This was a day that started pretty much like most Sundays in my house. Before going off to play some rugby, there was a family breakfast and a couple of jobs that needed doing round the house. As my girls left to go to Artis, my match day started. Not ideal, as Saturday left me without any cash and I hadn’t had any lunch. Fixing that put a dent in my timetable. That was bad, primarily because it meant getting into the game rushed, but also, not in the least, I now ran the risk of becoming the bierman.
As I arrived, my latter worry proved unfounded, as Beishuizen nearly ran into my trailer hook and walking into the pitch we met Rob Pel. Thankfully, the threes still start fashionably late, so after having a coffee we could get changed for the game and still make it onto the pitch before kick off. Warming up is just that these days. We shuttle back and forth between the touchline and about 10 yards in field and perform some stretching exercises. All in all a standard, slightly boring run up to a game for us. That’s what happened the week before and we lived to regret it.
That was about to change at the whistle. In true ‘zelectie’ fashion we succeeded in missing the ball as Cas kicked it towards us. Where we normally take around half an hour to wake up and realise we are in a rugby game, we actually got in gear right then. Lineouts were played pretty reasonably, scrums we set were actually good and we even managed to provide fairly clean ball for the half backs. Better still, we managed to execute the two pod forward format and strung together a heap of multi phase attacks. Where Cas had a couple of decent runners in their back row, we tackled these boys more often than not (note: there is a todo for us, which is to get tackling quicker, lower and harder). Then after about twenty or so minutes we really built some momentum; I remember PierHein Govers claiming a ball off nine from the base of a ruck and really tearing into Cas’ defensive line. That was followed by some good old forward domination in scrums, where we marched back the Cas pack on at least three occasions, in one case the marching back would have easily amounted to fifteen or so yards. Eat that Cas. All along this episode a good coupe of tries were scored by the threes.
The predictable interval speech was for us to keep our cool, stick with the patterns etc. Unfortunately, Kane announced that his knee was about to go and substituted himself onto the wing, which we all thought was top form. He followed through with a couple of great runs, and, in proper ‘zelectie’ fashion, missing the sweetest pass that Bas Hofs put on during the entire game. Not to worry Kane, just get well soon and give us more of you in the remainder of the season (you know you want to!). At some point we were awarded a scrum pretty much in the middle of the park that we were going to do smart – kit, get the ball, move it to Allard at eight and conserve energy. As it happened, the Cas loose was a bit weak and I may have gotten carried away. That involved shoving and riling up the Gooi pack to shove with me. A good half dozen steps forward in the scrum gave Allard and Ralph the space they needed to execute some sort of move which – if memory serves – ultimately shipped the ball to Allard who managed to get a try out of it. Years of Gareth and Job explaining to us that forward momentum gives you space to execute an attack finally sunk into the collective consciousness of our side and guess what – It really works!
I guess my moment arrived after we had been awarded a penalty for some sort of handling offence committed by the Cas captain and the Cas lads left a Patrick sized gap on the tryline. It took some shouting, but Wisse decided to let me have a go and fed me the ball. The rest is history, and left me with a rare try and the opportunity to celebrate with a well earned Monecristo. Later that match we saw
To sum up, gameplan execution, individual initiative with ample support from teammates, a couple of big hits and an old fashioned friendly post match beer. All was well in the world for about half an hour. :Lads, we have got the fishermen from Spakenburg coming to our grounds on Thursday. These guys will come thinking they will push us around the pitch and then put in a few backline moves and score. We know better, and will give them a game. A proper one, like the pumas and the French gave the kiwis during the world cup. All we need to do is pick up where we left off on Sunday.
Patrick Tuin
MothM
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten