Ram Raid Rudsta!

We’ve never had the pleasure of playing Cheddar before, and had only heard good things about them and especially of their handling abilities. Playing at Weston Super Mare in a triangular fixture on a fresh sunny Sunday morning we kicked off against them and into the unknown.

I have always been fully aware of what a uniquely disruptive bunch of individuals we have at our disposal and having spent the last 5 years each Sunday morning with most of them, I’ve been forced to concoct ever more ingenious ways to hold just a small moment of their tiny attention spans. Usually I lose out very quickly to something far more interesting and important such as a distant dog or an extra specially fluffy cloud!!! However an incredible transformation is slowly taking place. Although they are still almost as rude and infuriating as ever when it comes to taking on board my pearls of wisdom, they are beginning to take this disruptive gift on to the paddock. Yes, they seriously need to take a biology lesson on where an armpit is, and therefore maybe start tackling below this. And Yes, in the main they are still very much selfish individuals when it comes to attacking. But we do possess a certain unity when it comes to annoying the opposition, putting them off their game, unsettling their set piece (even winning it on occasion), and now beginning to tackle with some intensity and in doing so stopping attacking plays at source. We are a million miles away from the finished article but there is definitely some good traits starting to evolve and dare I say,....a style. I would love to watch a free flowing expansive game filled with flair and exciting creativity, but at the moment our strengths lay elsewhere, and with all things considered I think we must be really horrible to play against!

Having watched Jim’s great video of the game I was actually surprised by how much we did actually pass the ball! But what I also saw was a team that must be really hard to play against, since we tackled like demons and never really gave Cheddar many opportunities at all The Tornado had a really good game at scrum half and is starting to link better with his back line as well as being at the heart of almost everything! Charlie “The Cat” pounced on a loose ball from at least 5 meters away! If we all did this our possession stats would go through the roof. The Ox, Woody and Matt all took their scrummaging prowess into open play by driving over in the rucks and so keeping possession and allowing MOTM Rudy to Ram Raid his way over on no less than 3 occassions!!! Keep it up fella, for such a lump he does seem to get through some tiny gaps!!!! Generally everyone played well although I have to say our basic handling was very, very, poor. Coincidentally this was very much the same in the warm up when we found it more important to muck around than get match ready – doesn’t take a genius does it?

And so in conclusion, and after having the chance to referee a game between Cheddar and WSM (where Cheddar’s handling was indeed very impressive), we obviously nullified the opposition, and then sent in the Rudsta to finish them off. Not especially pretty, but in all honesty not a bad outcome either, well done boys.