Team-mate vs School-mate vs Team-mate - but Stroud are the winners

It was Mothering Sunday and the clocks also going forward so there was the risk of a few kids missing due to extended lie-ins, or looking after their Mums with breakfast-in-bed, washing up, ironing, gardening and dusting. Therefore we had arranged a joint Stroud-Painswick training session with match at the end. It was also a good chance to exchange details on the upcoming Chobham tour fixture on Friday night.

To their credit the Stroud players turned out in force so that says a lot for their keenness to still want to play rugby at 9am (old school time). Its also a worrying sign that their Mums went un-appreciated as the dishes stacked up in the kitchen sink while the kids played rugby to avoid Mothers Day chores!

Warm-ups were held with the Painswick kids nice and attentive – perhaps they were scared of Chris’ commanding voice. Then there were joint passing and rucking drills – both blue-on-blue contact and blue-on red.

Then the pleasantries were over and a game broke out. It was a game with a difference because Stroud lent various players to Painswick to even up the squads and keep everyone on their toes. It’s hard enough tackling your school mate when he wears the red of Painswick, but it seemed to be even harder to tackle your Stroud team-mate when he temporarily wore the red bib to join Painswick!

The game kicked off and Stroud got a scrum on the right. Before you could say ‘whos the superfast kid with the new haircut’ Hilly had scooted up the wing and scored a sniping try. 5-0 to Stroud.

Another kickoff and Painswick settled down with a period of possession with red-Jedd enjoying his bruising runs over the Stroud players. Eventually Alex dragged him down to stop a try, then Darion went on a few runs himself, and finally Keyan ran in a try from distance for 10-0.

Stroud kicked off and their athletic scrum half ran it back up the left wing. Kaboom. Alex decked him with another tackle. He was enjoying this chance to remind his friends that contact sport was fun. The ball came loose and it came out to the left. Then in a moment of inspiration Will kicked over the head of the 1st defender, deftly caught the ball and just as the full back closed he kicked deep over him and in a sprint to the line out-ran his Dad to score a great individual try. 15-0 to Stroud. While we were still clapping in admiration we had missed Keyan scoring a try from kick-off for 20-0.

Another kick return set Stroud up nicely. Orgy went on a penalty run and next thing it was Will-Dave combo and a try up the middle. Soon after another try was scored with Archie doing some great running and passing to Joe who finished off the move for 30-0.

Then the coaches made it interesting – they put Dave and Keyan in the red of Painswick and challenged Stroud to practice their tackle technique. It soon became 30-5, 30-10, 30-15, 30-20 and finally 30-25 with Keyan and Dave taking it in turns to run in tries, or to create space for the other Painswick players to take advantage and run through some weak tackling to touch down. So the point was made – we had to practice tackling in the future. At least now we had some sympathy for our opponents that face these rampaging players in blue every week.

Half time: Stroud 30-25 Painswick

Painswick kicked off and Arthur had a good run back. Ruck, scrum, ruck and eventually Josh got the ball and scored a good try. Another kickoff and Mr T took his chance to shine with strong runs. Stoner then showed his attacking prowess and then soon after his defensive tackling skills. Eventually red-Keyan got the ball and broke through the defensive line and looked to be scoring another breakaway try but Arthur showed great resolve and chased him down and tackled him just short of the line to raptuos applause, but Keyan bounced his way over the line for a try for Painswick. Now it was 35-30 to Stroud and it was chance for Dave and Keyan to come back to the blue side!

Stroud kicked off and before you knew it Dave had scored in the left corner. Fortunately he had checked his shirt colour when catching the ball and scored at the correct end to extend Stroud’s lead to 40-30. More Stroud possession from the kickoff gave Liam chance to do his strong runs, then ball out to the backs and Dave ran in another score. Dave was then sent back to Painswick for a blood injury replacement.

Painswick had some good attacking moves and were growing in confidence with their passing but this gave Laurie the chance to intercept a pass and go on a good run. Eventually Painswick got the ball back and they scored a good try in the right corner for 45-35. Stroud fielded another kickoff and Finn had a good twisting run back. Eventually the ball came out to Josh and he showed his speed and elusiveness to score another try from deep for 50-35. He even managed to avoid Dave who was getting subbed off for Painswick but still tried to put in a last gasp tackle – and got a neck injury as his reward – probably a pretend injury to stop ref Jo sending him to the sin bin for a professional foul!

Another set of Stroud possession was rewarded with Darion scoring a great try up the middle. Before we knew it we had a repeat and Darion scored his 2nd try of the game. The full time whistle went and players applauded each others efforts.

Full time: Stroud 60-35 Painswick

So sorry for the shorter than normal match report but it was a tad hard trying to keep tabs on who did what for which side. Plus you get a bonus match report this Friday when Stroud host tour side Chobham under lights at Fromehall Park – should be a great occasion.