Six foot Python ...

It was an interesting week and it started with a very enthusiastic text from Duncan.....”hey mate awesome 6 nations, really got me in the mood for Saturday...see you then”! And how right he was, an excellent opener to relish with many of us believing our last holiday to Firenze somehow qualifies us as authentic Italian supporters; or is it just that we dislike France that much!

So by Monday the emails were feverish with all the boys well up for a game and yes you guessed,....
Duncan was the first to express his commitment to being able to play, which for me as Skips, is so reassuring to know that the ‘Sinners’ Captain is there all the way. A few notable exceptions included Splints who continues to top the leader board of seemingly authentic excuses, so plausible on each occasion that I often reply to his email in guilt in case I am intruding in to his hectic life! Mind you Barnaby is hot on his heels, as he apparently sustained a nasty injury at the local tanning shop!

Yet despite a few other unavailable athletes, we had a near full side by Wednesday; all we needed was confirmation of our league fixture with Weybridge.
Weybridge were unable to field a side, so late on Thursday night the intrepid fixture secretary pulled a perfect opponent out of the ‘exchange’..............home to London Welsh Amateurs 2s......perfect!

Friday we were all good to go and St Bernard was on his way to Euro Disney for a well earned family break, but this meant Duncan (who works with St B..) not only now was allowed to use the photocopier unassisted, but he also felt it would be a good opportunity to watch rugby rather than play rugby and so he spent all day contemplating how to send me an email!!

As usual Friday night preparation ensued with cleaning my balls and I have found the best way to remove all the mud is to scrub them vigorously with a sturdy nail brush in the kitchen sink; it’s only right that the boys get to play with clean balls…..!

Saturday was a cold grey and drizzly day and I reckon Duncan was pretty hacked off that his ‘free’ Saturday wasn’t with better weather, but for the real men of Harrodians Vets, we were not phased.
Traffic plagued the arrival of the two Jerrys, so we were very grateful to have Owen from the Occies help us out so that we could start the match with 15. Owen thanks Mate and a bloody good game you had too!

Welsh were overall a much younger side with a lot of clean shaved ‘lads’ in their backs and from the off they were very keen to shift the ball out to them, naturally we met this head on and defended with real determination. In defence we are, in the main, fairly organised and had the ability to close down their attack quite quickly. After abating Welsh initial enthusiasm we started to take control and the pack took the ball up and began to recycle at the ruck quickly. Jerry Gillespie as usual would find himself punching a hole and sucking in two or three Welsh to bring him down from which Nicky B, who was wearing the smaller number 9 shirt, delivered a lot of clean ball to Marek for much of the game.

This pattern of play ensued for a while and some great running lines from Morgs led to an early try. Those first few points settled us but also wound up Welsh who came back from the kick off with some urgency. They were useful with ball in hand and frustrated us by keeping the ball alive to good effect. On too many occasions our tackling wasn’t good enough and what should have been a ruck became a maul, in particular their Captain, Andy, was a very useful unit at 4 and he was difficult to stop. Our similar No 4 was Duncan, but by this stage I reckon he was on his third pint of Kentish ale annoying village locals in the Pub as he shouted ‘Forza Italia’ in typical partisan style! So instead we had Benn Mann and Brucie who played exceptionally well in the second row and gave our scrum near complete dominance throughout the game.

However, in the end a persistent Welsh went over for a try brining the score to 5 : 5.

In the lineouts we did pretty well and new boy Ed Staffs became our only real option putting him up at 2. We won most of our ball and disrupted much Welsh ball well and compared to our normal No 4, (Duncan), this was really quite refreshing!
Staffs had a great debut game and certainly his fitness levels were outstanding! For new readers its worth understanding that the only ‘fitness’ Harrodians Vets know of is a grading process applied when evaluating the ‘menu’ at Spearmint Rhino!! Conversely, Staffs (www.edstafford.org)fitness is on a different scale and thus the aforementioned python, (a soft toy version presented to Staffs to make him feel at home) will hopefully be a regular feature in future fixtures!
Mind you Jerry Gillespie must have dropped him at least three times in the lineout when we hadn’t won the ball………not too sore I hope Mate?!

So having established parity and dominance in most areas we began to play with some structure, but sadly for covert tactical reasons, as this is a public website, I am unable to disclose the full nature of what they entailed. However, instead, a few words about some of the other guys……….

Duncan, errrr…………nope, was on the team sheet, but couldn’t make it!
Clappy was sublime and continues to amaze me at how much of a contribution he makes, working really hard in the back row and certainly turned over loose ball on a few key occasions.
Sheds arrived a little later on during the proceedings, but even his short stint made a meaningful contribution and always a committed one.

But the real mentions have to go to the backs who gave us the points we needed.
Nicky B at 9 was able to give us that structure we needed and his service to Marek was consistently good who in turn kicked perfectly all day and opened up numerous opportunities. Jose and Stads ran great lines and defended really well. Barney shrugged off injuries and played with magic running angles which geometrically don’t exist….simply awesome! But Pini and Morgs with three and two tries respectively where exceptional, particularly considering the pitch resembled the field my local farmer has just ploughed!!!

Welsh were a really good opponent and played with typical spirit and my thanks to Andy and his side for coming over to us. Understandably they declined our hospitality of warm food and cold beer so as to support their International brethren back at HQ – well done guys, great win!

We concluded proceedings; by being scolded in the still too hot showers and then listening to Staffs tell us a few tales over beer as the Wales France game got under the way. I received a text from Duncan…..”hey mate how did ‘we’ do?”…………delete!

The side that played was:

1 Jerry Gillespie
2 Marty
3 Finch
4 Ben Mann
5 Brucie
6 Clappy
7 Owen
8 Staffs
9 Nicky B
10 Polish Express
11 Cris Pinni
12 Jose
13 Welsh Wizard
14 Stads
15 Barney
16 Sheds

Tries:
Pini x 3 Morgs x 2
Cons:
Marek x 2

A big thanks to Gundog and Jonnie + family for supporting us and many more of you are welcome next week…………I will write then after our trip to Richmond!

Have a great week…..
Skips/Finch