EDF Junior Cup 3rd Round, 13th October 2007

Hamians 29 - Coventrians 17

National cup victory


Five backs tries and two conversions , albeit should have been three (last weeks kick had no legs this week no radar ) should have brought smiles but the chat was all about missed opportunities .

Coventrians were the visitors in the cup and we liked them as they beat keyworth in the last round . They turned up late and their game plan was evident from their size . Was lamin's bruvver playin 4 them in the centre .

We line up as

Pikey , yorkie ( the boys hot ) , artley , obbit , lee, draps , stu , daints, ice , dave , cookie and stickie , saderler, anvil , fat prop
Bench young leavy, coops , jezerrrrr, impact clusoo

We kicked off late as they got lost

Good pressure from start , both backs ran at each other, hamians second phase ball was rapid .

Scrummage tidy 4 both sides as two groups sparred against each other

Hamians on top as ball spun wide from lineout , draps puts it skywood. F/BACK catches on run and calls mark ..not given as late call, everyone stops ….back runslength of park to score .

5 nil against run of play .

Blitz in , dominate line out and scrum ball spills good hands and yorkie finishes well

Hamians on fire , artley finding gaps

Penalties and spilled wet ball finds hamins in own 22 . Turn over midfied and hobbit in onball one handed and skips out and puts yorkie away …ten yds from own line ….big gas …..try in corner

Hamins pour it on to record onemore yorkie score to complete hatrick

Skippe crashes over under posts , at third attempt on same move

Half time 24 -5 to good despite missed opportunities

Skipper wants forwards to take it on , why create a slugfest when moving ball bringing results ….lets get it on

From ko stu forces knock on …good scrum and ball nearly gets to yorkie only one pass away . ruck out but ref wants you to stay on feet as you drive over

Clear assessor commented at half time and hamians slow to react, repeated penalties given and end up with backs to wall defence for 15 mins …releave pressure race down pitch but cannot complete


Impact cluesoo and jez and coops on

Coops follows script , they kick 4 position ,form line out clever short line out with drive off , gives whitewash melee

Second row spins off , spills ball before grounding short , refunsighted but says he broke the line

Coops dad goes loopy

Renshaw nods and says hamians rugby never changes

Clusoo has a truddle as does daints , jez burrows , backs just cannot convert half breaks

Anvil kicks and finds field position from looping punt

People getting dangerously frustrated in approach trying to up tempo

Tit for tat game in middle of park , hamins threatening from deep and you feel score is coming but needs something special

Forwards win games backs decide by how much . Anvil had struggled to get near their scrimmage feed all day . What follows is a hint of magic , although in the blurring speed it happened you wonder if you imagined it . A Paul Daniels slight of hand or Bobby Moore speed of foot in this case . Skill that cannot be taught . As two scrummages collide at 130stone each , 260 stone or 3600 pounds plus of pressure is impacted through the tight heads neck and vertebrate , and at the moment of impact to remove the ball from the scrum halfs hand with a one swish of the boot , requires you to balance on one foot ( olga Corbett gymnast precession ) and the ball appears if by magic at the no 8 feet.. Did it happen or was it mirage and at the moment of impact was it whispered in covs hooker ear ‘ sweet as' to which the praise was retorted of ‘cunt' , only those on the front row will ever know , or probably care …poetry like wordsworth recounting daffodils

The forwards drove on giving arm chair turn over ball which the backs converted into a score with TV hobbit blasting over .

We all know a prop can play anywhere but the simple fact is not everyone can play prop . The RFU recognize this by insisting you have two specialist substitutes !

Often chastised by the younger squad members for ambling seemingly aimlessly across the pitch only experience teaches that positional expertise to be in the right place with the right effort when it matters .Right ! First class sides replace them early in the second half as they know the body is punished at that point , so to summon a moment of pure genius only 5 mins from time indicates inner core( that is what mike says )

If he was an Inca you uld heap garlands around his neck and scatter rose petals before him as he walked by in god like reverence …but naked tea and jaffa cakes had to suffice …

The covs players were incensed at how the try had occurred calling foul and moaned at the ref during and after the conversion miss

29- 12 game over

Covs ko , hamians gathered and drove on , coloured and drove again releasing clean ball , but were pinged for rucking over and past the ball not on their feet , confusion as to offence and whose penalty .

A quick tap and two solid drives saw their second row drive open to blind and score out wide

29 -17

Hamians kicked off , defended well and had chance to run in 22 , solid platform saw whistle go with daints bounced into touch and game over .

Home win and in last 128 ….next round 17th Nov draw to be announced

Captain pikey praised team for allround effort but still thought 8o mins has not been achieved and soft scores conceded . He was right he always is ……………. Stu showed up well and said the amount of good ball made his life easier……

Comments after the game

Your wingers quick

You had enough ball to slaughter us only youre hands let you down

We thought we were going to smash you at the scrummage with our size and weight advantage yet that middle aged lump with the badger haircut nullified every thing we tried .How old is he ?

You tackled our strike runners

This week sees league action away at Dronfield so training tues please

Hamians score tries to make sure not like jonny in france who can rely on his kicking …..