo subs. We played in good heart and with much passion and we did not lose by the cricket score we might have done on the first 15 mins of the match – indeed we scored some points ourselves and got an apology from Bromley for 1 of their late tries for the chap who popped the ball out of a tackle, had his fellow player knock it on into his hands so he popped it again. He knew it was penalty against him as did everyone who saw it but that particular moment the line of sight of the ref was blocked so a ref cannot give what he does not see and we wore that disappointment and fought back. Our Club President summed it up well in the bar: For the Club the most important things of 31st March, in order, were for the 2s to play and the 1s to win: we managed both so who’s buying the beers?
10 March 2012 Guys what can be said about the game: we turned up, we knew what we had to do and decided to just roll over for the first 10 minutes. After they scored their try and the penalty went over I looked up and looked round at us as a team and thought it was going to be a long day running from our touch line. However every one of you, my friends on the pitch and our support on the sidelines dug deep and decided to play rugby. That there showed great character from 1 to 15 we decided that we would play rugby and we fought back. With some forward work the backs got the ball and showed their class. Gobby slotted two penalties and we were back in it before the break. Second half, Becks started to tire and we kept playing and got a well deserved try with Aled showing great composure and awareness to pass the ball out to Tim who in turn pass to Stassen who scored. What happened for the rest of the game could be debated about for ages but there is no point. We as a team cannot afford to go down 10 points before we decide to play. We may have picked it up at the end with 10minutes to go but on the other hand we could of gone down another 5,7,10 points. I apologise I didn’t start that game well and I didn’t pick you guys up, but we all have to take responsibility for ourselves to play the game. When we play as a TEAM we are unbeatable. Despite the loss, I hold my head up high because everyone of you did step up to the mark and represent yourself and the club in a manor that the game should be played in. Dan 3 March 2012 We lost: we should not have done so. We won’t even bother to say who scored our one try or kicked our points as we got too few of the blighters to win! We can and will protest that the last 5 minutes of play saw some shocking decisions and the last act was the conversion of a “try” which never got to the deck scored by a player who was on his back with the ball above him when awarded the try. However we must accept that RBSRFC met worthy opponents who played good rugby and pushed us all the way. To secure victory we needed to be more than 7 points ahead in the dying moments, we needed to have scored some of the many and various tries which we threw away earlier and we needed to have a friend not a sworn enemy in the chap with the whistle who for 80 mins tells the teams what laws are being played to (regardless of how close to or distant from the laws of rugby those decisions might be). By the way for those who wondered: 11.1 OFFSIDE IN GENERAL PLAY
(a) A
player who is in an offside position is liable to sanction only if the player
does one of three things: (b) Offside and interfering with play. A player who is offside must not take part in the game. This means the player must not play the ball or obstruct an opponent. (c) Offside and moving forward. When a team-mate of an offside player has kicked ahead, the offside player must not move towards opponents who are waiting to play the ball, or move towards the place where the ball lands, until the player has been put onside. 11.5 BEING PUT ONSIDE UNDER THE 10-METRE LAW
(a) The
offside player must retire behind the imaginary 10-metre line across the field,
otherwise the player is liable to be penalised. Rufus 18 February 2012 As this is our furthest trip this season, deep into the Kent countryside the club took a 22 seater coach there and back and the atmosphere built en route. Home team was heard commenting that we were keenie visitors, out warming up well before kick off and the preparation paid off as the match got underway with control of scrums, lineouts and open play. Conditions led to us struggling to convert domination into points, though, but wise heads took the 3 points on offer when a penalty just outside the 22 and about half way from centre to touch line was neatly slotted by Jack Holding. It was utterly against the rub to find ourselves under our posts near half time when their sizeable fly half made a break having juggled to catch the ball and passed to a centre who only managed to slap the ball on but it was well caught outside him and our defence of what SHOULD have happened rather than way ACTUALLY was in front of us led to us being 5 - 3 down at half time. Rain increased and once again our domination was not turning into points, we had 5 metre scrum with our put in 2 or 3 times and countless lineouts in their 22 including at least one on their 5. At one point we thought we had a try but there had been a poor touch kick by Vigo, fly hacked back by Jack Holiding as he was not close enough to gather it and almost certainly our forwards had not "attempted to retire" before they pounced on the ball to claim the try after a Vigo foot trapped Holding's return kick right on Vigo's line! We did however get the second kickable penalty which let us take the lead and we held that lead by playing 90%+ in their half through the second half, from which they did not have the penetration to get back at us, thank goodness. We can feel lucky that Vigo's kicking was 0 from 2 and ours was 2 from 2 but we should feel proud to go away to a team above us in a hard fought league and to grind out a victory on away soil, with the youngest team RBSRFC has played for a long time - perhaps ever... Our players' age range ran from 17 to 29, I believe, with an average probably 25 at most! Special mention goes to FOUR people (Joe a friend of the Stassens, Ryan, Twiglet and Rockie) all of whom were there on the bench and none of whom got to play. The conditions and the attrition were such Ollie Harps and Rufus dared not risk the rhythm of making a substitution change so the same 15 guys slogged out the whole 80 mins. Special mention also to Gareth and Jack who came "on loan" from Goldsmiths, known to us through the Whitefoot link. We hope to offer some more Goldsmiths students a weekend playing opportunity as time goes by. GOOD WORK GUYS - now the evenings are getting warmer, let's stick at training to ensure the end of our season sees the best run of results it possibly can! Rufus 28 January 2012 THANK GOODNESS - this was a big straight running Darts team well used to the narrowness of the pitch the match was played on so trundling up the middle. RBS had a few missing forwards and put out a strong pack but one with some obvious people missing and one wise head obviously out of position. Darts lived off RBSRFC's mistakes, scrummed very physically and managed to go 5 points up after about 15 mins. By the time of the second half, it seemed clear that RBSRFC was better organised, had more to offer, had its line out functioning nicely (with Mahoney front jumper) and threatened regularly with runs breaking tackles. During the second half, it all came good: the passion was there, the energy was invested and the points eventually came. Pete's first came from a lot of handling in the backs and some good runs and offloads and suddenly Pete had the ball and only half the pitch to run along without being caught up with - I'd back Pete out of 9 in 10 such footraces and I wasn't wrong that time. Our second saw sustained forward pressure, hard yards made, defence stretched then some nice wide hands (well, as wide as one can manage on a pitch narrower than we are used to) and Harps - on for an injured player and only about 5 or 10 mins since his arrival on the pitch - screamed loud to get his hands on the ball and finished nicely. Pete's last owed a lot to a sweet kick over the oppo backs and a bit to a lucky bounce and an awful lot to ANOTHER footrace which he finished with a good dive... as in a necessary one to prove he had won the race and to deny the tackler any chance last minute NOT an example bit of showboating! Make no mistake, the challenge Darts threw at us was the physicality of the forwards and the difference between the halves was that in the second we gave as good as we got. With enough possession to run the ball at them and with enough fronting up to pull their forwards into rucks and mauls in numbers but win clean ball our side, our younger fitter backs were always in with the opportunity to put points on and secure the victory; on another day, I've seen RBSRFC fail to deliver on the physicality and then to force its backs to have to see what it can do with little ball all of which is poor quality. Today we did not make that mistake - well done for digging deep and working together. COME ON YOU BLUES Rufus 21 January 2012 Well done lads, it is churlish to see a result like this and whinge too hard. In fairness, though, we gifted them at least 2 of the 3 tries and we failed to take as much advantage as we might have done from the oppo's inability to cope with our hard running and good lines. Areas of dominance: scrum (until they went uncontested) open running catching of the high ball. Areas we "lost": lineout and holding our tongue in the face of some interesting interpretations of the laws in context from the chap with the whistle. Great thanks to Wedders and Jerry each of whom came back to ensure we offered contested scrums throughout. Great praise to Ginger Joe & to Pete for good tackling and running games. It hurts to admit it, but Mahoney had a cracker too and twice ran good lines off Ginger running back from deep after kicks by Blackheath to clear their lines and who scored two sweet tries (and wasted one another by a ridiculous kick through). It was good to see Matt running about after injury and it was impressive how subs came on without disrupting the game. There is still stuff to perfect so make Tues evening training a priority, lads. Rufus
I brilliant
win at the weekend against a tuff opposition. There where points in that
game were we could have thrown it away or just coasted and it would f been a
closer result. Mahoney RBSRFC 7 - Beckenham
5ths 29 While suspicions of “Beckenham doing its normal trick” abounded – when you believe you are playing a 5th team anything can happen to their 1s 2s 3s or 4s matches in terms of unfortunately being scratched and we know what can happen then – in fairness it seems this Beckenham 5s side in our metropolitan league is consistently its vets team and the faces recognised from that outfit are those to be expected. 2nd in our league on that basis is not surprising as the Vets of our near neighbours tend to play at about 3s to 4s standard and they came with intent. Had RBSRFC turned them over, we could have swapped places leaping from 4th to second and letting them drop similarly but on the day that was not what happened! Spurred on by watching an exemplary performance by older RBS men, our 1s played with determination but struggled to win first phase ball of any quality and lacked precision in execution – support play was slow to the breakdowns, passes were going behind players and/or being dropped, runners were too flat rather than coming from deep and so the errors let us down time after time. On the bright side we were 7 – 5 up at one point, nice finishing Ginger Joe on the wing, but lack of quality possession showed as the match progressed. Again being fair to our side, the scrum eventually settled down and for about 30 mins we held them – Odie playing an exemplary tight head up against it, until his hammy let him down and scrums had to go uncontested. News is awaited on Tyrone, who exited early with a twisted knee. We nearly had about 5 other tries – 3 of them from Joe Green who managed to drop one, be held up for one and brought back for an allegedly forward pass on a third! One had a suspicion, however, that Beckenham had some left in the tank and if we had got ahead again during the match, it might have been only to suffer a sad defeat regardless. We were staggered by a few decisions of the chap with the whistle but let’s be sensible (1) no ref = no game (2) we made more mistakes collectively than he did alone and (3) with Jonathan Caplan refereeing we would still have lost that match because we lost our cutting edge on the day. There’s stuff to work on and a lot of the season to play for. Tuesday nights is where it is going to be made better so see you all there soon. If you cannot make every week, make sure you let Ollie & Harps know the odd one you must miss and get down for the others. If we train together, anything can happen. The buzz post match was good, O’Neils takings must have been nicely up on the night, and the massed crowds of Reunion revellers made a nice contribution to the club sensing its 126 year history – long may such relationships continue as it means a lot to build on good foundations rather than feel it all has to start from scratch. Rufus
19 November 2011 Old Alleynians 4s 19 : 41 RBSRFC 1s OA’s website carries this message posted pre kick off: Captians Message: 17-11-2011 Home vs RBOS This is a big game. Enough said.It was indeed just that – a big league game for both sides - and when our supporters watched the two teams warm up we had our concerns! Even at half time with the score line showing RBSRFC in the ascendency and turning around to have the sun at our backs and the hill in our favour, one felt the game could go either way and that RBS as visitors had got their scores against the general run of play. It was defence which made the difference: each team was winning a fair amount of ball and both teams had good hands shifting the ball wide but RBS mid field tackling – especially by half backs, centres and back row forwards – was so solid that OAs rarely made much ground unless they kicked and thus ceded possession. When our turn came to run at them, their line was repeatedly broken and/or our recycling and offloading was effective and we had a quite phenomenal “foray into oppo 22 : points gained” ratio from this match. Special mentions go first off to ALL for being far more on time than last week and for making use of that period to prepare mentally and physically: secondly special mentions to Ben Elley for tackling his heart out (and earning a slightly harsh 10 minute enforced rest for his efforts at one point in the second half), Jack Holding for a good performance in the centre including a well run try, Chris Stassen for a 1s debut at fly half played with dogged determination, Joe Argenziano for a nice hat-trick including two by taking his opposite number on the outside and then outpacing OAs nicely, Bapi for laying his body on the line to the point of needing treatment for yet another RBSRFC player’s shoulder injury – get well soon mate, Tyrone for catching majestically a couple of poor clearance kicks and making return runs worthy of another guy who caught high ball in exemplary fashion and ran back at them effectively (Simon you know it was you!), Jack Perry for looking lost out there on the wing for 70 mins but doing what all RBS flankers are asked to do regularly and often - i.e. filling in back slots due to absences of specialist players there - and to JP’s cousin Tom Ballaster for a debut for the 1s off the bench making an impact when Joe Green’s niggling shoulder injury (shoulder injury – what is it about this club!) made him need time out of the battle. (Is three cousins on the pitch for the club simultaneously a record?) On Sunday morning, Joe A was still expressing gratitude for Tom’s “worthy of a centre even if I do play second row” pass out to Simon Moore who passed neatly on to Joe so he could bag his third try in the second half. It was team play at 3rd phase plus which really showed the class of the performance, guys – you did yourselves credit. Mahoney deserves a mention for captaining the side well to a victory which ends the misery of knowing the club underperformed last week against Vigo. Try
scorers: Joe A (3) M Ruiz (zero metres gained but just deserts for piling
through an OAs 5 metre lineout and hassling) J Holding. Cards – one yellow against Ben Elley, one yellow won by Tyrone Johnson – nice dive after you got clothes-lined, matey; it helped even up the second half for OAs to be missing a player for 10 mins just after Ben got let back onto the pitch! Rufus 12 November 2011 RBS 1s 12 Vigo 2s 36 Sadly this was not the tense exciting top of the table clash we had looked forward to. RBS at home suffered from disorganisation before the match started and is unlucky to have had Harps watching the match with the plaster-cast off but hobbling still and Weggs likewise well down the convalescent path with his collar bone break but still some weeks from match fit! Less dramatic in injury terms but still an unfortunate missing person from the pitch was Rocky, nursing his twisted ankle and wishing he could have been out there boffing a path towards the line... A few other absences led to the team being forwards heavy and a good few backline players out of position and/or unused to the style of play of the person next to whom he was performing. Let’s be fair, with a squad of our “brilliant A B C [... through to the 18th letter of the alphabet] are all available and tip top fit this week” we would have faced an uphill battle. Vigo was well organised and had a few impressive runners with ball in hand and sweet hands to get the ball wide when the opportunities arrived. RBS’s defences were tested time and time again and it is a credit to the side that it lost convincingly but NOT to “a cricket score”. It was also good to see that while we conceded a couple of soft scores during the match, we also put together several excellent passages of play and we were unlucky not to score more often ourselves. Top try of the match (to an entirely unbiased audience, surely, but certainly to me from the sidelines) was Mahoney’s in the second half as he cut a lovely line close to a well won scrum, catching Vigo’s back-row and scrum half a little flat footed and then storming on the rest of the way to dab down under the posts. Do that more often, and we might keep our place in the top few of this tough league we find ourselves in. Everything to play for boys; don’t let your heads go down. Rufus 5 November 2011 RBSRFC 2s 15 - 14 Darenth Valley 2s The second team of RBSRFC exists - it is official! Darenth Valley like RBS has been running 1 team only for some time but today they ran their 2s out for a third time recently and we put out ours for the first. But for the "small" fact of Props we could have had RBS 1s playing elsewhere or at the same venue immediately after. We're not saying that no-one who played today is NOT a 1st team player, just that there is a group of about 30 to 40 players all of whom want to play for RBSRFC and 17 of those RBS guys played for the club today and enjoyed themselves. We had a problematic start. DV struggled to get its team in place and at the start we had lent the oppo Max Stevenson and Alex Jollie (thanks to each of them - and Lee Dennison who later accepted the request to play for DV). So our bench was almost exhausted before we started but as the game went on it all looked quite pretty and we were seemingly in command. Oddly we didn't capitalise as we should have done. Matt Frost grabbed a nice try early on for us but we didn't convert it. Weirdly we took a feet off the gas and they crashed over from a penalty tapped and they did get the conversion - whoops we were behind. Chris Stassen scored for us (debut game, try scoring, wait till end of season dinner!) but we softly offered their winger a chance to run down our touch line and then cut in for a score under the posts - what the heck they converted that too so we got behind AGAIN. Second half and the only score was............ for RBSRFC! Pete Oosthuizen did a run round and round and in and out of everyone route from 15 metres out until he dabbed down near the posts; we even missed that conversion too and we had about 20 mins to hold the lead including a few ventures by DV into our 22 and a few efforts by us in theirs. Final whistle finally came and it was official, with people playing out of position (and a worrying majority of forwards in the squad) and with players lent to the opposition and with an almost empty bench and juggling happening time and time again for minor injuries etc., we finally had WON and that was a great feeling - one celebrated in style with port and beer! A WORD OR TWO FROM THE SECOND TEAM MANAGER: * GUYS YOU MADE ME PROUD * IF THE REPORT ABOVE IS INACCURATE THAT IS AS I SPENT SO LONG WATCHING WORRYING AND SHOUTING AT YOU * LAST TIME THIS CLUB HAD A 2ND TEAM I PLAYED AGAINST IT - THAT WAS 7 TO 8 YEARS AGO; THANK YOU FOR GETTING US TO WHERE WE NOW ARE * THERE IS NO REASON THIS CLUB SHOULD NOT HAVE A THIRD TEAM WITHIN 2 OR 3 MORE SEASONS! Rufus.
01 Oct 2011 In the first few minutes of the game, it was clear that we were in for a big match. Indeed, some who joined me on the touchline had grave concerns about falling to a cricket score if the Guys Hospital backs could get their act together. It is a credit to RBS that we tackled well in our backline and fronted up to win the majority of first phase and our fair share of second phase ball. While the game was still very much in them mix, we lost our captain Harps to what he accurately diagnosed on the pitch as a broken leg. A reshuffle among the backs ensured continuity and strong play, which strength was rewarded with a tap penalty which went - as at training rehearsals - to the first pod of Jack+ and a second pod of Tyrone+, who seemed almost surprised to break through tackles and score. Aled added the extra two and RBS was seven points up. In fairness to Guys, despite losing some front row players during the period of the match they did try to return to contested scrums but a lot of the match was played, under the watchful eye of our stand-in ref Les Giblin, to uncontested scrums with the problems that gives to the feel of the game. Uncharacteristic lax defence and some missed tackles let Guys back in the game with 20 mins to go and everything to play for – 7 All. A kickable (if you are not Johnny Wilkinson with WRC balls) penalty was majestically secured by Aled leading to a well deserved 10-7 win at full time. Two suspected ringers were identified in our back line as stars of yesteryears returned to the fold and we hope to welcome them plenty more this season for the attacking options they ably demonstrated. Mahoney took over captaincy well but has failed to write two match reports so far this season so I stepped up to get this one on our website! Rufus.
10 Sept 2011 After a mix up over which Croydon team we were to play it was a minor miracle to find 20+ players at the ground within 20 mins of meet time - especially as traffic within 5 miles of the oppo's ground seemed to be static! But we did and we had a proper warm up, some team tactic debates, some goal setting etc and felt up for it come kick off. Well, all but one of us in that Joe Green limped off with ankle trouble during the warm up! For 15 to 20 mins RBSRFC dominated and two well worked tries (Matt Frost gifted by Mike Ruiz as his boot was coming off with metres only to the try line) and Aled. We easily could have had another when the backs finished some attractive deceptive running with a beautifully taken pass by a winger on the burst who placed the ball firmly over the line: close inspection of the line in question revealed it to be the 5m line not the try line, however. We rather took our foot off the gas at that point and we also suffered the premature departure of Matt the try scorer to head to A&E to have a clearly dislocated finger dealt with. However, late in the first half a rather sweet interception try again by Aled established that we were due to win the match. There were probably 10 to 15 KG per man on average in the pack of additional weight compared to our average to cope with and Streatham-Croydon's counter-rucking was good. With lineouts struggling due to absence of specialist thrower-in and scrums creaking given their size, we knew we were in for a long old game and it did indeed see us concede a number of tries but the fight was still there (with one noticeable flare up the details of which we will not publicise: this being rugby it is good to note the enduring friendship established at the final whistle between our Henry Cooper and their Joe Frazier). Extra tries were added by Paul Harper and Ben Elley - this got us (given Aled had brought his lucky kicking boots for conversions) into the 30s and while they also got also very close to the 30s the match looked tighter than it was with 7 of their points being grabbed at “final play” – something RBSRFC needs to avoid doing in league fixtures. Having come off the winners, most of the players found their way to accept Mahoney's kind invitation for a barbeque at his house (thanks Dan – great night out). All of Craig Stansfield, Ben Elley, Babi Bhattercharjee and Jack Perry played impressive debut performances for RBSRFC, Mike Ruiz and Dan Mahoney both stepped into second row to cover for Joe Green’s injury and we saw welcome returning faces in Lee Dennison and Aled linking in the half-backs. Special mention is due to Rob Summers for stepping where many fear to tread – playing hooker for three quarters of the match! Most of us can expect to improve a lot on our performances but equally we've played a lot worse and this was a match to try things out (like Weggs at No 8) which might work but need time and should not be risked for a first time in a league fixture – that’s what friendlies are for, after all. Rufus. |
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