The beers are on Jack!!!! In his third season for TRFC our flying youngster has finally got off the mark and he did it in style scoring two really, really good tries. Jack you are to bring two cases this week to celebrate and with this contribution you become TBoB having already received one fine on the first weekend of the season. Congratulations.

A great result but we once again took our time to get going. Possibly this could be put down to the pathetic “Teachers” call instigated by Donal at the beginning of the game that had the team giggling rather an pumped just before kick-off. Whatever the reason we struggled to get out of our 22 for the first 15 minutes but when we did….well look out! Here comes Jack!!

It’s fair to say that however courageous our Captain is, a Hooker he is not! We really struggled in the scrum but with the inexperienced prop Lubin and our complete novice Dunlop at hooker it was hardly surprising but on our first visit to the Police 22 we finally won a scrum and with Harry Andrews executing a training ground move to perfection he found Jack moving like a train who cut a perfect line to the posts to score his first try for TRFC. Pup converted.

Police fluffed a penalty attempt which was comically caught by Lubin in-goal who then ignored the shouts to ground it and instead felt confident in running the ball out 104 meters through their entire on rushing team. Of course he got nowhere near but he took everyone by surprise and we managed to clear or lines. Puppy then slotted a penalty for us but then the Police scored. For some reason the BM has blanked their score completely from his memory but does remember going into halftime only 10-7 up.

At the beginning of the second half Police brought on their latest South African behemoth. This boy is a big unit but if anything it galvanized Teachers into stepping up their defense with Church, LT and Paddison to the fore. Teachers pressed hard in defense and didn’t let their dangerous runners have time on the ball, forcing mistakes and turnovers. Both Porter and Morrison who shared the scrum half duties had good games harrying the new monster at the back of the scrum and it was just a good feeling on the park knowing that the whole team to a man was committed to the game.

Police managed to break out early on but the threat was snuffed out by a fine chase back and tackle by the speedy right wing Andre Landy.
The new Saffa nailed Bobby whose immediate reaction was to take out his annoyance in a huge tackle on the Police fly-half. Henry followed this tackle with one of his own shortly after on the hapless fly-half apparently breaking his ribs and taking him out of the game.

The oldest man on the park, Harry Andrews was having a stormer and it was he who set up the next try by stepping inside his opposite man before delivering his trademark over-the-head alley-oop pass to Puppy. Pup had a lot to do but with his low slung centre of gravity he burst through several tacklers and made 20 metres before dishing a pass to the on rushing Jack who once again chose an exquisite support line to go untouched for his second.

Police didn’t give up the fight but Teachers were beginning to dominate the contact areas, Church was absolutely magnificent, diving on loose balls with no regard for his own safety and he lined up the new monster a number of times for some personal treatment. It was Puppy who finished the game as a contest when Harry again released the youngster on the right wing, Pup out sprinted the defense before neatly stepping inside the final man to score a great individual try which Nails converted.

We could have got a bonus point try but Bobby saw to it that we didn’t! With a 13 man overlap outside him he took the ball into contact and threw a forward pass. Bobby, you will be sharing your case with Harry, the two of you had excellent games but the BM learned later that you both, who happen to be the two oldest in our team, had warmed up for this crucial league game by playing an entire game of rugby beforehand for the Bermuda Barbarians. Boys your geriatric joints are not up to two games in a day, fatigue had clearly set in when Bobby butchered the bonus point, Harry you has a great game and did nothing wrong, I just don’t like you! Share a case.

Bibbler, welcome back, please bring a case. I almost forgot about you but your disciplinary record is now creeping up on you and we went down to fourteen men for 10 minutes due to your wrestling throw on their half back.

This was a really good result for TRFC, the old boys played great but the plaudits have to go to all the youngsters. Forbes and Andre were great in defense, Aldo was up to some tricks in the pack and Puppy and Jack were outstanding in offense.

Here are some stats from the game:
- A nice blend of youth and experience in our starting XV, 5 players over 35, 7 players under 23!!
- At one point there were 11 Bermudians in the TRFC XV with Nails the only foreigner in the Backs
- 1008045 – The number of minutes Jack had played for TRFC without scoring a try!
- 14 – a correction, the BM has reviewed the tape – this was the size of the overlap that Bobby butchered.
- 6’5 and 260lbs with a Saffa accent – the size of Church’s newest tackle bag. Yes Mate!!

The undefeated Mariners this week. See you at training.

BM