4th XV vs Fullerians 3rd XV

Once again it’s a trip to Fullers but this time for a crunch merit table game which we reckoned was worth a big nudge as Fullers were only 1 point behind us in the league and we want to stay at the top. As expected we came up against a big robust pack with a decent bit of experience and weight- we probably conceded about 4 stone in the front row. Usual Fullers approach early in the game with lot’s of mauling and their usual ‘playing to the limit’ about what you can and can’t get away with on the deck. So it was over to the forwards to try and get on top of things and then try and get some ball out to a good back line where age and youth turned out to good effect.

Starting with the age element of the back line we had Mark Smith who kicked brilliantly from hand all game and found gaps and touch at will (which made up for his banana conversion attempt early in the game but then again Smithy also nabbed a good try so we won’t go on and on about the banana conversion attempt that hit the corner flag). Big Ben at scrum half had a big game and tormented his opposite scrum half with darts here and there and touched down for a good try. Tiff put the crash into crash ball and linked well with second row turned centre Ali. Now that Ali has had the benefit of Tiff’s coaching, and rightly ignored it, he ran in one try and could have had another 2 with his tackle line breaking bursts and we’re expecting a hat trick next week if he continues to ignore Tiff’s advice. (While on the subject of the backs who taught Tobias to tackle like that because we need some more of that … talk about crunch!)

Now to the pack. This bit is true. You've got to picture the backs bursting through, some interchange passing, a tackle 5 metres out and a pop pass onto the support open side. But it wasn’t the openside and you had to watch carefully as he was going so fast and sweeping down to his bootlaces to snatch, collect the ball and dive over for the try – it was Fyson and we promise it was true. Having said that all the team would like to thank the referee for disallowing the try for a very, very slight forward pass as we would never have heard the end of it. Other good stuff was the line out where air traffic over Heathrow was diverted as Neil Afford leapt so high that we think he took about 10 from his opposite number at Fullers who was an ex county second row so no slouch at all and muttered bad things as the game went on to the amusement of former British Lion (tourist) Alex. Neil owes a jug to new hooker and marksman Harry who was spot on all game. Zombie earned the respect of the opposition back row with some big hits and because of this respect thing we now know why the kids he coaches address him as “Mister Zombie”- proper respect.

Another try from raging bull Burrows saw the game and bonus point in the bag and we waited for another of Smithy’s banana conversion attempts to be greeted by the ball going straight between the sticks. A penalty and another conversion somewhere in the game left the final score 27 -0.

Team: (with telegraph style performance indicators): John ; Harry ; Fyson ; Alex ; Al; Neil; Burrows; Mister Zombie (respect); Ben; Smithy; Wiggy; Tiff: Ali: Tobias; Mitch