It’s the small things that count…
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10th October 2009
Sawston Vs Letchworth 2’s
To put this game into context, the last two matches between these two teams finished 31-6 and 56-5, both in Letchworth’s favour. Last season Letchworth finished 3rd in the league and won the Super Premier Plate final against a very strong Bishop’s Stortford team. Saturday’s away side had dominated the previous two fixtures with aggressive rucking and smart back play. It was worrying then that they arrived with the same core of blood thirsty lumps that had been so successful the previous year.
Similarly Sawston had the same set of (slightly worried) players albeit with a slightly different game plan born out of hours on the training pitch. Robin has asked Sawston to focus on the small things (something that comes very natural to the forwards - it reminds them of wanking) such as ball retention, game control, working with the referee and set pieces. In addition the team are fitter and morale has never been so high. It shouldn’t then have been that surprising that they reached half-time 7-0 in the lead… but it was… a bit.
Despite the perfect conditions, the second half lacked any decent passages of play to speak of. Letchworth annoyed the referee with constant complaining and obviously suffered because of it and Sawston became incapable of retaining the ball in the opposition half. As soon as they caught a sniff of the try line they became like a bunch of women at a shoe sale – panicky and incapable of making rational decisions. A problem that allowed Letchworth back in to the game.
After a few ridiculous minutes in which a Letchworth player pulled Francois’ hair (Francois kicked the resultant penalty) and one of their props had a go at Pete for no apparent reason (he was subsequently pinged at the resultant scrum for illegal binding - I thought illegal binding was putting a load of illicit porn in a ring binder but apparently not) Letchworth came back. After a number of minutes of possession they eventually made it over the try line. A simple conversion left the game at 10-7 with 3 minutes left.
In this period Chris Shaw used his position of coach to teach the team a lesson in why it is important to keep the game tight when the you have a 3 point lead and there are 2 minutes left. He did this by attempting a back of the hand pass to Ash when trying to run the ball out of his own 22. “I thought Ash was on the same wave length, but then he changed to digital” was his defence.
Anyway after a desperate few minutes the final score was 10-7 against a very solid team that is bound to do well this year. Sawston continue to improve every game and now have a 3 wins out of 4 record to take in to the Enginyers game next week. A bit of composure in the opposition 22 and who knows we might even beat them… again!
Team: Alison, Ash, Chris S, H, Callum, Francois, Nick F, Pete, Wilf, Nab, Don, Theo, Dan F, Tim, Robin
Subs: Kieran (from the 2nd team pitch), James.
Tries: Another big boring pile of forwards.
Cons: Francois
Penalties: Francois
Sawston Star Man
There were a lot of excellent performances. Alison at full back always beat his man despite using the same dummy kick every time, Robin made so many breaks from no 8 we lost count and both Nick and, when he went off, Ash had excellent games at scrum half. Nick continuing with his trademark “hang from their collars for 10 yards until they final give in and fall over” tackling style that has been so successful this year. The winner of this prestigious award however is Don.
He hit the opposition forwards so hard the big oaf even knocked himself out. He is without question the most upright tackler I’ve ever seen but I guess if you can flatten 20st number 8’s with just your arms than why would you bother bending over?
Coaches Corner
James was once again oblivious of the progress of the team that he coaches as he focused on his own 3 minutes on the field after the match. “For my first touch I rucked 3 Letchworth players off the ball winning Sawston possession in our own 22” he bragged in the clubhouse. Less biased fans of Sawston and those with eyes would have noticed Don (who had already played 77 minutes before James came on) behind James applying the necessary muscle for James to achieve his “miraculous” turnover….
Players Perspective
Pete described Sawstons forwards improvement in form being due to them all having “bigger bollocks” this season. “Lack of sex will do that to you” came the reply from a back who wished to remain nameless (Chris S) and by looking at Sawstons forwards it is easy to see why they’re having trouble getting laid. What is difficult to work out though is who were they having sex with last year…?
The small print
This article does not represent the views of Sawston rugby and may not bear any resemblance to real events. It is not intended to offend anyone… actually that’s probably not true as I aim to offend everyone in the club at least once a season. I do not pretend to comprehend the rules, especially as the new rules are now the old rules and the old, old rules are back again. From time to time I will refer to “scrums” and “rucks” and “mauls” in these reports, but please be assured that I don’t know what these are.
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We're a friendly rugby club based in Sawston near Cambridge that runs two teams and plays regular games on Saturdays. Training is at 7:30pm on Tuesday and Thursday nights and we run our own bar. If you're interested please email Justin Curtis or just turn up at the club - click here for directions
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Sawston 1sts fixutres and results
http://www.greenekingrugby.co.uk/results/Supremresults.htm
Sawston 2nds fixtures and results
http://www.greenekingrugby.co.uk/results/deuxiemeNORDresults.htm
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