Thrown To The Lions

Our second fixture of the day saw us take on a touring side from a sunny valley somewhere near Neath. As you would expect the players were large and the touring adults were suitably late and “pink eyed” - apparently Burnham had run out of water and so they had cruelly been made to drink local cider to excess!!!!

The Dulais Valley Lions were a mixture of Under 12’s and U11’s and so along with the difference of regulations between the two unions this proved to be a very testing encounter. Welsh rulings don’t allow a contested scrum, which has become the cornerstone of our game. Instead of pushing, only the hookers may “go for the ball”, which again, left us disadvantaged as since we are not used to this particular skill and obviously in the interests of safety it was the right and proper thing to adopt the welsh regulations on this occasion. Therefore with all these factors stacked against us perhaps a rather one-sided affair was to ensue.

Wrong again, I’m slowly getting used to the taste of humble pie! What we actually witnessed was an incredibly brave and honest performance from our boys. The tackling was very courageous and limitless in effort. As with the Broad Plain game earlier we lost most of our set play due to the rule changes and as with that game it led to the opposition enjoying most of the possession. All players were part of the outstanding defence. Large slices of “BOSHHH” pie were being handed out at will particularly by big hitters Woody and man of the match - “the Franklinmeister”. The Tiny Tornado was relentless but eventually took one knock too many and had to leave the pitch. Matt “The Cat” had pounced his last pounce when his nose took the brunt of an oncoming Celt, and he also had to retire early. They had slick hands and were strong runners (especially the older players), which really stretched us at times but we somehow managed to hang on until the final play of the first half when eventually we over committed in the tight and DVL intelligently spread quick ball wide ending in a diving try in the corner. And so into the second half and down to a bare 12 with some very tired legs we held on surprisingly well. And instead of capitulating we actually grew into the game and come the final whistle it was Clevedon who were in the ascendancy and if anyone was going to score it was going to be a deserved leveller from a man in Blue & Gold. However it never came despite some excellent passages of offloading play, and a narrow loss to a good side was to be the final and probably fair result.

So in conclusion, well done chaps, a very satisfactory result and a very good team attitude and defensive performance..........we really should fear no one.