Great Leaders!!!

…well trodden track of rugby commentary, but in a week where the World has witnessed the biggest circus act arrive in town, I felt it fitting to devote some air time to the matter of great leaders!

However, just a little update in the world of ‘swipe’ left or right; of course being dyslexicsas it has taken me a while to realise how to get this thing right and for a while it seemed all the former school dinner ladies I had known were contacting me, but that’s now been fixed! Though the next problem has broadly been like this…….

‘ Hi Rich you sound great what are you doing Friday night?’

‘Hey you, thanks! I am scrubbing my balls clean which I do in the big utility room sink with a nail brush and as I’ve got three it takes a while, problem is last week one of the guys broke a metal valve in one of the balls so that’s really hacked me off; he is a typical Ex Army chap and they are quite rough when it comes to playing with my balls! Anyway let’s speak and arrange coffee?’

‘DELETE & BLOCKED’

So as you can see Skips is still cooking for one!

Anyway our key encounter this weekend against Old Cranleighan’s was to be an away fixture and thank goodness this esteemed Club has some great personnel at the helm running it. Now I won’t mention his name as he is a very humble and unassuming chap, although a Lord! With his depth of experience and immense savvy wisdom he had the foresight to confirm this important league fixture in very good time mid week. Though a well executed pitch inspection on Thursday meant the fixture couldn’t be played at OC’s ground as the pitch’s were frozen. At this stage most clubs would have simply cancelled the game or even given us a ‘walk over’, but not Lordie! Oh no! You see Lordie is utterly committed to the spirit of the game and especially player development!

Lordie wanted to make sure a number of key OC’s 2s players got a much needed run-out and some match fitness so he went beyond the call of duty during Friday ensuring the fixture could be hosted at Costa de Barnes RFC which was under a blanket of goose shite and thus our pitches don’t freeze!

But still the leadership continued with an early Saturday morning text:

“Rich Surrey is frozen and all matches are off but I really hope our 25 man squad can still come up for our fixture today”. Of course Skips checked in with Ken Himmler Macrae and our pitches were all good to go….

Lordie exemplifies what a great bastion of Club, County and Country rugby he is and the mixed 2s Vest squad which arrived in plenty of time for the 2:15 KO owe him a big thank you for making sure the fixture took place.

As it was, Himmler had lied and even the goose shite was frozen and as the ref was on for £25 nice ones, he had no intention of cancelling the fixture, (Lordie I will send you the Invoice!), so at 2:10 we kicked off into the sunshine and Skips couldn’t see a thing…..totally blinded!!

OC’s were strong and well up for this encounter and in fact very organised with a few familiar players from Surrey County games orchestrating a few handy moves in the backs. At Harrodians we are used to coming up against players not yet shaving and wearing fancy pink aluminous football boots, but to be fair to OC’s they blended in very well.

OC’s made us work incredibly hard in every aspect of the game, scrum was evenly contested but only because we had to work immensely hard to contain a well drilled pack. Lineouts were not on form and a combination of factors meant we just didn’t win enough ball, or our own let alone theirs! Thus the game soon became a defensive battle where all we seemed to do was chase and chase for long phases of the game.

In consistent form I have no idea who scored first and unless one of you other buggers wants to write this blinking match report whilst swiping left, then just make do!!

So at some stage during the game OC’s did score and so did we in fact I think it was 12:12 at half time!

Goose shite was now thawing nicely and of no help to controlling an already slippery ball and OC’s would simply not lie down, in fact at no time during the game did we have the upper hand, OC’s were good and good at being good. All that we managed to do just that little be better was dig deep and defend gallantly and with utter commitment.
I single out no one individual, but salute OC’s for giving us a perfect encounter played in great spirit, though I as for Harrodians, we really did play with character and a spirit which needs to surface far more often; its harnessing that belief which often evades us for brief periods during the game.

And Lordie – thank you for making it happen as without your selfless commitment to the ‘game’ this fixture and result may have not occurred! And I guess in a way there is the similarity with Bill Clinton!

He too is selfless and took it upon himself to help take the media spotlight off newbie President Trump who is trying to work out what the hell he is doing on Monday morning and decided to discretely let his tongue hang out of his mouth drawling like a St Bernard in heat in August whilst on the Global media stage and standing next to an already deflated Hilary.....class!!!

Gee…..!!! With a drought on magnanimous leaders in industry and government around the World, I have it on good authority that the best ones, are like a Rhino, rare to come by, deeply humble and private yet immensely inspirational in the way they lead….that’s what a good rugby club needs…, or has!

Next week we have no fixture in lieu of the Annual Vets Lunch which kicks off at 11:30 in liquid style, though weather permitting there may be some Barnes RFC representation in the Surrey Vets v RAF Vets fixture on Wednesday evening at 19:30 played at Esher!

Tries: Morgs, Iden, Si Curran
Cons: Marek x 2
Skips/Finche