Footscray Vets 15 - Moles 14
On a typically glorious day for rugby, the Moles travelled westwards by plane, train and automobile to take part in their most friendliest of foes, Footscray RFC's club day.
Despite only a bare 15 making themselves available after Wednesday evening training, skipper Mick Terry had his usual predicament of trying to find game time for the cast of thousands who rocked up on Saturday. Nevertheless another useful looking squad took over the salubrious (by usual standards) changing rooms equipped with its own kazi, showers and tactics whiteboard. One of these facilities was not used and readers, I will leave you to draw your own conclusions as to which.
Regardless of the relative luxury, the Moles soon filled it with the aroma of 'Deep Heat' and other muscle relaxants whilst the family-sized 'Nurofen Plus' bottle was passed around the room. 'Vaseline' also enjoyed a good week in anticipation of another hard, bare pitch; however, the badlands of New Eltham offered up a lush green oasis of endless turf (well, give or take the odd bare patch here and there) with its blades of grass covering up over half the stripes on the player's boots and of course, El Tel's socks too!
As the red-shirted Footscray players filed out on to the pitch, memories were jogged and the forwards (naturally) came up with today's game plan which Ork articulated as something like "We're going to get our heads kicked in around the contact areas so let's work on getting quick clean ball out to the backs". As the Moles' forwards all nodded in agreement, although most probably not having a 'Scooby' about what Ork was going on about, it was noted that the match official was of the female persuasion. However, 'Sir' as Miss had firmly informed skipper Terry that she liked to be addressed as was known to Elvis and Oily from the Under 11s minis circuit. And Sir proved to be just as good a referee of match between old gits and she is with the kids. The detail follows below, but this was a great game of rugby in part thanks to a display of firm but sensible refereeing. Vets' rugby is awash with law infringements; however without blatantly ignoring the laws of game and of course player safety, play has to be given a chance to flow. This is what the referee endeavoured to do as much as possible which is an approach that can only be applauded very loudly.
A decent Moles warm up largely saw the aforementioned game plan being executed. But any complacency was quickly put to bed by Cabin Boy in the pre-match huddle as he reminded the Moles of the need for 100%+ commitment in this final game of the season. As one would expect from an English teacher, Cabin Boy's powerful oratation demanded the Moles to look directly into each others' eyes and reflect on how they'd feel tending to the garden, doing DIY jobs and accompanying their partners on trips to Bluewater over the summer if they didn't give all they had out on the pitch today. Stirring stuff indeed but the Moles were seemingly also in need of being 'shaken' as they somewhat stood off Footscray to allow them cross the line within minutes of the kick off to make the score 5-0.
But the setback did awaken the Moles. The rest of half saw the Moles contain the Vets and enjoy plenty of posession deep into the Vets half. As predicted, the Vets were dominant in the scrums and rucks. The Moles first half front row of Elvis, El Tel and Brucey faced wily replacement after wily replacement at the coalface and despite calls of 'early hit' from behind them, knew that the weight and wilyness advantage enjoyed by the Vets' pack was the primary reason for, despite gallant efforts, the Moles pack walking further backwards than forwards during the afternoon's proceedings. The rucks, also as predicted, were messy 'bundle type' affairs with whole bodies and limbs entering them from all angles.
Right in the middle of the first half physicality was outside centre and Mole of the Match, Gary 'Paddy' Curran. Still only a matter of weeks into his rugby career, aside from the fearsome tackling he has quickly built a reputation for, Paddy also demonstrated some impressive ball carrying, setting off and great body position at the breakdown.
Now there are many facets to the stereotypical English view of the Irish including, for example, ginger hair, not being one of the sharpest tools in the international shed and a love of drink. Our Paddy is clearly a quick learner, not ginger and spilled lots of the holy Guinness as he stood up and downed his MoM pints at both Footscray and back at the club, so the evidence would suggest that this stereotype does not really stack up. However, ginger prop of Irish heritage with a penchant for Guinness, Elvis didn't do his best to counter an argument that the stereotype, might miss a generation or two. No doubt knackered by all that walking backwards in the scrum, Elvis found himself behind the Moles 22 and underneath the ball, which had been kicked so high into the sky by the Footscray fullback that it was falling back down towards him with snow on it! To Elvis's apparent surprise he caught it! However, the G Force of a ball falling from space flattened him to the ground. Andy Dadson was first on the scene in front of a dozy Elvis looking to offload. "Nooooooooo!!!" came a helpful cry from the sidelines by forward pass expert Lloydy and Elvis woke up to move the ball legally into Dadson's hands.
Less of a liability in the Moles full back position was the other resting prop Brucey who had the sheer audacity to catch and call the mark not only once but TWICE!!!! He may have even had the nerve to kick the ball too; but readers, this writer may have been seeing things!
Half-Time 5-0. After a shaky start, the Moles were very much in this match.
The usual dearth of Moles replacements at half-time had an almost immediate impact. Progress down the right hand side of the field found the Moles no more than 15 metres out from the Footscray line. Having aready been pushed back a mile or two in the first couple of second half scrums, Brucey and Elvis were again resting; this time out on the left wing. Brucey saw a gap and called "Come left!" at replacement scrum half Jamie Rayner. Jamie quickly disptached the ball left to Cabin Boy's Ship Mate who in turn passed to the charging Brucey who safely took the ball over the line. A difficult kick in windy conditions was delightfully converted by Aaron Rayner to give the Moles the lead at 7-5.
And soon there was more. Great work in the forwards, quick clean ball out to the backs and some neat passing through the hands led to the Moles' other talented new recruit Carl Sells seeing and exploiting a gap in the Footscray defensive line to ultimately touch down behind the goal. Again, Aaron Rayner stepped up to slot the ball neatly between the posts. The Moles now led 14-5 and should have now well and truly taken control of this game.
But alas, sloppy work under the ball from the restart and a sucession of missed tackles saw the Vets immediately claw back 5 points. 10-14.
This physical game had seen both Orky and Garry Hodges have to leave the field of play through injury during the first half; although through necessity, the latter had to limp back into the second row after the break. More 'Heart of a Lion' stuff from the bloke with the hair! The next Mole to have to leave the pitch was poor Posty whose reward for another day of putting of his body on the line for the Moley cause was a broken nose courtesy (accidently) of a charging Big Bri with his eyes firmly fixed on extending the Moles lead from 10 metres out.
It's worth recording that Big Bri had another busy 80 minutes slotting into (at different times) each row of the Moles' pack which contrasted with Footscray's apparent strength in depth up front. A tiring Moles defense was broken down by the Vets for a third time to edge them into a 15-14 lead. But standing behind the posts there was still a belief in the Moles' ranks that another score could turn the match in their permanent favour.
Another sortie up the left flank led to a Moles scrum 25 metres out. Again, the Vets pushed the Moles back in the scrum unfortunately ending in both packs' considerable weight ending up on top of poor stick-like Moles' 9, Jamie Rayner. A small 'yelp' and wee 'cry' began a series of events involving the calling of the game at 15-14, an ambulance (expedited by ambulance boss Big Bri), a neck brace, a spinal board, a trip to A&E and caring dad and Moles full back Brian Rayner driving Jamie's car to the hospital so he could "quote", "drive himself home when he's sorted".
Thankfully or typically, dependent on what level of service you subscribe to at cyncism.com, Jamie suffered no major damage and was back at the club for a pint later in the evening. Good news!
Back at Footscray it was Elvis's turn to come over a little queer after the game as the rest of the team enjoyed a barbecued post-match meal, a few pints and a sing song with the yellow and blue blazered gentlemen that are Footscray RFC. Skipper Mick Terry led the Moles in a rendition of 'The Winkers Song (misprint)' before he moved on to 'Two Little Boys'. Then it was time to leave a most traditional rugby atmosphere to embark those planes, trains and automobiles again for the trip back to the clubhouse at Rectory Field and the business of auctioning 'Virgins' and pairing of roomies for the forthcoming tour to Torquay. But before planned business could be dealt with, there was a misdemeanor to be dealt with: Adam Jenken's pestering of Mick Terry for a Moles tie. Cries of "Shame" echoed around the lounge, as onlookers muttered things like, "well he does work with Velcro, you know...." Adam's shame and obvious contrition was clear to be seen as he shook/spilt most of his pint over his shirt.
And so the curtain fell on another Moles regular season with only the tour matches at Brixham and Torquay Athletic to come at the end of May. The GRFC M&Y family day and players' supper will be supported, FAF will continue, the AGM will be held and Moles will continue on into 2014/15 because they are something much more than just a rugby team.
Line up: Elvis, El Tel, Brucey, Garry Hodges, Velcro, Big Bri, Ork, Posty, Jobbo, Nod, Andy Dadson, Baa Baa, Neil Martin, Oily, Sam Holden, Shotgun, Lloydy, Paddy, Gerry Keenan, Brian Rayner, Aaron Rayner, Jamie Rayner, Carl Sells, Adam Jenken, Cabin Boy and his Ship Mate,
On a typically glorious day for rugby, the Moles travelled westwards by plane, train and automobile to take part in their most friendliest of foes, Footscray RFC's club day.
Despite only a bare 15 making themselves available after Wednesday evening training, skipper Mick Terry had his usual predicament of trying to find game time for the cast of thousands who rocked up on Saturday. Nevertheless another useful looking squad took over the salubrious (by usual standards) changing rooms equipped with its own kazi, showers and tactics whiteboard. One of these facilities was not used and readers, I will leave you to draw your own conclusions as to which.
Regardless of the relative luxury, the Moles soon filled it with the aroma of 'Deep Heat' and other muscle relaxants whilst the family-sized 'Nurofen Plus' bottle was passed around the room. 'Vaseline' also enjoyed a good week in anticipation of another hard, bare pitch; however, the badlands of New Eltham offered up a lush green oasis of endless turf (well, give or take the odd bare patch here and there) with its blades of grass covering up over half the stripes on the player's boots and of course, El Tel's socks too!
As the red-shirted Footscray players filed out on to the pitch, memories were jogged and the forwards (naturally) came up with today's game plan which Ork articulated as something like "We're going to get our heads kicked in around the contact areas so let's work on getting quick clean ball out to the backs". As the Moles' forwards all nodded in agreement, although most probably not having a 'Scooby' about what Ork was going on about, it was noted that the match official was of the female persuasion. However, 'Sir' as Miss had firmly informed skipper Terry that she liked to be addressed as was known to Elvis and Oily from the Under 11s minis circuit. And Sir proved to be just as good a referee of match between old gits and she is with the kids. The detail follows below, but this was a great game of rugby in part thanks to a display of firm but sensible refereeing. Vets' rugby is awash with law infringements; however without blatantly ignoring the laws of game and of course player safety, play has to be given a chance to flow. This is what the referee endeavoured to do as much as possible which is an approach that can only be applauded very loudly.
A decent Moles warm up largely saw the aforementioned game plan being executed. But any complacency was quickly put to bed by Cabin Boy in the pre-match huddle as he reminded the Moles of the need for 100%+ commitment in this final game of the season. As one would expect from an English teacher, Cabin Boy's powerful oratation demanded the Moles to look directly into each others' eyes and reflect on how they'd feel tending to the garden, doing DIY jobs and accompanying their partners on trips to Bluewater over the summer if they didn't give all they had out on the pitch today. Stirring stuff indeed but the Moles were seemingly also in need of being 'shaken' as they somewhat stood off Footscray to allow them cross the line within minutes of the kick off to make the score 5-0.
But the setback did awaken the Moles. The rest of half saw the Moles contain the Vets and enjoy plenty of posession deep into the Vets half. As predicted, the Vets were dominant in the scrums and rucks. The Moles first half front row of Elvis, El Tel and Brucey faced wily replacement after wily replacement at the coalface and despite calls of 'early hit' from behind them, knew that the weight and wilyness advantage enjoyed by the Vets' pack was the primary reason for, despite gallant efforts, the Moles pack walking further backwards than forwards during the afternoon's proceedings. The rucks, also as predicted, were messy 'bundle type' affairs with whole bodies and limbs entering them from all angles.
Right in the middle of the first half physicality was outside centre and Mole of the Match, Gary 'Paddy' Curran. Still only a matter of weeks into his rugby career, aside from the fearsome tackling he has quickly built a reputation for, Paddy also demonstrated some impressive ball carrying, setting off and great body position at the breakdown.
Now there are many facets to the stereotypical English view of the Irish including, for example, ginger hair, not being one of the sharpest tools in the international shed and a love of drink. Our Paddy is clearly a quick learner, not ginger and spilled lots of the holy Guinness as he stood up and downed his MoM pints at both Footscray and back at the club, so the evidence would suggest that this stereotype does not really stack up. However, ginger prop of Irish heritage with a penchant for Guinness, Elvis didn't do his best to counter an argument that the stereotype, might miss a generation or two. No doubt knackered by all that walking backwards in the scrum, Elvis found himself behind the Moles 22 and underneath the ball, which had been kicked so high into the sky by the Footscray fullback that it was falling back down towards him with snow on it! To Elvis's apparent surprise he caught it! However, the G Force of a ball falling from space flattened him to the ground. Andy Dadson was first on the scene in front of a dozy Elvis looking to offload. "Nooooooooo!!!" came a helpful cry from the sidelines by forward pass expert Lloydy and Elvis woke up to move the ball legally into Dadson's hands.
Less of a liability in the Moles full back position was the other resting prop Brucey who had the sheer audacity to catch and call the mark not only once but TWICE!!!! He may have even had the nerve to kick the ball too; but readers, this writer may have been seeing things!
Half-Time 5-0. After a shaky start, the Moles were very much in this match.
The usual dearth of Moles replacements at half-time had an almost immediate impact. Progress down the right hand side of the field found the Moles no more than 15 metres out from the Footscray line. Having aready been pushed back a mile or two in the first couple of second half scrums, Brucey and Elvis were again resting; this time out on the left wing. Brucey saw a gap and called "Come left!" at replacement scrum half Jamie Rayner. Jamie quickly disptached the ball left to Cabin Boy's Ship Mate who in turn passed to the charging Brucey who safely took the ball over the line. A difficult kick in windy conditions was delightfully converted by Aaron Rayner to give the Moles the lead at 7-5.
And soon there was more. Great work in the forwards, quick clean ball out to the backs and some neat passing through the hands led to the Moles' other talented new recruit Carl Sells seeing and exploiting a gap in the Footscray defensive line to ultimately touch down behind the goal. Again, Aaron Rayner stepped up to slot the ball neatly between the posts. The Moles now led 14-5 and should have now well and truly taken control of this game.
But alas, sloppy work under the ball from the restart and a sucession of missed tackles saw the Vets immediately claw back 5 points. 10-14.
This physical game had seen both Orky and Garry Hodges have to leave the field of play through injury during the first half; although through necessity, the latter had to limp back into the second row after the break. More 'Heart of a Lion' stuff from the bloke with the hair! The next Mole to have to leave the pitch was poor Posty whose reward for another day of putting of his body on the line for the Moley cause was a broken nose courtesy (accidently) of a charging Big Bri with his eyes firmly fixed on extending the Moles lead from 10 metres out.
It's worth recording that Big Bri had another busy 80 minutes slotting into (at different times) each row of the Moles' pack which contrasted with Footscray's apparent strength in depth up front. A tiring Moles defense was broken down by the Vets for a third time to edge them into a 15-14 lead. But standing behind the posts there was still a belief in the Moles' ranks that another score could turn the match in their permanent favour.
Another sortie up the left flank led to a Moles scrum 25 metres out. Again, the Vets pushed the Moles back in the scrum unfortunately ending in both packs' considerable weight ending up on top of poor stick-like Moles' 9, Jamie Rayner. A small 'yelp' and wee 'cry' began a series of events involving the calling of the game at 15-14, an ambulance (expedited by ambulance boss Big Bri), a neck brace, a spinal board, a trip to A&E and caring dad and Moles full back Brian Rayner driving Jamie's car to the hospital so he could "quote", "drive himself home when he's sorted".
Thankfully or typically, dependent on what level of service you subscribe to at cyncism.com, Jamie suffered no major damage and was back at the club for a pint later in the evening. Good news!
Back at Footscray it was Elvis's turn to come over a little queer after the game as the rest of the team enjoyed a barbecued post-match meal, a few pints and a sing song with the yellow and blue blazered gentlemen that are Footscray RFC. Skipper Mick Terry led the Moles in a rendition of 'The Winkers Song (misprint)' before he moved on to 'Two Little Boys'. Then it was time to leave a most traditional rugby atmosphere to embark those planes, trains and automobiles again for the trip back to the clubhouse at Rectory Field and the business of auctioning 'Virgins' and pairing of roomies for the forthcoming tour to Torquay. But before planned business could be dealt with, there was a misdemeanor to be dealt with: Adam Jenken's pestering of Mick Terry for a Moles tie. Cries of "Shame" echoed around the lounge, as onlookers muttered things like, "well he does work with Velcro, you know...." Adam's shame and obvious contrition was clear to be seen as he shook/spilt most of his pint over his shirt.
And so the curtain fell on another Moles regular season with only the tour matches at Brixham and Torquay Athletic to come at the end of May. The GRFC M&Y family day and players' supper will be supported, FAF will continue, the AGM will be held and Moles will continue on into 2014/15 because they are something much more than just a rugby team.
Line up: Elvis, El Tel, Brucey, Garry Hodges, Velcro, Big Bri, Ork, Posty, Jobbo, Nod, Andy Dadson, Baa Baa, Neil Martin, Oily, Sam Holden, Shotgun, Lloydy, Paddy, Gerry Keenan, Brian Rayner, Aaron Rayner, Jamie Rayner, Carl Sells, Adam Jenken, Cabin Boy and his Ship Mate,