May & Baker 7 Harlow 7

Friendly

The score line accurately reflected the game; both teams were evenly matched, both sides expecting to meet a load of ringers.  Like last week the team was low on numbers and a last minute drop out meant that we had to beg some players from those people at the club. We thought that we had arranged cover for missing players but there are too many people in the communication chain.  Jay decided to come with us although he was unaware that he would be scrum half and that he would get punched in the head and have to go off.

Harlow kicked off and from a knock on, set the stall out in the scrum.  Last week the front row was big, swapping James in for Mark meant that it got bigger.  The opposition prop was heard telling Danny F that he was heavy; apparently this was a surprise to him!  The May and Baker scrum half was a bit of a handful and was all over Jay from the off.  Jay was still in prop mode, although he is the only scrum half this year not to feed the ball, when the ball came out Jay picked up and drove, this caused mayhem as no-one expected this to happen. Jay fitted the 9 shirt well following a tradition for the 4th team to have a “sturdy” number 9. We never lost a scrum all afternoon and took all the May and Baker ball as well, unfortunately we just did not use it to its best potential.  Crabby got his usual welcome which involved him being high tackled (those neck muscles are like iron now!!) From the penalty Danny F was unstoppable, the last line of defence being a very small full back. When Danny crashed through I was hoping that he did not land on the full back as it would have looked like road kill pizza. 

As we were so evenly matched there was a lot of scrums/mauls/rucks in that order, a lesser team would have tired and started to slow down, however we were on a roll.  Rupert our winger sacrificed himself by falling on a ball and shielding it with his body, he argued that he was not holding on to the ball (which was true).  The referee penalised him, which actually saved his life as I think that the last May and Baker player to arrive at the ruck was going to remove him the old fashioned way.  In fairness it did prevent May and Baker scoring so fair play to you.  There had been some great moments, a great kick from me at fly half saw us not get an attacking line out, close to the try line as planned, but the opposition get a 22 due to a mix up in the flags.  Aunty was told to stop kicking as he is actually worse than me.

The second half saw May and Baker use their subs, they also lent us a player as Jay had retired hurt.  Fair play to the new scrum half, he had to deal with some absolutely crap lineout ball.  They new players made use of their fresh legs to start putting the pressure on.  The May and Baker try came as the small but fast full back dodged his way through, his last sidestep left 2 defenders stranded and only our inside centre (Ramraid) to beat, the 2 footed sliding tackle luckily did not connect (especially after the fuss we made about the one they did!). In he went and the conversion made, now for a comedy moment, Freddy Lloyd decided that he would wait until there were 5 defenders running at me before gently lobbing the ball to me.  The touchline crowd were shocked into silence although one nearly started to call an air ambulance for me, just kicked it into touch before death occurred.

 May and Baker missed a penalty as did we, although in all fairness it was the wrong side for Crabby.  The new flanker was proving to be a pain, the ref had warned both sides not to appeal for every imagined infringement, so I said nothing as he got between me and the scrum half before he had touched the ball at the 8s feet!!  It was quite interesting to avoid him in contact taking pretty much anyone else as a better, safer, option

From a maul, Swampy shipped it out to the backs, a space opened up in front of Freddy like the parting of the Red Sea, off he went through the gap before realising that the try line was quite a long way off, in true 4^th team style he looked for support, and didn’t find any.  Champagne rugby when he stopped, let the opposition catch up before offloading to Crabby.  As it came back towards me Welsh Karl (Jock) threw a lovely floated pass, as I reached up on tiptoe to catch it, ribs open for all to see, I called him a rude name.  Luckily the tackler only smashed me a little bit with his shoulder.

May and Baker had brought on a new flanker, I think he did for Jay, Swampy tried to stop him breaking early and got a smack in the head, when he asked the ref to address the problem, he heard him say to the bloke “You’ve been spotted, you’ll have to stop it.”

He was described by one of his teammates as a bit of a nuisance (understatement of the century).

With a draw being a fair result, both teams tried to score but the defences held firm.  We walked off the pitch, heads held high, absolutely knackered.  In the bar afterwards we chatted about how nice it was to play a team that had not played a load of ringers, their first team game was off and so was our 3rds, it was an enjoyable afternoon of 4th team rugby.

MOTM- Everyone who played. Special mention to James at hooker, Jay, Ramraid at inside centre who instilled the fear of God into his opposite number and Barney who covered everywhere without damaging himself.  Danny and Chris P for completely destroying the front row again, Dave and Swampy for constantly spoiling and winning the lineouts.  Rob S for quietly, not letting anyone past, and not stopping when on the attack.  Crabby for doing what we need him to do.

COTM- Me, for my excellent kick giving the opposition a drop 22.

 Aunty for kicking, full stop. (Justin told me today that you are banned from now on)

Rupert for his suicidal defence strategy.  Freddy Lloyd for his hospital pass.  Welsh Karl for his hospital pass. Jay for his pick and drives from the back of a rolling maul (You were scrum half after all)

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