Plucky effort guys, great effort but not to be today.

On a dark and rainy (unusual for England) Thursday, it appeared that our chances of a match were doomed as Harlow had struggled with the concept of a ‘game’ or rugby and double booked our game so we were cancelled. Probably for the best if it was to be the same previous referee. Mark, the fixtures manager, was unable to find a game closer than Luton (and they declined) so it looked like we were not to play. Until The Fozzymeister stepped into action and somehow rummaged up a game for us away at Wansted, who turned out to be a great local(ish) rugby club.

So I intrepidly led a valiant team of 13 players (away game when England playing for the grandslam – or not as the case turned out to be), with myself as fly half, and a new scrum half in the form of Crystal, who had not played previously in that position, but had previously lectured me on many occasions about his incredible potential, and excellent coaching skills for that position.

Wansted were, very much to their credit, happy to help out and initially lent us 2 wings, and a prop (until Kenny Byrne appeared – no, not at prop but on the wing.) The players swapped but even later in the game when Graham Pearman went down with all the appearances of a severely fractured ankle, before managing to run up the stairs later at the prospect of food and a drink, Wansted never let us drop to 14 players.

The first half was a fairly even affair with our forwards suffering in the scrums, but excelling in the open, and neither set of backs able to make large dents into the opposite side. We had a penalty kick through Jake Brough who miskicked it from well outside the 22, only to watch it sail over the posts. They scored a try through their very good, pretty big inside centre who was very difficult to stop, particularly on the slippery muddy pitch. Half time 5-3.

The second half unfortunately didn’t go as well. We expected them to come hard at us after a breather but the problem was they didn’t really slow down after that. 2 tries went to Wanstead, one from a well worked back line running wide and putting their big centre in space who wasn’t stopped in a few tackles, and their winger making the most of some poor tackling to probably evade about 7 tackles which was kind of odd as on the whole everybody tackled their heart out. Final score was 19 – 3.

Crystal had a great first game at 9, lots of sneaky sprinting into space, and considering the ball was generally coated in a thin layer of mud performed admirably. Well played sir.

Man of the match went to Gilo for a phenomenal game including dozens of tackles, repeatedly helpfully informing us “it’s easy, just tackle the legs”.

No dick of the day as everybody who turned up helped change my mind from a day I was thinking “I really don’t want to be here, I want to be sat in a pub waiting to watch England” to “God I’ve been involved in a good game of rugby”. Thanks to everyone who turned up, and if they read this, a massive thanks to Wansted for a great game of rugby, the spirit it was played in, and lending us 5 players at various points. Hopefully we can return the hosting next season.

Chris