Lady Luck

It seems Lady Luck wanted to be on our side, and not the Wolfhounds (Ireland A) that Saturday afternoon, sorry Dempsey ;o) Preparations were good, Minibus was organised, we arrived early??? Although Jermaine, who is always half dressed for Rugby, still manages to be 20 mins behind everyone else from the changing rooms! What DOES he do in there?

So, at that point the signs were good, and it was true, first 20 mins (up hill) we were completely dominant. First Try came from forwards play with catch and drive, backs as always screaming our support, but all everyone else heard was Hawkins shouting at Steeeeeeve Lowden to give him the ball! Steve claimed "scrumpox" in the ear and touched down 3 yards over the Try line. Channon was clearly going to miss this difficult kick out wide? Ahh, no he didn't 7-0. Almost in the exact same spot did we get another chance to set up another catch and drive, we did, but it crumbled a bit, so a bit of pick and go was ordered, that worked, but then it was a bit static again. Everyone was waiting to see what would happen next. They didn't expect to see 20 stone plus Ryan Twin flying through the air "a la" Ashton Esq. No, not Price, England, like a Salmon jumping upstream, 9.5 for creativity mate ;o) Channon again was clearly going to miss the difficult kick out wide? Ahh, no he didn't 14-0.

After 20 mins 14-0 up and Gordon League a man in the Sin Bin we were thinking easy win. Obviously that showed and we started to relax, GL saw this and started their fight back, as always though, with our help! 2 soft Tries occurred from bad tackling, lack of communication and not making the right decisions when dealing with an ugly bouncing Rugby ball ;o) GL's tails were firmly in the air, 14-13 at half time, with a Penalty the fight was ON!

With a 50-50 type of Team talk (50% praise for some things, 50% Bollocking for everything else ;o) We were ready for 40 mins of hard work, luckily down hill. Our Defences needed tightening and meet them for the tackle, especially around the ruck area, as they were going to run everything up hill. For a confidance booster we were awarded a Penalty in front of the posts, 20 yards out. Channon was clearly going to score this kick? Ahh, no he didn't. Still, the pack were dominating the Scrummaging and Lineouts, so it was time for Try no.3. Courtesy of a Penalty Try from the front 5. Quote: " I have never seen in all my 38 years of Rugby (one year actually playing for North Bristol ;o) has anyone missed a Penalty Try kick in front of the posts" End Quote, by Iain "The Chairman" Pring. Pressure was on, even the Blob (card game) playing Golden Oldies Trump, Slaphead and Scotty (the other one) found it tough to do so, but did, raising their arms and clapping the chant "Easy, easy, easy" (Soccer AM Esq). Channon was clearly going to score this easy kick? Yep, you guessed it, he didn't 19-10.

To be fair I thought the Ref had a very good game, bar the last 15 mins. Penalty after Penalty came, with GL kicking 2 of them over. The other outburst from him was a Sin Bin for Badger on a tackle he made whilst not 10 yards back from a quick tap (ok fair enough ;o) Luckily though (she was definitely there) for the spectators, Badger wasn't wearing any head gear to throw at the floor next to his Toys (Queue memory going back to Old Reds several years earlier for Badger's last Sin Bin ;o) lol.

19-19, 80 mins gone, Badger back from his Kit Kat break and itching to redeem himself. Mistakes were made, Scrum time GL ball, LAST PLAY (Queue dramatic music from Apocalypse Now). Ginty was called, all 8 forwards answered. A big push came, GL's no.8 fumbled with pressure from Channon, ball shot out, GL's no.9 dived on it hoping to pop it up to a supporting player who would just kick it out (panic set in). The offload came, but who was there, GO GO Gadget Badger Arms snapped it up mid air, it was ON! He raced away hoping to get the vital Try/Penalty and the glory. But luck wanted to create a New Hero, one who came on at half time, and had only previously been recruited hours before. To us he's not a Hero because he has served in Afghanistan and survived. No, he's a Hero to us because Badger, who was being hunted like a Fox by those Posh folk in Oxford, managed to find Deano on the blind, who lined up the winger to put Jackie "Chan" Pearcey into the corner, smashing the advances of GL's no.15, and scoring the ultimate 4th Try with bonus point giving us that win we needed. I didn't hear the shout for "Pile ons" but boy we didn't hesitate jumping all over our beloved hero. Jack has never been wounded on the battle field in Afghanistan, but he was injured in a friendly game of Rugby by his so called mates! lol.

Channon missed (who cares after that) the kick from wide. We were too busy celebrating our emphatic win to notice. Broken hearts from GL understandably, GL supporters bitter, very bitter towards their own (Gloucester ;o) Ref. Coach Trip I imagine was a...... joy us occasion.

Awards:-

Dick of the Match- sorry Channon :o(

Holding his own- Dan Colton

Biggest Cheer- Fizzy's return, but he couldn't see where it came from ;o)

Great team spirit in the end boys, Cirencester AND Bristol Harlequins are both winnable games, remember that.

Starts at training as always.

P.S. Not everything mentioned above will probably be in the right time frame, but that's because I was also playing and blowing out my arse most of the time, it's a blur.