Friendly rivalry rewarded with an open game of attacking rugby

After a week off for half term everyone needed to get back into the swing of things. Painswick were the visitors to Fromehall but unfortunately they were short of a few players so a full strength Stroud squad split themselves into Forwards vs Backs and the Painswick players mixed up over both teams to hopefully give a balanced game of rugby.

Would the pretty faced backs boys, beat the brute force and controlled aggression of the grizzly faced forwards? Tortoise vs Hare, Reds vs Blues, Schoolmate vs Schoolmate?

Although the game was treated as an extended training session it was still decided that the match reporter needed to practice his journalistic skills as well.....

Stroud Blues - lots of Stroud players wearing blue....mainly the backs
Stroud Reds - lots of Stroud players wearing red bibs.....mainly the forwards

Stroud kicked off. Stroud caught the ball cleanly and ran it back. Stroud tackled the Stroud player, but the ball was turned over by a different Stroud player. This was all becoming a bit pointless - the reporting that is - so I adapted and thought of another way to split the teams and players......

The Red Baron (Lofty of Painswick) was weaving through the sky. The Stroud spitfires were trying to shoot him down. As he came into the gun-sight of Blue Will be off-loaded his missile with laser precision and found Red Callum sprinting down the wing who showed great hands to defuse the long pass. The sides battled over no-mans-land until Blue Keyan found a gap and ran over the retreating forces to score the first try. 5-0 to the Blues.

With the experimental teams it gave the teams chance to try new running lines and kicks. Will kicked high for the corner and Blue Josh gathered it well and tapped down in the corner for a 10-0 lead. Soon it was 17-0 with Will going for the low kick option and Blue Dave gathering it at pace and scoring under the posts. The Reds didn't like this so they resorted to the power game and their forwards bullied their way forward and were rewarded with Red Mr T scoring a good try to close to 17-7.

Blue Dave was soon sprinting down the right flank to score the next try for a 22-7 lead. The red players were red faced due to the amount of energy they were expending chasing the Stroud backs. Blue Dave was blue in the face due to the energy he was burning off and the blood draining from his body as he gasped for air and water bottles. Nearly as blue faced as the match reporter gasping for punchlines......

Next to score was Red Darrion with a great pick and run from the base of a ruck. Then Blue Dave scored again on a lovely inside pass from Will. Finally the half ended with Blue Josh sprinting up the left wing and scoring the last try of the half.

Half Time: Stroud Blues - 34 - 14 Stroud Reds

A few more changes were made at the half to even out the teams.

Blue Josh carried on his attacking moves and did a lovely move down the left wing, drew the full back and passed onto Blue Keyan who finished off a lovely move to make it 41-14. Next Blue Jedd powered close to the line, and instead of running over his opposite number off-loaded to Blue Alex who scored an easy try. The next score was from the Reds. Red Laurie, Blue Laurie, Red Lorry, Blue Lorry. Enough of the tongue twisters. A powerful lorry ran over the blue car. Red Laurie the winner to close to 48-21. Was he then seen asking the ref to change the rules to last try wins?

The Blues had the final say though with a Painswick player scoring in the left corner. As the conversion looked quite hard Blue Dave handed the kicking tee to Keyan. Delia and Chris were having fits - Forwards should never kick. His hamstring will go. Keyan did well though to kick the ball forward and not put it in row Z of the stands. Unsurprisingly the kick sailed wide - perhaps should have given it to Eddie to kick as he is a much better sailor than the whole of Stroud put together......

The last phase of the game finished with Blue Dave scoring up the left wing, and side stepping his footy team mate Red Matt in the process....should make for a juicy footy training session this week when that banter comes up for debate.....

Full Time: Stroud Blues - 58 - 21 Stroud Reds

So the backs had beaten the forwards, but as the teams had been mixed up constantly it probably meant that each player must have been on the winning team at some point. Therefore Stroud were the clear winners......

Both teams had a debrief and it was made clear there would be much bigger challenges ahead of us the next few months - starting with Old Pats next weekend before the County Cup semi vs Minch.

Off to the clubhouse to polish off multiple bowls of pasta. And then for those who were rewarded for staying onto watch the U16's play they also got a good helping of chicken curry as well. Thanks to the catering staff for feeding the masses. Curry is the request for next time........