Fun in the Sun – County Cup Style

It was sunny, it was the Easter holidays – we knew getting a full squad would be difficult for our final County Cup fixture against Old Pats B – who by coincidence had also played tour team Chobham last week. Could Stroud keep up their fantastic cup record and finish the competition in style?

To make things harder for the coaches some of the Marling kids had travelled to Holland to play the round ball game (don’t tell Jo or Jenks or they’ll be dropped from the squad). Some of Maidenhill were off invading France to allegedly grab back our Brexit paperwork. Even Alex had gone international with a trip to Cardiff to hunt for some Daleks and audition for the vacant Doctor Who lead role.

As a consequence your normal match reporter was banned from going to rugby and stuck with household chores (still easier than a match report) so Geoff manfully volunteered to do the match report – and what a corker it is……

Match Reporter: Geoff
Stroud squad:
Forwards - Liam, Stoner, Harry P, Lucas, Will T, Jedd, Darian, Keyan
Backs – Hilly, Archie C, Will H, Dave, Arthur, Josh, Joe, Edgar, Harry N
Supporting (injured) - Laurie

As William Shakespeare once said “we are such stuff as dreams are made on” – though it’s not clear whether he was referring to Stroud U13s at the time. After the excitement of European rugby under the lights at Fromehall (aka the Theatre of Dreams) last Friday, it was a return to the bread and butter of County Cup action for the Yogurt Knitters on Sunday.

Considering it was a sunny Sunday in the school holidays, Stroud had a good turnout of 17 players. However, questions have to be asked about the coaching staff. No Jenks (gone to support his new pals at Painswick I think) and no Jo (coaching a different age group – you’re a stranger to us now Jo). Most disappointingly, no Russ, which means you’ve got a special guest correspondent this week.

After a Jenks and Russ-free warm-up, the boys took to the field. Conditions in Cheltenham resembled the High Veld of South Africa, with a warm sun and a bone hard pitch. Stroud kicked off down a steep slope and the first stages were played deep in the Old Pats twenty-two. The home side bravely kept trying to run from deep, but great tackles from Josh and then Stoner kept them pinned back. Stroud struggled to get their expansive passing game going on a very narrow pitch; First Will T was bundled into touch (not easily done) on the left, and then Archie ran out of room on the right. A couple of trademark straight runs from Liam kept Stroud moving forwards, and then Dave took a quick penalty, made ground on the left and Will H was there to touch down in the corner for a deserved Stroud lead. A second try quickly followed: the ball came back to Will H from a scrum on half-way and he deftly found Dave coming on the burst straight through the middle. He scored emphatically under the posts. 10-0.

From the restart, Old Pats (aka OP) finally managed to get up the hill and into the Stroud half. Good tackles from Will T and Dave kept them at bay and then Keyan managed a brilliant tackle and jackal. After some messy play all round, Keyan burst through and looked for all the world like he was going to score, only for a sensational tackle to stop him almost on the line. From the resulting scrum, Hilly tried a dart for the line, but fell inches short (appropriately enough). Moments later Keyan did manage to get over the line for a 15-0 scoreline.

Harry N ran the restart back at OP, but was well tackled and Stroud had to withstand a spell of pressure until a beautifully judged clearing kick from Will took play back down the hill. Keyan made a fantastic break down the right, breaking several tacklers tackles and offloading to Darian out the back of his hand. With the memory of his famous sidestep against Chobham fresh in his mind, Darian pinned his ears back and went for the line, but was stopped by another fantastic last ditch OP tackle that left him with a sore shoulder and no try.

Hitherto uncharacteristically quiet, Arthur set up the next attack with one of his trademark steals, and Keyan repeated the back of the hand offload, this time to Dave who cruised past the defence to score wide on the left. 20-0.

At this point we discovered we were playing a man down, and Darian was hastily returned to the pitch. It would never have happened when Jenks was here. Unfortunately, we were still trying to work out whether the numbers were right when Old Pats scored by bursting through the middle from a scrum on the Stroud twenty-two. 20-5, and OP were showing great resilience and plenty of skill to keep the game competitive at half-time. Could they mount a fight back as they attacked down the slope in the second half?

Half Time: Old Patesians B 5 - Stroud 20

Their hopes must have dipped when Liam charged back at them from the restart, set it beautifully and Joe then ran at them down the left. Good hands from Archie moved the ball to Will H, who dinked it over the top and went on the chase, only for a kind bounce to land the ball in the OP full-back’s hands. We went back for a penalty to Stroud, which gave Jedd the chance to run at the defence and offload sweetly to the onrushing Stoner. Old Pats eventually won possession, but their latest attack was abruptly halted by a superb Harry N tackle on a dangerous runner in full flight.

Some great forward play, especially by Lucas, rumbled the ball forward through several phases, and led to a speedy little snipe from Archie. There were more turnovers for both teams, including two more Arthur steals™. Finally, a lovely spun pass from Will H set Dave into a bit of space. He kicked ahead and both he and Joe put in a great chase, to pressure the unfortunate OP full-back on his own five-metre line. OP escaped with the ball and attacked down the right, only to be stopped by fierce tackling from Stoner and Keyan. Will H did a lovely show and go, to get Stroud up into the twenty-two, but Edgar again ran out of room against the touchline. The scrum was lost, but a great Liam turnover at the ruck led to a Dave run through the middle, past several defenders. Dave offloaded unselfishly as he closed on the line, and Joe ran in the try: not quite the solo spectacular of last Friday, but reward for great support running. 25-5.

Refusing to give up, a turnover and great runs from two OP players got them to within a metre of the line. Two more phases and OP were over for a second try, albeit under Stroud protest that Stoner had prevented the touch down. Stroud responded within seconds; a great Jedd run and offload, and Dave ran from the half-way line to claim his hat-trick (should boost his confidence). 30-5.

As play got going again, OP ran into the Arthur maul machine, and Archie and Keyan tidied up well. Another superb OPs tackle stopped Keyan in his tracks, but Arthur stepped in as scrum half and the ball went wide to Joe then Hilly on the right. A scrum resulted, and Will T stormed unstoppably over for a try that was well deserved for a performance full of strong tackling and support play. 30-10 to Stroud, with Hilly retiring after a severe blow to the nose!

Stroud attacked once more, with good hands taking the ball left, with Liam attacking from his now customary outside centre role. Dave eventually ran out of space on the left, and OP counter-attacked. More great tackles from Harry N and Arthur turned the ball over, and some fantastic handling moved the ball to Dave who kicked ahead but couldn’t quite get his hands down on the bouncing ball behind the try line. It didn’t matter: a clearing kick from OP was caught by Arthur who ran it back through almost the entire OP team to within a couple of metres of the line. Fantastic quick hands from Archie popped the ball up to Keyan bursting unstoppably through the middle, shouting something like “At this hour, Lie at my mercy all mine enemies” as he scored. 35-10.

From the restart, Darian did a brilliant job of clearing up a horrible bouncing ball almost on his own try line. OP pressed for a bonus point try, but great Stroud defence as the final minutes ticked down kept them out. Keyan, Lucas and Will T tackled well, until a clearing kick relieved the pressure. At one point Harry P put in three solid tackles in the space of 20 seconds, before eventually dissolving in a pool of sweat. Edgar and Archie mauled successfully, Stroud held out, and with that the (excellent) referee called it a day.

Final Score (Geoff version): Old Patesians B 10 - Stroud 35

PS you may have noticed a slight discrepancy in the report. The score was apparently 40-10, but the report only describes seven Stroud tries. Errrr… that’s what you get if you lose your ace match reporter folks! If anyone would like to describe the missing try, please do!

Official Final Score: Old Patesians B 10 - Stroud 40 (allegedly)

It wasn’t Stroud’s finest performance, but there was loads of good work all round. OPs were excellent opponents and the game was played in good spirit and really well refereed. A debrief was held. Mark pointed out that “Our revels now are ended” and “what’s past is prologue”. A full and frank discussion of how Stroud had rucked was held (led by Harry P). Chocolate brownies were handed out, and the players headed back for ice baths and rehydration in Stroud. The travelling Stroud fans departed, longing for shade and a cool drink.

Now back to the normal reporter…….

Thanks to Geoff for doing a great report. Perhaps Will kicked a penalty and conversion to account for 5 extra points ? ;-) It’s not like any of my reports are 100% accurate as the kids delight in telling me - but at least I can keep the try count accurately (apart from my hangover weekend vs Stow!)

This will act as a timely reminder that when we go to Barnstaple Festival Tour we will re-run the competition where each parent does a match report of the shorter games and the winner gets some booze from me.

Now for the stato’s amongst you – here are County Cup stats from the 8 games we played this season.
Games: Played 8, Won 7, Lost 1 to Bredon. Because we came into that game cold after 2 months away and Jo didn’t see the game as away skiing we can choose to ignore this result ;-)
Points: Scored:395 Conceded: 135 (79 tries vs 27)
Number of times Mark shouted “Gas, Gas”: 16.5 – his voice ran out mid-shout.
Number of injuries fixed by Delia: Plenty - mainly our opponents though. Warmups and good tackle technique by the coaches keep our players fit most weeks – we can’t be held responsible for injuries from falling off of bikes can we Orgy !
Notable scalps: Longlevens and Stow. Shame we didn’t get some stronger teams in the 3rd pool but Chris H has some great fixtures lined up for us next season to push the team hard.

Have a great Easter………