Sawston Rugby Club

A Legend Returns

Sawston 31 Ely 5

In a week where the rugby world looked to see if France had what it takes to win the grand slam, whether two of it’s greatest players of the last decade could still mix it at the top level and Sawston welcomed back an old great our round ball cousins showed just how boring there game actually is. When all they seem worried about is whether a man whore and a cry baby will shake hands. I think the reason they are getting so worked up about this is because they think it will have some bearing on their World Cup prospects but if anyone’s actually looked at England’s draw, if they are lucky enough to scrape through there group in second place they will face Australia in the second round where they will obviously get beaten.

Anyway back to the rugby, Sawston were taking on rivals Ely at home in the Deuxieme Plate. This saw the return to Sawston of Ely’s number ten and Sawston club legend Dave Pople. Dave’s game was analysed by Sawstons very own expert summariser Bob Tidswell, read his thoughts below. With a great display but slow start in our previous clash Tom wanted us to ensure that we hit the ground running. We didn’t disappoint with great support play from the forwards and the backs feeling adventurous Ash was able to go over to finish a great move which was duly slotted over by Justin. We lost Kieran early which was a blow. Even though we were playing up the hill you wouldn’t have known it with the pack being led expertly by Nudger we were dominating the scrum and having the luxury of two quality jumpers in Colin and Fraser in the lineout the forwards were giving a great platform for the backs. Mark made a great run and with Ash giving great support he was able to go over for his second and Justin calmly converted. We threatened to score again just before the break but weren’t quite able to cap it of. Coming back out for the second half we were really pumped to finish of the game with no complacency slipping in. The forwards definitely didn’t let there standards drop with an excellently worked try finished of by Glenn who was having an absolute storming game. Unfortunately one of his fellow back rowers Tris who had been absolutely tenacious all day had to go of injured. With the formidable centre partnership of Tom and Sean feeding off the ever reliable play making of Nick the backs were still causing havoc with Ash and Mark thriving on the wings. A new Injury problem struck with Justin finishing his excellent game early. Tom continued his unstoppable try scoring form with an impressive solo effort to add another one to his seasons tally. Ash capped his stellar day with another show of great finishing and Mark took up kicking duties to kick one from the sideline. Ely rallied in the last ten minutes which saw there prop make a great break but he was brought down by our newbie Joe who being only half his size made a brilliant tackle he also made a great run out of position on the wing and really looks like a player for the future. Ely did break down our defences in the last play of the game with great vision to score a well worked try. We must thank them for an excellent game that was played in good spirits. Credit has to go to the referee for his excellent no nonsense handling of the game.

Captains View

Tom "fat boy" Genillard was extremely happy with the performance and singled out the support play and scrummaging as areas we really excelled in. His man of the match award could have gone to any number of players but he settled on Glenn whose play at number 8 was outstanding, Fraser restored to his preferred flanker position played like a man possessed and the front row were absolute giant killers with Olly improving exponentially game after game and Rich and Dave using there mobility to maximum effect. Ash’s hat trick was a quality display with none of them being straight forward tries. We’ve got some big games coming up over the next couple of weeks so let’s keep up the great work.

Food Watch

Thanks must go to Sam and Sabrina for preparing and serving an absolutely lovely Chicken Taglitelle it was a real treat.

Bob tells it how it is: Dave P.

Dave Pople is and always will be a Sawston Legend. He is currently teaching the young people of the fens how to play rugby (he’s got them past chewing and trying to mate with the ball/ other players and actually playing the game) and having the odd game for the Ely sludge monkeys.

Age seems to be catching up with our old friend these days, these were the tell tail signs.

1) Despite being two yards off side on every scrum and ruck he still couldn’t reach Nick “young man” Yomans at fly half before flash had scored from the half way line.
2) Cheating bastard, obviously after realising his age dave gave up playing fair and decided to “use his experience”. The best example being when Glenda was running backwards for a high ball and dave just crouched behind him and sent our man sprawling on the floor. Yes I would also like to confirm Glen was running for the ball instead of the usual waddle – he had a great game.
3) He’s taking more rest periods than he used to on the pitch, he was seen on the floor chatting with Sean, Glen, Rene, Nick, Nudge and Justin on several occasions during the game.

It was great to see Dave play and what was better was the way that our seconds handled the Ely team. Ely had a few really quite good players on the park but our guys just kept putting them down, breaking through, over and round them. Top marks go to Flash for scoring three and keeping his mouth shut all game - yes all game, Fraser and Colin in the pack for just being awesome and my man of the match Justin Curtis who I think is having one of his best seasons ever.

I’d also like to add that the ref was superb on sat… nice one dad

Cheers Bob

Team: Olly, Dave, Rich, Nudger, Colin, Tris, Fraser, Glenn, Justin, Nick, Kieran, Tom, Sean, Ash, Skip,

Subs: Kieran for Mark, Tris for Joe, Lewis for Colin, Vipes for Justin

Tries: Ash 3, Glenn, Tom,

Conversions Justin 2, Mark,

Please visit our sponsor

Want to play rugby?

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

Upcoming Events

Pre-season training

starts Tuesday July 13th at 7.30pm sharp