3rd XV Match Report

Date: Saturday 31st October 2009

Another away day for the thirds and a chance to get back to winning ways. Harps came into our dressing room asking what was the average age of our team. Now we do have a few youngsters on the team but come on we have two 53 year olds as well as a number in their late 40's. The idea of the merit table is to bring players through to 1st team rugby. At our club everyone is included from 17-60 and that's the way we like it. What a great honour it was for Chris Hemingway to play alongside his son for the first time. I also had my son on the pitch and Chris Grey had both his sons playing, if Tom had been fit he would have joined his dad Tony. I think we have got something going here at the moment and its thoroughly enjoyable.

Onto the game, I met their captain and the ref for the toss. I asked for a minutes silence in honour of Stuart Mather which was agreed, Thanks Harps. The next thing the captain said was they were a bit worried about us contesting the scrum looking at our size. Well thank you, I was trying to think of a motivational talk but what better way to wind a pack up than to tell them they can't scrummage. We kicked off, they came back at us pretty quick using the boot a lot. The first scrum oh yes we took against the head. An early injury to Jordan meant Michael Grey, our only sub at the time, took to the field in the centre and did a good job for us. The forwards were working well off loading and getting back in defence. A good try coming from George. Next we had a penalty near the posts, I was going to take the points but Chris was fired up and wanted to run it. Casey popped him the ball and there was no stopping him. Another scrum on their 22  a big blindside we stacked the open side  George, Casey and Demitri could use their pace. Good running from George proved too strong for them. Another explosive try from George straight through the pack. Harps, 22 nil down, did get their hands on the ball and got into our 22. Chris's calf pulled again and he had to leave the field. With 14 men Harps worked their try into the corner. Young Michael Grey, who'd had a nasty knock to his head and neck had to leave the field for a while but we stuck at it with 13 men. The good news for Harps was with our front row and replacement front row out scrums were uncontested and they could win their own ball. The second half was more of the same good defence by our backs from the endless Harps kicks and good work from the pack. Michael came back on but went on the wing as did Chris who was really struggling and could not really move and when he got the ball popped to him he merely walked into the tackle using his upper body strength and popped the ball on. Fantastic commitment. More tries from Ross Court, George, Tony and Stuart. David had to leave 20 minutes before the end but Chris Grey had turned up by then and played the closing stages and we needed him. Harps again had a penalty and kicked for the corner and mauled a try to finish the game. It was a fantastic effort without any missed tackles and I am proud to be captain of this team, we kept our discipline well when Harps started to mix it up. Well done lads just play our game. Thanks Harps you gave us probably one of the hardest games we have had this year I am certainly feeling it as a write this report.

Man of the match

Although there was George with four tries and Ross with two tries and endless running, Chris Hemmingway with his 'never say die' attitude is man of the match, he puts is body on the line every week and is becoming a legend at the club already.

Tries:George Hemingway 4,Ross Court 2 ,Stuart Grey 1,Tony Maile,Chris Hemingway 1

Cons: Casey 3

The ref missed one of those tries so the score should have been 51