With Ashby obviously having read the Lymington match
report the first Saturday of the new season saw us in the sunshine at Tilehouse Lane in a
rearranged game against Old Halesonians; a game which last season saw us ship
sixty points and them having a ten strong bench..how times change with them
turning up initially with just fourteen.
Fortunately we were able to dip into our three strong bench and loan them the
NFG Martin, who in fairness tackled most things that came his way out on the
wing.
Our side showing a few changes from our trip to the
seaside, with Dai Baldwin unavailable (though showing up briefly just to get my
hopes up) and us having to return Fridge back to the first team saw a front row
of Shannon "Sidestep" Killarney (I saw at least two), Rick "Swing" Lowe at hooker and our new ball supplier
Bill "eBay" Burrows playing tight, with a
new partner in the second row for stunt skipper Lonie in Rupert "the Major"
Young moving from his usual position in the back row. In the back row our two
hard tackling flankers Nick "the Assassin" Levey & Marcus "the Shark" Hope
with Roger "the Dodger" Lazenby keeping John & Rupe's bums firmly glued together.
Out in the threequarters our Welsh sounding seaside
halfback pairing of the Phil "the General" Evans & Gary "Smoking" Williams,
Nick "the Barrel" Palmer & Tony "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the centres with Phil
"Horse" Watson & Bob's mate Cedric Farrell
on the wings, and bringing up the rear
Dave "Ralph" Rollins in his first and last game for a month or so at
fullback. Ralph goes into hospital on Saturday to have surgery on his shoulder.
We wish him well and a quick rehab.
The Halesonians side
contained a considerable amount of youth in their ranks with the odd seasoned
campaigner giving directions; their big second row who gave us a considerable
amount of strife last season watching from the sidelines having apparently
twisted his knee at a pop festival, big Phil take note of the danger here of
tall people dancing.
Amazingly after thirty
minutes neither side had managed to trouble the scorer but with Hales probably
on top throughout the opening quarter, as we struggled to free the calcium from
our bones whilst the more nimble opposition tried to go round, over and through
our "experienced" and resolute defence; with lots of first up tackling from the
Shark & Assassin, and similarly our good looking midfield trio of Smoking,
Barrel & the Chairman knocking them over each and every
time.
However, when it came to
penalties conceded we were getting completely tonked, 9-3 against I made it in
the first half, as both we and the referee (in his first competitive game
incidentally) struggled to come to terms with the iRB's latest set of law
tinkering surround the tackle. Chatting to the ref afterwards it might me
worthwhile using the following link to log onto the North Mids Refs website http://northmidsrefs.com/ then on the
right hand side of the page you will see a column "View
latest iRB training videos" and watch videos 06,07,08 &
09 because you can bet your bottom dollar this is something we're going
to have to get to grips with in the coming weeks. All credit to us we didn't let
the frustration get to us (much) despite the cluster that this area of the
game became. In fact I'm still not sure when, after all hands have been released, tackler
and tackled player have frenziedly moved away, got showered, and changed, and we
are all standing there staring at the pointy thing that we are free to
use it!? How sometimes I yearn for pounds, shillings & pence, milk in glass
bottles, free wheeling scrums, dummy passes, straight put ins and no gaps in the
lineouts.
With Hales finally
realising they were not coming through us they starting dipping into their
burgeoning penalty bank and starting taking pots at goal with which they were
finally successful with the third attempt and probably just about worth the lead
0-3 which I think was also a statement of lack of intent, which
we seized with both hands.
With about five minutes to go before half time the
mercurial (love that word) Smoking suffers a nasty cut to the cheek threating
his pulling power for the week, and the referee
once again applying the letter of the law sends him off for medical attention,
but has to settle for a dollop of Vas off Nurse Slow. On comes newest Vandal
former Solihull skipper Barry John Cole as blood replacement, BJ's dad himself
a former Old Yard, apparently used to play alongside
Sid, in fact I'm beginning to think most people have he's been around for so
bloody long!
Within minute or two of the restart good clean possession
saw it zipped through the hands of the backs to Horse taking the ball on their
ten metre line and galloping through their tacklers including a despairing two
footed slide tackle five metres out from their skipper (earning himself a brief
talking to and a penalty from the restart) to score under the posts
5-3 Easy one for last season's top scorer Ralph to open his
account 7-3.
Blood bin reversed,
and within minutes
we are back inside their twenty two and Cedric comes in off his wing and
powerfully forces his way over close to the posts 12-3 and
again Ralphy steps up to convert for a 14-3
lead.
Under the posts the boys
from the Black Country are muttering like good 'uns at the sudden change in
fortunes and more or less straight after manage to score a well worked try
virtually on the stroke of half time to make it 14-8 but miss
the conversion.
Halftime
14-8 Slow forgets the isotonics and opts for no immediate
changes.
Second half and we seem
firmly in control with some tight scrummaging, a couple of good trademark Vandal
rolling mauls (we do this for a rest I'm not daft) and we begin to dominate in
the lineouts with Rick getting his eye in and hitting Marcus now hurled up at
four by Nick & John. We even start to get the odd penalty come our way one
of which sees Shannon taking a short pass off the General and unleashing the
increasingly trademark Killarney blarney one-two. Big Bill also the day's senior
player not wishing to be outdone by his front row mate also gets some short
yardage trade off Phil as we start to soften the Hales defence up a
touch
Shortly after we are awarded a scrum about five metres
out, from which we get the nudge on and set up a steady launch pad for big Rog
to perform a controlled descent to the line, in fairness you'd have to be a forklift to keep him up from that
range. 19-8 Ralph goes three for three and makes no mistake
21-8. (Note to front five: this one
infinitely better than our first attempt earlier on in the game where Rog picked
up we immediately stopped pushing and Rog ended up with his arse round his
ears).
But Halesowen rally again
to stay in the game and score 21-13 but conversion
missed.
A measure of control is restored and after a storming
couple of minutes of getting involved in everything ball shaped Bob's mate comes
off and gets a game with the Development side, Fitz moves out onto the wing and
Barry John slots into the centre alongside Barrel, but fifteen minutes in and Fitz gets hit by another sniper in the long grass and
suffers a bad hamstring tear, and again wish a
speedy recovery in the hands of his own "personal" physiotherapist. Captain
Slow comes on to the wing.
Our final score sees the ball spun out way out wide on the
right to own version of the Big Wing and Horse swats off two or three defenders
to go over in the corner. Ralph's conversion goes just wide. 26-13
Final score 26-13 Final age a spritely 664.
This week's man of the
match Barrel, lots of great defence and line breaks, new category of assists
went to the General who whirled in Dervish fashion throughout, and also
fulfilled a lifetime ambition of becoming a truck to everyone else's
trailer.
Next up at Tilehouse Lane Kidderminster Carolians, a game which we were unlucky to lose by a point last
season in the pouring rain over at Marlpool Lane.