We turned up as we seem to a little too often in 2015 with a lot of forwards and not too many backs. It was good to see Harry Love & Mat East (both in their second outings for the club, and Mat in his second game of rugby ever) on the wings and both shower great potential that we must work hard to unlock.

South put their 2s out against us, despite it being a 3s fixture, but in the end what we want is a hard fought and fairly played game of rugby, and that is what we got. South were a good bunch. Even to the point that when Dave Burton was shown a yellow card for a high tackle two of their players voiced concern to the ref that he shouldn’t have shown the card. Good sports all round.

The game itself was one of two halves for the conditions, and two halves for the teams’ dominant aspects of the games. Right from the off our scrums and lineouts caused them problems. We took several against the head and shoved many more back. We took a fair chuck of their lineout too. However it was their superior backs that made the difference to the game’s outcome. They were running against an aged fly-half, a prop and flanker and centres, and two green wingers. They spotted it fairly quickly and, although valiant efforts were made in tackling by the Ath backs, they were just too fast for us. Keir pulled up many a player as they tried to arc through and Mat put in some truly courageous hits, but we still conceded 4 rugbies.

Whilst on the front foot our attacking worked in parts, but out hands let us sown in the backs, though Harry Love managed to save up one of his good catches for a try scoring pass that he gathered well and dived over to score his debut try - jug next week, H ! ;-)

I’ll mention Mat East again because given it was his second ever game he tackled very well, and when given the ball ran in just the one direction - straight forward. And he ALWAYS made yards. Using the equation experience / yards made * bit hits made = Man of the Match, I think it is something Mat deserves - well done, sir !

Beyond that, well done to ALL the pack in the set piece. You did both brilliantly, and if in the loose we were a little off the pace I think I’d chalk that up to how much effort was put in at scrum time, and we will move on.

After the game 3 of our more experienced players apologised to me because they felt they had not had a good game. Guys, I know how you feel because I felt that I should apologise too, but this is a TEAM game. And, when you look at a lot of the sides we play and how they talk to each other on the pitch, I can day that we have some of the best team spirit around. And being a team means we win together, and we lose together. No-one needs to shoulder the blame for a loss, and no-one will be held up as a hero when we win (well, that last bit is a lie, but I needed to add it for balance). We win and lose with the same good grace. The same love for our club and team mates. And the same love for The Old Horse and the 8 jugs of beer they give us - HZB !!

Next week is the President’s Game, so get your party pants on and let’s have a great day of rugby & beer !!!!

Final Score 24-5