Warm-up:
The captain who cried wolf… So as per traditional London Media captaining methods, Vinny has been known to sway from the true KO time in a bid to get all the gents cut of the “unpunctual” cloth to at least get to the grounds in time to stretch and run some lines… Unfortunately a few of us cut from that cloth tried to call his bluff and get to the grounds for close to 2pm not realising that the KO 2pm actually meant KO 2pm… OUR BAD!!
From the looks of it, Raynes Park hardly got a decent run out, owing to the fact that they were probably still reeling from too many Boerie rolls and Castle Lagers down at the Wimbledon slug on Fri eve to watch Eastern Province Panthers play the mighty Blue Bulls in the Currie Cup….
1st half:
However from KO Media were in control, we had the downhill and the wind with us in the first half so knew we needed to grovel up a few points to keep a good level of comfort leading into the 2nd half… It was a slow start for Media as the game consisted of us coughing up way to many penalties early doors… Coach BGD counted up 10 in the first 30mins (probably closer to 15 on that basis)…
But with Raynes having only their #8 keen to run at us, they seemed content to let their weedy #10 pepper kicks onto our back three who were kept busy with the swirling wind, Dan the man at fullback did a good job considering he was more akin to bambi on ice at times trying to scoop up the difficult bouncing balls…
The order might be mixed up but to my recollection, Media started to open up their defensive wall early on with strong bollocking runs from Vinny and Chris White up front and Glynie finished off a sweeping move with a majestic sidestep to beat their fullback… I duly slotted the conversion to go 7-0 up…
Our obsession with giving away silly penalties hurt us on the scoreboard with the raynes park 10 slotting a few penalties to edge closer, however Media went on another rampaging run with our new addition Alex hitting it up hard, Georgey opening up some space for Baron to do one of his signature spinning NFL runs down the touchline, only being brought down by the fullback in the last tackle, he showed great awareness to pop it off in the tackle leaving me with an open try line… Conversion missed and Media went up 15 – 6…
Again the match slipped into a state of boring kick-chase from the oppo to close out the half..
2nd Half:
Media really turned on the champgane rugby in the second half despite the refs attempts to pick us off for anything and everything… The pack really started to dominate in the 2nd half, some excellent mauling work giving the platform for a scurry of pack tries… Dave Baxter clearly found his best performance to date, taking all the kick-offs with ease and finding himself in good supporting lines… Nicky Connors helped himself to a couple of tries, one where he had to sprint from the halfway line, surprising us all with being capable of such a feat! :) 32 - 12!
Donald was hard done by, rolling over for a try which was called “held up”…
Worrying attacks from the Raynes Park team were thwarted by aidy lundy’s numerous excellent interceptions… you could see the heads from the highveld drop everytime he managed to scuffle the ball from their possession
Vinny finally crossed the line and aptly chirped up “well thats my one for the season!”, however judging by his pace on the ball on sat, none of us
would be surprised if he starts chalking up a few more in the upcoming fixtures.. 41-12!
Raynes park summoned some inspiration to run with the rugby ball and managed to skirt over our touchline for a scrappy consolation try..
41-19!
A turnover from the kickoff resulted in some rumbling up the pitch by the pack and the media backline kept their width which resulted in an easy try for myself due to a superb long skip pass from Georgey… 46 -19!
Funnies:
The absolute delight the ref enjoyed when Raynes Park finally crossed our line for a late consolation score..
George having a go at their #10 for his incessant kicking of the ball.. .”C’mon mate you are boring me, are you guys ever going to run at us?”
Baron: For a man who had all the time in the world, he managed to make an absolute hash of clearing the ball from the 22, unless sideways kicking was the aim…? He clearly enjoys the taste of red-eye’s…
Vinny with another falcon to add to his haul this season, expertly taking one to the noggin after slipping through his fingers from the kickoff, luckily his falcons seem to ricochet backwards so his technique seems flawless.. his blue tape up work to cover his forehead cut deserves a “special” mention also…
Getting the Occies ref, Saffa Luke, absolutely smashed down at Si Cannon’s birthday gig…. No doubt worth a few penalties the next time we get him assigned to our fixture…
Not so funny:
Rich Freeman deciding to attempt breaking through tackles instead of a simple pass to me on his left and butchering the simplest of finishes.. Thats your one for the season pal!!! :)
MOTM / DOTD nominations: [please note the red eye's will be handed out on the 17th]
Dave Baxter : top performance and impressed in his full league 80mins.
Nicky C : Sparkling return to form with some great runs and surprising pace on the ball, rewarded with 2tries for his endeavours..
Mentions:
Vinny : Best runs of the season, finally seeing the rewards of sprint training with sprint guru wayno…
Half-backs: Glyn and George dominated their opposition and gave the team direction.
Neilo : Good to see mr brooks complete his first 80mins of the season and provided solidity in the scrum..
DOTD: Hollywood Benny C (oh thanks again for your full participation in this rugby event by the way) dropping the ball with an open line in front of him in the 1st half… who can blame the man after not playing rugby for a while.. we will forgive you if you manage to get Paddy McGuinness’ missus down to watch one of our games.. I’ll bring dan luger..
Final score:
London Media 46 – Rayne’s Park 19
By far an incomplete performance and Old Radleian’s should provide a sterner test in a couple of weeks but we are certainly showing greater confidence in attack and our defense is looking very solid!
Tries: Nicky C x2, Wayno x2, Vinny x1, Glyn x1, think one other..
Conversions: wayno x4
Penalties: wayno x1
Wayno.
