Millwall 3rd XV 19 Harlow 3rd XV 12

Merit Table

Saturday 13th February 2010

Millwall were happy to see us as recently they had a lot of games called off.  With the 3rd team assistance we fielded a team of 4th team players with one extra, travelling with a bare 15 due to illness and work commitments.

Millwall started the game at a ferocious pace and we were 14-0 down in under 20 minutes.  The opposition backs were quick and the forwards slightly large for a 3^rd team (and suspiciously quick.)  Once we had sorted ourselves out and started to play we restricted them to only one more score.  In return we scored when we had a penalty close to the line, from the base of the ruck Justin crashed over to score with Crabby converting.  Barney was great in the line out taking our ball and stealing theirs on occasion, he was also the first person to smash one of our opponents .  The scrum, with players out of position was as usual pretty dominant with Chris, Neal and myself disrupting their front row.  Barney and Ben supplied the power, with Big Andy, Swampy and Aunty causing mayhem as usual.  We had the same referee as we had when we played Cheshunt a couple of weeks ago.  He let the game flow and we just got on with it.  Not making the mistake that Millwall did, of telling him his decisions before he made them. 

The second half saw a whole new ball game, from the start we took the game to them, our back line of Justin, Crabby, Mumbles, Dan with Hammer, Brian and Rob Spinks started to make inroads into the Millwall defence.  Aunty scored when he was unstoppable from close range, he burrowed over and called the referee round to check the grounding.  The game was played in a sporting spirit with Millwall lending us a player when Big Andy had his hand stamped all over. Chris broke through onto the Millwall scrum half several times, for most of the half the guy was more worried about Chris than where the ball was.  Ben stormed up the middle, dropping his shoulder and smashing the Millwall backs with the rest of us not too far behind.  Mumbles and Crabby worked well together in the backs, they were facing a strong defence which did not afford them the space we get playing other teams.

Comedy Moments-Aunty was all over the Millwall number 8.  He stopped him all the time and often stripped the ball off him and told him who it was.)  The crowning moment came when Hammer chopped the 8s legs away with his usual merciless tackle leaving him bemused and bewildered on the floor.  Aunty popped over and let him and the crowd know, that he was having a bad day.  The next Millwall player to get the Hammer treatment was their number 6, at the lineout that followed, he kept asking Hammer if he was ok? Hammer was unscathed, we had the throw in.  The number 6 was gobsmacked and kept muttering about how he had kicked him in the head.  The referee was again quite happy to ignore some of the knock-ons which littered the game, we were used to it so carried on anyway.  Aunty adopted the Millwall bloke who played for us, and when he was playing for them we gave him some special attention.

Swampy was all death and destruction hitting anything that moved, Justin delivered quality ball to the backs and kept talking to us forwards.  Big thanks to Dan who came with us, he seemed to enjoy himself tackling anything that came his way.

The Millwall guys were very hospitable and have a nice clubhouse tucked away under some railway arches, we returned the favour by chilli vodkaing as many of them as we could.

MOTM-Aunty and Justin for scoring and Hammer for publicly humiliating the Millwall 8 & 6

COTM- All the people who were suddenly “unavailable” when it came to playing away.

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