Here’s another installment of the Captain’s log. I hope to give you some insight into the weird and wonderful world of the Newbury Blues 1st XV.
First, a massive thank you to all our friends, supporters, sponsors and family members who travel around the country supporting their lads…
We start with a fantastic win at home against Redruth. Now this really was a case of boys becoming men in the space of a long, hard season. Anyone who watched us play away down at “hellfire corner” would have recognized they bullied us and came away with a convincing win – not on our patch! We met fire with fire and took it straight to them especially up front, dominating not only scrum and lineout but the contact area as well.
Now with my fellow “spearmint panda” house mates MIA, it was a different, younger looking side that took the field at Monks Lane, which makes this an even more impressive home win and the future is definitely looking good for the Newbury Blues. Right from the start we looked to move the ball and play rugby, again sticking to the game plan, which we have found hard to do all season. Forward runners making in-roads off 10 and 12, and our slick backs hitting hard, fast and wide up the wings… most sides cannot live with that style of play. But not to be out done, the forwards showed off their superior forward dominance with two tries of their own coming from mauls and ‘pick and goes’.
To last Saturday and London Scottish away. HOW DID WE LOSE? The score definitely ended up flattering the home side and I think if you ask anyone who was there they would agree. The forwards once again (not that I am biased at all) dominated up front pushing the Scottish pack around and also made many solid breaks through the line. It’s the story of our season – we just don’t seem able to finish off moves with points. Sides like Scottish and Esher only seem to need a small number of opportunities and they take advantage of them.
Saturday will see us playing against Stourbridge in our penultimate home game of the season… expect fireworks – we fully intend to get a 5 point win to secure the future of the Blues in the national division 1.
Then to celebrate securing our league place we are inviting everyone to a FREE – yes FREE –60/70s fancy dress disco afterwards. The players and coaches are paying for this party to say thanks for all your support, time, money and effort over the season.
So thank you and C’mon you Blues!
Grathy
1st XV Club Captain
