Sefton RUFC

Sat 17 Feb 2024

Sefton 2nd XV

66 - 0

Liverpool Collegiate 2nd XV

Sefton 2nd XV

Liverpool Collegiate 2nd XV

A lack of props this week led to drastic action, with sHambling having to throw himself into the role. As captain, sometimes you have to do those unthinkable things. A Thursday training session was all he got to practice the dark art of scrummaging. sHambling truly was a dead man walking. Luckily I managed to secure the services of Steve Dwyer at the eleventh hour to save sHambling from having to put on his brown shorts.

New player Ollie Martin was also recruited up to the second team, despite it being his first game for a few years. Originally a winger, Ollie has gained a considerable amount of bulk in his absence from the game. He was down as a centre, which brought a certain amount of skepticism from his dad when he told him. The advice from his dad was, "you’re going to get destroyed". You can always trust your dad to tell you how it is.

Sefton arrive at the Medics ground far too early, practicing the two lineout moves the forwards know, and the one move the backs know. No sign of Dwyer yet, but it was OK, the ref hadn’t arrived yet.

With minutes to spare before kick-off, the ref finally roles up, looks at the pitch and tells us it’s unplayable, and disappeared as quickly as he arrived. I have the sneaking suspicion that he had somewhere else he needed to be, and quickly established a reason not to play the game.

This left 45 players (the Medics had 10 subs) standing around wondering what they would do for the afternoon. An agreement was established that we would have a friendly, of 3 x 20 minutes, and a high quality ref was appointed from the teams. Whistle was retrieved, and cards located, ready to send Mark Dobie off for the mildest of infringements.

Steve Dwyer still hadn’t arrived, maybe he had nipped into Tesco’s to grab something. Uncontested scrums were agreed.

- The Game -

Sefton started surprisingly well, putting the Medics under early pressure. New player Jamie Caldwell threw himself right in, despite having no idea of the rules, but the small matter of rules never stopped Mike Dempsey, so one more wild card didn’t matter. An offload by Gorgeous five metres from the opposition’s try line puts Luke Griffiths through for the first try, which Gorgeous converts.

Soon after Sefton got another great field position. A penalty was quickly taken by Gorgeous, taking the Medics by surprise, and a simple pass to sHambling allowed him to have an easy run into the corner, whilst the Medics looked on oblivious to the ball being in play.

The Medics finally woke up from their slumber and started to play some rugby. Dragging the score back with two quality converted tries of their own.

Sefton hit back when Wayne Osborne recieved the ball off Gorgeous at the back of a ruck. The old goat went blind, side stepped through, and scored on the left.

The Medics again edged in front with a try in the corner. This time the conversion was too far wide, and the kick skimmed past the upright.

A Jack O’Duffy run is rewarded when he breaks through a tackle and scores in the corner.

In the final third quarter the Medics thought they had clinched it with the ball going out wide, and in under the posts. Bizarrely, their try scorer ran past the posts, and placed the ball far right of the posts. Evidently he wanted to make it harder for the kicker. The conversion was still made.

With five minutes to go, Sefton ran out of players, with Dan Harrington going off injured, Sefton were down to fourteen. Whilst the Medics kept rotating their endless supply of subs.

As the clock ran down, Sefton were attacking inside the opposition’s twenty-two, but meeting solid resistance. As another ruck was formed on the left touchline, the Medics left the blind unguarded. Gorgeous skipped through the gap inches from the touchline, and went over for a converted try.

A tough game, with both sides coming away battered, and bruised. Luckily for Sefton it was only a 60 minute game, any longer and I feel the Medics would have outlasted us, and run away with it. The replay of this game will be close.

In regard to player performance, everyone put a shift in. The Dempsey brother at back row were a handful, as was Jacob Pickup, constantly stealing the ball at breakdowns. In the backs Welsh JJ was a constant threat in the centre, and Gorgeous was the instigator of every try Sefton scored. However, with the absence of Kyle Noon, sHamling had to rethink his usual Man of the Match nomination. Instead it went to Chris Lewis in his first full second team game, never one to back down to a challenge, he did tremendous in defence, and some solid ball carrying in attack.

As for the ref, he was top quality, if only we had refs like him every week, although he did miss Dobie cheating throughout the game.

It’s great to see Gorgeous has initiated his young children with the lyrics of Fat Bottom Girls, putting our newest players to shame, as they lip sinked all the words.

At the end of the game we were still waiting for Steve Dwyer to turn up. Perhaps he was doing a big shop.

Lanky