Sun 17 Oct 2021, 11:30
Sunday saw us take on Coalville at the Stump. There was an autumnal feel about the day, with the leaves falling and a steady drizzle for most of the morning, meaning the pleasures of softer ground at last.
With just 30mins allotted to us before kick off because of the parking issues there was precious little time to talk to the lads before the start. With five minutes to go we only had 14 players but then the cavalry came over the hill in the shape of Dean, Edward and then Jay.
Coalville clearly hadn’t had the message about the car park and had been here for a hour and were fully warmed up. I felt a backlash coming on, especially as we were still cold.
However, we quickly got in the ascendancy and scored two early try’s through Oliver, who then went on to make sure he never got another sniff, thereby avoiding the jug.
Typically we then sat back thinking it would be a stroll in the park and allowed Coalville in for two themselves, to leave us just two points up, at 12-10.
A few choice words under the posts jolted them back into the game and we scored immediately from the kick off.
From here on in we never looked back and despite Coalville’s determination - particularly their big No8 - we never really released the stranglehold we had on the game.
In all we scored 6 try’s and converted 3 to run out 36-10 winners.
Having won the last couple of games by the odd point it was good to finally put some distance between us and the opposition. I even thought Coalville were a better team than those we had only just scraped past so that in itself illustrates that this was a step up in performance.
So still plenty to improve on but there were signs of a structure and less individualism which was pleasing.
That said the sartorial turnout of some, post match, is questionable to the point of interesting the fashion police! I don’t think we’re going to see collar and tie with sliders on the catwalks of Milan any time soon.
And as a mark of the passing on the season I switched from Cider to Guinness. Porridge for breakfast next week.
Mick
Photos by Elicia Hodgson
