boxing day report

Fri 30th Dec 2005

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MARRIED MEN 22 - 24 SINGLE MEN

married men -

mal, bob, davy, les, derrick mcfarland, colin finlay, olly maxwell, brian prue, mark ( door crusher )adams, davy o'neil, winston, gareth linton, john graham, andy (argy-bargy ) anderson, jason mitchell, master david hamptom, paul macca, mowbrayburger, mervyn king, davy warnock, glen warnock, chrissywills, mark finlay, stephen hemphill ( 24 )

single men -

podge, gary s, gary b, johnny finlay, jonny kee, nige, bert, cricky , eddy, lecky, fat boy prop fearin bapp, jason the returning mcknight, maxy, ross smyth, some wee fella mitchell, bryan, soupy, john, davy millar, timmy cummings, alan and les tompson, ,deccy, aj, gareth cadwell, jimmy beattie ( 27 )

referee - colin mccandless ( 1 )

A beautiful boxing day produced a riveting game of rugby that we can all be proud to say we played in. the game was of high quality and played with a keen sense of sportmanship, yet still had the ref asking " are you sure this is a friendly ?" The crowd was certainly the largest i've seen at lifford road, and their support all added to a great game that had everything from the sublime to the ridiculous, see-sawed like a classic and even had a nail-biting finish.

the keenest members of the teams started arriving at 1.30, with the old stagers still landing at 2.20 . the married men immediately claimed the home changing room and our traditional hooped kit believing this would give us a pyschological advantage - fat lot of good it turned out. bob took a van load of players to the pitch, and his suggestion to drop the single men in letterkenny for a warm-up jog home was met with a mixed response. we hit lifford road about 2.25 and our worries about not getting parked due to the crowds were soon dispelled, but our supporters know us too well, and most were ready for our kick-off at 2.45. the married men kicked the ball to the singles, who were playing towards lifford, and the game was off.

the married forwards dominated the opening quarter, as predicted , and gave paul plenty of ball to weave his own particular brand of magic. the first highlight for me was the sight of eddie going flat out past paul having just bought a charming, but toothless, young pup from macca . his cry of " BASTARD " brought a wry smile to many a face. the much heavier married pack was making its' way steadily up the pitch, and was even dominating the lineouts. from a good break by prue we assaulted the single try line and after continual pressure we were awarded a 5-metre scrum - SHOWTIME. with the auld boys all fired up and bursting with energy, the try for andy anderson was as inevitable as paul mcmenamin sneaking off from a night's drinking . without a recognised kicker in our team, the conversion was missed,but we didn't think at that stage that it would be so costly.

from the restart the pattern of play was pretty similar with all of the action in the singles half, with strong running from prue, olly and jason and some superb defence from the boys in black. the much vaunted singles backline was seeing about as much action as the part of gary smyth's brain that deals with rational thought . it was therefore not surprising when greg ( great deals on wheels ) mitchell tried to create something with an over-ambitious chip over the defence on his own goalline .mervyn king was up faster than you could get bert into a lap-dancing club, and did well to charge down the kick and gleefully run on to score under the posts. with the conversion added the score was 12-0 and a lot of the single men reported after the match that they thought they were in for a hiding at this stage. but to their great credit they fought even harder and slowly but surely the tide began to turn.

the married men were beginning to tire or take their feet off the gas , but possession was certainly not as one-sided, even if play was still mainly in the singles half. the black forwards began to get a bit of ball, with eddy cricky and bap to the fore, and a well worked rolling maul up the middle of the pitch told the hoops that they weren't going to have things all their own way. from broken play the singles' stole the ball and their backs eventually woke from slumber and young greg showed his class and made the break from his 22 and raced up the right wing. he was eventually brought down when will cathers produced his elephant gun and his shot manged to stun greg enough that he could be caught. he shipped the ball on to housty who was standing at halfway chatting up some doll but had enough of his wits about him to run on in under the posts for the singles men first score. we thought that as housty crossed the line hitman cathers had struck again, as john dived theatrically as if he'd been shot, but apparently it was a celebration dive.
the conversion was slotted and the single men got their tails up.

the married men continued to press and the fresh legs from the bench added impetus and it wasn't long before we had an attacking lineout in the opposition 22 and the plan was to unleash our so far dominant rolling maul. the singles managed to spoil the throw and the ball came back untidily for hampty, who by this time had become used to only top notch possession. in a move more reminiscent of stamford bridge, he kicked the ball out to our back-line and in the ensuing chaos greg mitchell gathered the ball and went the lenght of the pitch to score. brian prue almost caught him on the line, which raised a few eyebrows, but i'm assured greg was only jogging from halfway with the kick from the corner missed the scores were now level 12-12 and the half-time whistle was eventually blown.

a lot of players thought the game was very long, and it appears that colin mccandless's new watch was giving him some trouble, with mickey's big hand catching on one of minnie's ears

both teams now knew they were in a tight game, and the pressure and huge effort put in so far was beginning to show. the subs were rolling on and off the pitch at increasingly regular intervals.from the restart derrick, olly and mitchy were determined to cream the catcher, who happened to be deccy mccullagh, who's gaelic training came to the fore and he leapt like a salmon to take the catch. but this was a crafty salmon with a raised knee ( if you'll stretch the point ), and jason caught it in the ribs, and the moans and groans from him would have made a porn film star proud. doc hampton got mitchy breathing again with an old girl guides trick that left mitchy with a smile back on his face and the game got going again. from a sortie into the married half the blacks had a scrum which their trusty hooker smyth managed to kick back quicker than the scrum was retreating ( definitely not going back as quick in the second half ). from the disarray mad dog mcknight picked up and took off like linford christie after someone nicking his lunchbox and left the cover ( me i'm afraid ) for dead,and ran 40 yards to score under the posts - the conversion a formality.

the married men came again, and after more pressure on the black line, big prue got the ball 10 yards out and in a typical barging run he bounced 5 men to touchdown on the line. the married backs were doing very well at this stage and they had plenty of ball and made good progress down the wings, but the thin ( apart from bap ) black line held firm, and from a turnover in possession the singles struck again. a great move from inside their 22 saw the ball go through 5 or 6 sets of hands, with some great off-loading, and who should be there to finish the move but the silky soupmiester who beat the cover for a good try. the missed conversion left it 24- 17 to the singles and at this stage they were in the ascendency.

the game could have been sealed when a penalty was awared around the 10m line and simon ( win at all costs, never mind the spirit of the game, nah-nah you missed ) maxwell stepped up to kick for goal [ a sharp intake of breath from the reader ]
we were very glad to see justice done when the ball sailed wide , but from more pressure the hoops defence had been stretched to breaking point, and from a ruck on the left wing, 5 yards out, the ball was tossed into space where calamity caldwell was lurking in perfect position to deliver the knock-out blow. need i tell you what happened
scrum to the maried men and the danger was cleared.

by this stage the singles were in such disarray that bap had come in to prop, which wasn't such a bad move as colin finlay nearly fell over laughing. the game seemed to be lasting forever, but the married men looked into the future, and the vision of the gloating single boys goaded them into one final herculean effort. olly maxwell took crash ball on like a demented bull, davy o'neil and john graham stole yard after yard around the rucks and andy anderson made one final charge for the line but was held out. and still we fought on and eventaully we set up a maul 10 yards out, everyone piled in and shoved like our wives would be proud of, and finally the mass of bodies crossed the singles try line. the ref made great work in carefully peeling the sprawl apart and who should be at the bottom of the pile but one of the clubs top scorers - jason mitchy . there was now huge pressure on the conversion to tie the scores, and macca manfully strode up to take on the un-enviable job, but he narrowly missed and the single men clung on by the skin of their fores. the game ended shortly after with a massive melee in the middle of the park, but the manner of the game meant the true winner of the match was strabane rfc, and the grand old club was given 3 hearty cheers. congratulations and commiserations were well accepted and the ref was applauded for his outstanding performance.

congratulations to the single men on a very hard fought victory, and i hope that the respect for each component of the club has been mutually increased. every single player gave it their all and the craic in the cricket club after the game showed how much everyone had enjoyed the day. i think that it was a great advertisment for our club, and i for one cannot wait for next year when we'll have a few new recruits - REVENGE, REVENGE

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