Firstly, I come to praise the Spartans, not bury them. The team were decimated last year when, having gained promotion and remained unbeaten, nearly half of their squad, including some of their best players, left to join ‘bigger’ clubs. The coaches, Will James & Adam Fitzgerald, worked tirelessly to raise a side and should be applauded for their efforts. So should this team. They could quite easily have decided that this was not for them, but turned up training every week and took the field against a slick, pacey Anchorians team. They may have been soundly beaten , but they played with great spirit, and simply kept trying.
Anchorians, and in particular left wing Toba, were altogether too quick for Vigo’s youngsters. Young Toba was arguably quicker than anything I’ve seen this year in senior rugby. I am sure he has a great future ahead – if he, too, isn’t poached. I understand that Anchorians, also lost a handful of the best forwards to a big club. You cannot blame the kids; they want, obviously, to test themselves at a higher level. What rankles is what happens if they don’t quite make it. If they find themselves without a regular game, then it would be prudent to send them back to their parent clubs, instead of ‘’making up the numbers in training ‘’ as one coach at a ‘bigger’’ club was heard to say.
Anyway, rant over. Back to the game.
Vigo started with intent, but ran into some quite excellent defensive work by Anchorians. Hefty tackles time after time stopped a Vigo player in his tracks. Invariably the ball was knocked loose, or an attacker had one eye looking out for the next big hit. Thus, Vigo found it hard to finish their attacks. Indeed, they were forced further and further back as Anchorians laid siege on the Vigo line. Another big hit shook the ball out of Vigo hands and Zak had a stroll to the line, converting his own try. It was pretty apparent that Anchorians backs were well familiarised with each other. Their passing through the backs was fast and accurate, and all of their threes were pretty pacey. Vigo were really having to work hard. Captain Dino Hatzidimos, always a threat and as brave as they come, had already shown himself to be a threat and when his side turned over the ball, he found Louie Sims lurking bon his shoulder. Louie surged forward attracting a host of defenders, before passing to Jack Anderson who cruised over. Dino added the extras.
Anchorians, slightly put out by Vigo’s effrontery, returned to the attack. Toba made the initial surge, Anchorians moved the ball sweetly across the backs, but bust as Noah was about to score a Vigo player almost decapitated him, giving the excellent referee Chris Skinner a rather easy decision to make, awarding a penalty try, the Vigo ‘assassin’ being sent to the Naughty step for a brief period.
Toba then rather took over. Showing truly searing pace he simply ran round Vigo’s defence to score a brace of tries, Zach converting one. By now, Anchorians were feeling pretty full of themselves, running the ball from all angles. Vigo were hard pressed. Competing manfully up front with their pack, though giving away height and weight, working really hard. Dino and Jack continued to pose a few questions, but it was the visitors who extended their lead when Harrison went over after another slick passing move. Again, Vigo showed fantastic spirit with a very good move which saw Finn Lawrie force his way over. It just showed what Vigo could do with better passing.
The second half began with a try for the Spartans. The half time break allowed the coaches to get their message across which their charges obviously took to heart. They surged forward and the persistent jack Anderson finished off a good spell of interpassing amongst forwards, Harry Riley heavily involved, and backs.
From then on, however, Anchorians took control and ran in a further 4 tries, including an outrageous full length of the pitch run by Toba. Noah. Lula and Josh were the other scorers, Zak adding a conversion.

Confession time. As you, dear readers, might notice, the report is a tad sparse on details here. I’m afraid my Dictaphone had broken down after Jack’s try, possibly overcome with the emotion of a Vigo try, but more likely, running out of batteries. I apologise. I made a note of the scorers but, as I’m getting on a bit, and being of an advanced age, struggle to remember what I had for breakfast let alone intricate details of rugby moves. Suffice it to say, Anchorians were very fast and, as hard as Vigo worked,they simply could not live with the pace and skill of Anchorians backs.

Vigo’s MVP – Vinnie Cole, whose work ethic obviously has been passed down to him by his illustrious father, Gavin. For Anchorians, Noah Belcher received the MoM award

Will James (Vigo coach). I am immensely proud of the true Vigo spirit showed by the team. They never stopped working. At the end of the summer, we had just ten players left. We have managed to get back to 15, and to a certain extent, it’s like starting all over again. But,the way these kids want to learn, their defiance against the odds, is truly heartwarming. They just want to play, first for each other, then for Vigo RFC.