Sorry this is a bit late. It’s not because we lost. Honest! First defeat of the season which means we are now second on points difference in the league standing. A disappointing performance against a hard working opposition who would have been well clear if their Fly Half hadn’t had a shocker with the boot [...]
Sorry this is a bit late. It’s not because we lost. Honest!
According to the BM 'The socks are a disgrace but credit goes to Donal who brought a case to training yesterday as he knew this was coming'
First defeat of the season which means we are now second on points difference in the league standing. A disappointing performance against a hard working opposition who would have been well clear if their Fly Half hadn’t had a shocker with the boot missing 6 attempts at goal!
Alzheimer’s is definitely setting into the BM. Not because the wife found me wandering the streets in my underwear on Saturday night, that was because I had returned from an excellent TRFC Halloween Party (well done Entertainments Committee) but because I simply cannot remember the Gades first try. They scored early, within the first 10 minutes but missed the conversion. Teachers then had a fair amount of possession for the remainder of the half but Gades scrum half was making life difficult at the back of our scrum and once again TRFC were guilty of not putting any sort of phases together. Our scrums were good, our lineouts were bad and our play at the breakdown was downright awful!
Players weren’t posting the ball, we weren’t cleaning out rucks and this all against a team with players who are very good (legally or illegally) at slowing down opposition ball. It was pretty poor stuff considering we practice it all week. In between penalty misses from Gades, Nails missed a penalty but then we did get some good fortune for our first try.
Jack chased his own long kick down field. Gades scrum half, Healy, stepped out of Jack’s tackle and then tried to go round young Patrick but just as Healy went to flick a pass back inside our young winger nailed him and the pass looped back to where Jack was lying on the floor. Jack, somewhat surprised by his good luck, turned and set off for the try line, the cover defense got to him but he off loaded to Andre who skipped past a final defender to score under the posts. Nails landed the conversion and we were 7-5 up. By the half we were down though as the Gades fly half, who had had plenty of practice, finally slotted a penalty. 7-8 down.
Our Captain’s frustration with our performance was evident by the not too diplomatic half-time address to the team. The message was clear, we had started flat, played poorly and were deservedly behind.
A couple of changes were made and Harry brought a stability to proceedings despite butchering the first overlap of the 2nd half (had to put that in, I don’t want LHA thinking he is valuable to the team) and Porter raised the tempo of our game. We definitely played better in the second half and the ball was beginning to find our dangerous runners out wide with Andre getting a sniff of the line on a few occasions but last gasp defense managing to haul him in each time. Despite our improved performance we were still guilty of handing penalties to the Gades but fortunately their Fly Half continued to miss.
With about 20 minutes left on the clock Nails and Scotty spotted a mismatch in midfield and Nails ‘raced’ through a gap to score untouched under the posts which he also converted. 14-8 up. Things were looking rosy. Dave Porter then missed a chance to possibly finish the game as contest when his penalty kick hit the post and this felt worse when Gades slotted a penalty of their own to close the gap 14-11.
Porter was again involved in the next incident, he went to take a quick penalty in heavy traffic and national team captain Dunks, couldn’t resist the temptation to trip him. The BM could see the red mist descend on our favourite Poison Dwarf before he had even hit the floor and his mood was not helped by Gades flanker Connor flopping on top of him. Needless to say Porter’s head almost exploded in indignation much to everybody’s amusement. The Ref did spot it though and Dunks saw yellow.
At this point Teachers should have closed out the game but this time it was Gades who enjoyed some good fortune. After a couple of phases Scotty attacked down the right and with his winger in support he made it deep into the 22 but he then lost the ball in contact. Gades hacked the ball downfield and with Jack up in the line expecting to attack there was no one at home and the race was on. In fairness to Jack he did win the race but what happened next was calamitous and will probably haunt him for a while. As he went to collect the bobbling ball it bounced between his legs and despite his desperate dive the on rushing Renegade Full Back managed to get a toe to it before him, again hacking it through before conveniently bouncing up perfectly for him to dive over for the clinching try in the final minutes. They missed the kick again but no matter, we ran out of time and have now experienced out first league defeat of the season.
Not the most fun filled report of the year. Here is a picture of our vice-captain Donal. The socks are a disgrace but credit goes to Donal who brought a case to training yesterday as he knew this was coming.
We break now for the Classic but return to league action against the Police in a couple of weeks so training will continue.
See you there.
BM
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 [...]
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