Lads vs Dads. And the Winner is.......

This was famously titled as 'Fun Day'. Fun for who ? The kids dishing out punishment to the Dad's, or the Dad's winding back the years to show they still had some rugby skills hidden in their locker?

On a greasy Fromehall pitch the infamous warmups set the tone for how the rest of the morning would pan out. Multiple games of bulldogs were played. This time it was Dads tackling kids, or more like kids showing their speed and running past out-of-condition Dads. Then things got turned on their head and the Dads had to get past the wall of kids, and they showed their gang tackling mentality and would pick on one parent and force them to the ground - much like cheetahs choosing the weakest wildebeest to take down and eat for their lunch !

What started off being a planned 3 way Tri-nations tournament of 7's rugby soon got re-organised into a single game of 14 kids vs 8 parents.

As expected Geoff had come fully prepared and was wearing his studs to give him the best chance of keeping himself upright. He had relatives flown in from Australia watching the game. Thats how serious he was taking it! Some parents were just wearing trainers so how would they get on? In the festive spirit Jonathon had even taking to wearing his white Xmas jumper. Would that make him an easy target as the kids tried to get it covered in mud?

The kids were decked out in the flurescent bibs. This was for 2 reasons as we found out:

1) Allow the parents to be able to see them more clearly - especially Chris who admitted he played better rugby without his glasses
2) Give us more material to grab hold of as we tackled them - more on that later.....

So the much anticipated game started. Would it be Men vs Boys, somewhat similair to the 53-0 trouncing that Stroud 1sts dished out to Cirencester 24 hours earlier, or would it be a more even contest ?

Please remember kids. Sometimes what you read on the Internet isn't always the truth. This match report might fall into that category in certain places !

Kids Team - Will H, Will T, Jed, Dave, Tom H, Tom O, Callum, James, Alex, Arthur, Liam, Ryan, Laurie, Dash
Dads Team - Jo, Mark, Chris, Russell, Geoff, Jonathon, Rob, Liams Dad (sorry can't remember name!), Michael (2nd half only)

Game 1 (of 1 thankfully)

The game started with each child somehow deciding to line up opposite their parent so that they could get that first hit in to show them who's boss. For the kids who didn't have Dad on the pitch they just joined in with the gang tackling.

It was decided early on that scrums would be 3 Dads vs 5 kids. Having lower leverage and better scrum technique courtesy of Chris' coaching the kids soon realised this would be to their advantage and the Dads were really having to put the effort in all game to stop themselves going backwards. Lineouts were a different matter though. Kids wanted us to kneel down to remove our height advantage. With Will T and Jed though they were as big as us so we just agreed we wouldn't jump. Didn't stop us winning the majority of the lineouts though because we knew Tom O's line calls and quite often jumped anyway - competitive Dad syndrome as its known....

The kids scored first with a well worked try. Dads soon came back with a long kick by Jo and a chase by Mark. Showing his full commitment he dived on the ball to touch it down over the line.

The game ebbed and flowed with each team making yardage and then turning it over. Good back play by the kids was starting to expose the lack of pace on the flanks for the parents. Even the forward play was putting pressure on the Dads try line, until the Dads realised instead of trying to tackle the kids they could lift them up and carry them back 10 yards, or carry them out of bounds. I'm sure that is a recognised tackling technique in the RFU Rulebook - sorry Laws and Regulations.

Due to the success of Jo's kicking game he started to do his Up 'n' Unders but the kids were more than a match for this and were cleanly catching the swirling kicks and running them back at pace. Never kick away possession is what Jo had taught the kids but here he was having to eat humble pie as Dave would catch a kick and run it back for another 20 yard gain.

The parents then resorted to a forwards game. They gave the ball to Chris who lumbered his way forward, trying to encourage the kids to tackle him and rip the ball. When it became apparent he was making too much yardage he was tackled by Rob, who later declared in the bar that he thought it was a rolling maul and just mistimed his attempt to support the play!

The first half carried on with the kids taking charge and running in a few more tries. The whistle blew for the half and it was a dejected parents team that needed an inspiring team talk to help them get back into the game.

The second half was a different matter. The parents came back much stronger, aided by Michael deciding to join the fun on the pitch. The Dad's were throwing some lovely passes. The highlight being a well worked passage of play from their own try line all the way along the backs in both directions, and just as the last offload was done Geoff managed to knock on deny us the try of the day.

Jo went back to the kicking game and a kick to the try line was just missed by Russell's diving attempt to touch it down. 15 years ago it would've been a try but Russell's lack of pace, game awareness, and talent were the only things missing this time around. This had become apparent during the Summer Tag Tournament as well but old habits die hard.

Another Up n Under kick from Jo was this time caught by Russell (Editors note - at pace!) and he avoided a few tackles to give a simple pass to Jo to bring the scores level.

Parents were now dominating and another try from Rob gave us the lead. The kids were not despondent though and a few times they managed to hold up the Dads as we struggled to put the ball down after crossing the try line.

The Dads started to run out of energy so resorted to the dark arts. Even with the ref on our side he started to issue the threat of sin bins and yellow cards for deliberate obstructions and offsides. When Jo then realised that he'd have to work harder with less parents on the pitch he quickly resorted to a stern talking to - with a twinkle in his eye.

The kids were desperate to score an equalising try. They were running the ball from deep. Dave made a great break, found the gap between 2 parents and went for it. Only a desperate lunging grab of the bib by Rob saved a try. Dave quite literally was stopped in his tracks but still managed to get the ball out to Ryan who then made more yardage. The kids were on top now and a great run by James with a perfectly timed pass meant that the equalising try was scored.

It was decided to have a "Golden Try" - winner takes all. The kids thought they had scored first with Arthur barrelling through the centre and attempting to touch down but the impartial ref could clearly see there was no downward pressure so awarded a scrum instead. The parents won the scrum (was it a straight put in Geoff?) and passed it through the backs. Liam's Dad (playing in the Phil role) was hiding on the wing and took the ball at pace and ran the length of the pitch. As the parents started to celebrate they didn't realise that the lactic acid was building up and the pace slowed and the covering tackles caught up and managed to push out-of-bounds a few yards short of the victory try.

The kids then took charge again and camped themselves on the Dad's try line. Another great move created the space for Dave to run through a gap and just as he was about to touch down the ref blew the full time whistle and everyone agreed that a draw was a fair result.

Final Score 40-40

Players formed tunnels and clapped each other off the pitch. Who would win the re-match in the Summer? Improved traction for the parents would help, but another 6 months training and growing bigger and faster for the kids might give them that decisive edge.

We all retired to the bar to drink, eat bacon baps, and compare our injuries. If the UK drops into a recession next year we can put it down to the lost productivity of 8 parents limping around, not being able to write and type with wrist injuries, or flat out in bed with back injuries.

In the spirit of unbiased editorial control I am now forced by my wife to hand over the keyboard to a member of the opposition.....

Bonus match report from Alex

My Dad's report is wrong. We won the game. We didn't draw. He's just a bad loser. You can tell the Dads are rubbish at rugby because in the Summer Tag tournament they only win the Most Improved Team and never the big trophy. We even took it easy on you. Next time we'll tackle properly and show you who is the best team.