Hi Guys,
Rugby date 24/10/09 home against Carnforth 2's score 39-0
With confidence and belief simmering nicely after a week off, the team took to the field to face a formidable opponent in this bottom of the table clash. Carnforth had travelled well and with something like 7 sub's on the bench they must of been hopeful.Buoyed by their recent win they were up for it. However a gargantuan blackburn pack with the returning Martin Jessop back from injury and Nick Worsick in the second row, were also up for the challenge. With the long awaited appearance of John Bank at 8, who played his usual brilliant game even though benching for the 1's. At the young age of 40 it easy to see why this enthusiastic player can be pencilled into any of Blackburns three teams, with some excellent tackling and line breaks the youthful Banky was my nomination for MOM.
The game started on a good note with a win on the toss, I chose to play with the conditions in the first half. A strong easterly wind blowing down the pitch, Henning doing yet another brilliant job playing out of position at 9, soon had us deep in opposition territory. The pressure really on Carnforth from the off resulting in a early penalty 30 yrd's out in front of the posts, bread and butter for Henning. From the restart we crashed straight back at the opponents pinning them deep in their 22, and before long the pressure told again with a easy run in for Henning the first of his three tries that afternoon. With tries also from John Bank, Martin Jessop and Stephen Lee, also playing out of position at 10, the first half was one way traffic. The forwards putting in a performance to match the expectations of the line up. Paul Greenwood dominating at the front of a line out that worked with considerable ease, and good ball retention at the breakdown giving Henning good quick ball to utilise our superb back line. With some impressive tackling and good ball handling we had Carnforth under the cosh for the majority of the game.
There was however a few dark marks to cloud the day with some football isms creeping in, Jessy calling the linesman for giving a decision he didn't agree with. And a few tactical points been pointed out by the referee resulting in Paul (Percy) Fielding being yellow carded for successive infringements. Giving Carnforth the opportunity to score from a uncontested scrum while Percy served his binning out. I'm sure that we all agree there is no room in our game for football isms and Martin was truly regretful of his incident.
All in all though a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon with maximum effort from all involved including subs, were young Niel Walsh came on at half time having only played 10 minuets previous and put some excellent tackles in and almost scored going very close in the corner.This showing the true spirit and feelings of the team.
And so we look forward to this weekends game away at Garstang currently fifth in the league, this will be yet another hard task for us. But with a good turn out at training this Thursday we can put right some of the tactical points we got wrong this week.
It is also John Bank's and Mick Cottam's joint 40th party and a open invite for all third team members. This is a fancy dress occasion and the third team will be expected to wear something appropriate. Also and very important it is your captains birthday on Saturday and he likes to drink larger, and will willing except any beer bought for him.
yours thankfully Carlos (captain)
Monday, 26 October 2009
Monday, 12 October 2009
Hi Guys,
Rugby date 10/10/2009 home against Thornton and Clevelys, score 35-0
The feeling of elation after Saturdays performance will be hard to beat. As I made my way to the club clutching my handbag not knowing the strength of side we would be putting out there was a little belief that we could win, using the experiences and confidence we had gained over the last few games. On arrival at the club I found a handful of players with there handbags and made sure a note of none handbaggers was made for later fines to be distributed. I also found that the 2's hand pinched one of our players and we may be a little light on back row forwards. However the ever versatile Nige Gouldthorpe and Charles Page volunteered to play as flank forwards with the welcome return of Mick Cottam playing in the unusual position of number 8. We had it sorted, Thornton however turned up a little light also and to make a game of it we magnanimously gave them a player to start with and i would like to thank both Matt Briscoe and Andy Grey for pulling on the opposition shirt. Even more so Andy who gave us the comedy moment of the day while slipping his racing snake physique into a size zero top. Pure pornography and screeches from all the wags on the touchline said all there was needed to be said. The image is forever burned on to the back of eyes. Laughed so much i nearly wet myself, Thornton overjoyed to have a second row player to do the job in the scrum for them rather than the winger we had given them for the first half, sorry Matt, as you said now you respect what goes on at the coal face.
Anyway we seemed to be up for the challenge and were soon in the points with Eddy Holden taking a easy penalty early on, the pack was vibrant and soon dominating Stuart Rouse and myself making a mess of opposition scrums and I lost count of how many we took against the head. Also the line out seemed to be on fire with the newly named Mick The Salmon Cottam dominating the front of the line, with some extremely acrobatic leaping. We had the share of the possession and the territory and were soon crossing the white wash with some magnificent back moves. The star of the show new comer Steve having a real blinder at inside centre linking well with Eddy at stand off and Dave O'Sullivan at outside centre. Add to this Mark Josh and john O'Ryan at the back, the back line was with ball and space to play with a joy to behold. Mark scoring his first try for us and Dave scoring a brace. A hard tackle ended Eddy's day early as he damaged his knee and was carried from the pitch, with the inform scrum half Jim Coleman stepping up to take some late points with the boot right in front of the posts. If there had been a extra coat of paint on the sticks it would of rebounded back at the stand in kicker. And so we went on to record our second win of the season with style holding Thornton to nil, as I have already said a fantastic achievement.
And so with no game this weekend due to the retirement from the league of Lostock, and Stuart turning forty, he is having a little shindig at the club this Saturday afternoon. Were we shall be drinking copious amounts of alcohol and eating chili. Oh and if you like you can occasionally glance out the window and watch the second team in action, however this isn't compulsory but drinking will be. I would like to take this opportunity to remind all players that are available to train on Thursday that this would be a good time to work on tackles and securing the ball which we managed to do very well this week.
Yours euphorically Carlos ( captain ).
Rugby date 10/10/2009 home against Thornton and Clevelys, score 35-0
The feeling of elation after Saturdays performance will be hard to beat. As I made my way to the club clutching my handbag not knowing the strength of side we would be putting out there was a little belief that we could win, using the experiences and confidence we had gained over the last few games. On arrival at the club I found a handful of players with there handbags and made sure a note of none handbaggers was made for later fines to be distributed. I also found that the 2's hand pinched one of our players and we may be a little light on back row forwards. However the ever versatile Nige Gouldthorpe and Charles Page volunteered to play as flank forwards with the welcome return of Mick Cottam playing in the unusual position of number 8. We had it sorted, Thornton however turned up a little light also and to make a game of it we magnanimously gave them a player to start with and i would like to thank both Matt Briscoe and Andy Grey for pulling on the opposition shirt. Even more so Andy who gave us the comedy moment of the day while slipping his racing snake physique into a size zero top. Pure pornography and screeches from all the wags on the touchline said all there was needed to be said. The image is forever burned on to the back of eyes. Laughed so much i nearly wet myself, Thornton overjoyed to have a second row player to do the job in the scrum for them rather than the winger we had given them for the first half, sorry Matt, as you said now you respect what goes on at the coal face.
Anyway we seemed to be up for the challenge and were soon in the points with Eddy Holden taking a easy penalty early on, the pack was vibrant and soon dominating Stuart Rouse and myself making a mess of opposition scrums and I lost count of how many we took against the head. Also the line out seemed to be on fire with the newly named Mick The Salmon Cottam dominating the front of the line, with some extremely acrobatic leaping. We had the share of the possession and the territory and were soon crossing the white wash with some magnificent back moves. The star of the show new comer Steve having a real blinder at inside centre linking well with Eddy at stand off and Dave O'Sullivan at outside centre. Add to this Mark Josh and john O'Ryan at the back, the back line was with ball and space to play with a joy to behold. Mark scoring his first try for us and Dave scoring a brace. A hard tackle ended Eddy's day early as he damaged his knee and was carried from the pitch, with the inform scrum half Jim Coleman stepping up to take some late points with the boot right in front of the posts. If there had been a extra coat of paint on the sticks it would of rebounded back at the stand in kicker. And so we went on to record our second win of the season with style holding Thornton to nil, as I have already said a fantastic achievement.
And so with no game this weekend due to the retirement from the league of Lostock, and Stuart turning forty, he is having a little shindig at the club this Saturday afternoon. Were we shall be drinking copious amounts of alcohol and eating chili. Oh and if you like you can occasionally glance out the window and watch the second team in action, however this isn't compulsory but drinking will be. I would like to take this opportunity to remind all players that are available to train on Thursday that this would be a good time to work on tackles and securing the ball which we managed to do very well this week.
Yours euphorically Carlos ( captain ).
Monday, 5 October 2009
Hi Guys,
Rugby date 3/10/2009 away against Tarleton. Score 27-11.
Well guys another hard game and unfortunately another defeat, however i feel that we where able to field a team that were more than capable of defeating the opposition this week. With return of Jim Coleman at scrum half we finally had one of the important positions we have been struggling with filled with someone who is used to playing in the position, rather than someone filling the spot. And with Henning making his first appearance and managing to bring along a couple of excellent players ( always manages to bring me a line out salmon ). The hopes were high for a second win of the season, however as seems to be the norm at the moment we lost a couple of players to the seconds prior to travelling to Tarleton and so left with 15 and a already injured P.G.
Still spirits were high and I thought that maybe the belief i had was enough to pull us through, the backs with Henning stepping in at 10 had a few minuets to put a few moves together , this wasn't enough but had to suffice. And they managed to do their best with the little ball they would end up seeing. The opponents had a good outfit from the off however it was soon shown that we were enough of a match up front. But their back line was something else and where soon cutting us to ribbons. I felt we were falling off tackles to easy again and under the posts urged everyone to up the effort. We managed to posses the ball and territory for the most of the first half and Henning kicking a superb penalty found ourselves 10-3 down at the half time interval. With some more words of wisdom and encouragement at the break we were ready for the second half. Where Tarleton secured quick ball from a line out had swift hands and there number 13 ran through us to score under the posts, the conversion easy even in the torrid wind. suddenly we awoke however a little to late, and maybe some self belief emerged as we then camped in the opposition half for the for the majority of the half. Unable to make the most of our territory Henning kicking a second penalty but Tarleton able to break away and score 2 more tries through there backs. We finally crossed the whitewash with young Percy going over in the corner to give us some just desserts for all the effort we had put in.
However with a hard game sometimes there are casualties and Tiny having made some excellent runs and carries took a knock to the shoulder and had to be replaced with P.G. who as i have already mentioned was struggling from the previous week where some idiot tried to knock his head off as going into a ruck. (It was me). Tiny report damage to his ac joint P.G. report swelling on a nerve and then the try scorer Percy also reporting damage to his ac joint. This does not bode well for next weeks game at home against Thornton Cleveleys. Which i would like to remind everyone attending is a handbag day and all third team players must carry a handbag at all times containing the usual women's items of purse, lipstick, powder,Tampax or towel, and eye liner. Failure to have your hand bag and said items will encure fines and punishment of some god awful nature. And so i conclude once again giving you plenty to think about for the coming week, maybe we need to start believing in ourselves we are more than capable of giving any one in this league a good game with or without some of our better players. With this belief will come confidence and then the Wins will follow, rest and prepare for once again it isn't going to be easy but we can and are getting there.
yours Carlos (captain).
Rugby date 3/10/2009 away against Tarleton. Score 27-11.
Well guys another hard game and unfortunately another defeat, however i feel that we where able to field a team that were more than capable of defeating the opposition this week. With return of Jim Coleman at scrum half we finally had one of the important positions we have been struggling with filled with someone who is used to playing in the position, rather than someone filling the spot. And with Henning making his first appearance and managing to bring along a couple of excellent players ( always manages to bring me a line out salmon ). The hopes were high for a second win of the season, however as seems to be the norm at the moment we lost a couple of players to the seconds prior to travelling to Tarleton and so left with 15 and a already injured P.G.
Still spirits were high and I thought that maybe the belief i had was enough to pull us through, the backs with Henning stepping in at 10 had a few minuets to put a few moves together , this wasn't enough but had to suffice. And they managed to do their best with the little ball they would end up seeing. The opponents had a good outfit from the off however it was soon shown that we were enough of a match up front. But their back line was something else and where soon cutting us to ribbons. I felt we were falling off tackles to easy again and under the posts urged everyone to up the effort. We managed to posses the ball and territory for the most of the first half and Henning kicking a superb penalty found ourselves 10-3 down at the half time interval. With some more words of wisdom and encouragement at the break we were ready for the second half. Where Tarleton secured quick ball from a line out had swift hands and there number 13 ran through us to score under the posts, the conversion easy even in the torrid wind. suddenly we awoke however a little to late, and maybe some self belief emerged as we then camped in the opposition half for the for the majority of the half. Unable to make the most of our territory Henning kicking a second penalty but Tarleton able to break away and score 2 more tries through there backs. We finally crossed the whitewash with young Percy going over in the corner to give us some just desserts for all the effort we had put in.
However with a hard game sometimes there are casualties and Tiny having made some excellent runs and carries took a knock to the shoulder and had to be replaced with P.G. who as i have already mentioned was struggling from the previous week where some idiot tried to knock his head off as going into a ruck. (It was me). Tiny report damage to his ac joint P.G. report swelling on a nerve and then the try scorer Percy also reporting damage to his ac joint. This does not bode well for next weeks game at home against Thornton Cleveleys. Which i would like to remind everyone attending is a handbag day and all third team players must carry a handbag at all times containing the usual women's items of purse, lipstick, powder,Tampax or towel, and eye liner. Failure to have your hand bag and said items will encure fines and punishment of some god awful nature. And so i conclude once again giving you plenty to think about for the coming week, maybe we need to start believing in ourselves we are more than capable of giving any one in this league a good game with or without some of our better players. With this belief will come confidence and then the Wins will follow, rest and prepare for once again it isn't going to be easy but we can and are getting there.
yours Carlos (captain).