Paulines Pounded by the Vets

Having recovered from a bruising game against London Irish where the backs won the game, a strong squad made themselves readily available for the away trip to the lovely venue that is Old Paulines RFC. (squad below)

Not withstanding a few enforced changes with Loisoz suffering a nasty case of nappy rash, brando still out of action and Greeny vising his relatives skiing (please see attached a picture posted by the family over the weekend), there was an air of confidence in the changing room although we struggled to see a vet amongst the opposition and we smelt a rat after hearing their twos game was cancelled. In addition, they then pulled a tactical fast one by declaring a lack of front row and the need therefore for uncontested scrums thus negating one of our key weapons.

After another very average warm up, we kicked off. A few points to note - uncontested scrums are not good for the game. There are too many forwards with too much energy wandering around the park. Even our prop Brian Messenger (who completed a family trio this weekend by being awarded man of match in this game) put the backs to shame by chasing a ball back, side stepping the onrushing opposition and slipping a lovely reverse pass to PA.

We started strongly and with no scrums to tire the forwards, the first 40 minutes resembled a game of bumper cars as forward after forward, led by Gavin Miller at number 8, big Jim at second row and Ovy at prop, ran at the opposition. In fairness they tackled well but sustained pressure led to us spending most of the half camped in and around their 22.

We scored a very good try following a 'Scotland' move, which actually worked for once, Gary interchanged with Aidy, missed out salts and floated a great pass to PA who drew his opposite man very well and sent wally over in the right hand corner having sidestepped the fullback and a few of our forwards who were loitering! Carrying on the theme of classic cars from last weekend, Wally is like an alpha romeo, very good performance in top gear but operationally hugely unreliable, which was confirmed with a hamstring injury shortly after scoring.

We continued where we left off and Karl and Ryan Miller carried on with some great runs and made good yards up the middle supported by Ian, Jason and Gavin. Eventually, (we think it was Matt Ferraby) crashed over the line from a couple of yards. Here Old Paulines second tactical idea came apparent. They did a deal with Aidy Mawson and paid him to miss the conversion from directly in front of the posts.

Paulines then recovered and scored what was probably the try of the game, which involved them working up the pitch from left to right before their winger scored in the corner. This seem to enrage Matt Ferraby who did his best Dylan Hartley impression (need some more work here) and started another episode of handbags with a member of the opposition a few minutes later.

However, Paulines then undid all their tactical skullduggery with a moment of madness from their scrum half. Looking to clear the lines with a kick, he obviously got distracted by the uncommon sight of a female referee (who had a very good game by the way), completely missed the ball and booted her hard in the bottom which caused her to momentarily collapse on the ground. The front row noting this as a possible chat up line, made their way over for the kiss of life but were reluctantly shuffled away by the physios.

On the stroke of half time, we recovered and scored another good try as Matt and Jason made good yards running into the opposition and Paul Baker clearing out the breakdown led to gary passing to salts and then pa who drew his man very well again and reluctantly passed to Marren who then handed off the fullback into the football pitch and dotted down in the corner.

Half time blew and we made a couple of tactical substitutions. With a nod to the superior rugby prowess of the southern hemisphere we brought on Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) and Paul Lister which the opposition then promptly capitalised on by scoring almost immediately post kick off. In fairness this was more to do with the team starting slowly in the second half than their efforts. The tackle count on our side did go up considerably after Kirk made a couple of noisy body crunches in the second half.

We then scored the final try of the game, following another set of play from the forwards, led by Ryan and Paul Lister who made the hard yards up the middle. Some more great backs play led to PA releasing Ian who dived down the wing and was just caught short. Paul Baker cleared up at the breakdown and with Garry Mcarthy marshalling the forwards, Foz eventually broke through after good runs by both ryan, matt and gavin and scored under the posts.

Although Paulines tried to breakthrough some great tackling by Ian, Salts and Mawson kept them out of the game and eventually to everyones relief the referee blew up for full time. The game was actually quite close (ignore the title) and Paulines played very well throughout (particularly their no 8!). Also thank you for the hospitality afterwards!

Team:

1. Karl
2. Brian
3. Matt
4. Big Jim
5. Jason
6. Ryan
7. Baker
8. Gav
9. Hugh
10 Gary McCarthy
11. Wally
12. Mawson
13. Salts
14. Marren
15. PA
16. Ovy
17. Ian Thynne
18. Lister
19. Foz

Water and Port
20. Loizos
21. Brando

More importantly the next game is 6th Feb at home, against Cobham, followed by England vs Scotland at 4:50pm kick off so a social after that game at the Waldy and then some Apres ski elsewhere.....