Nuneaton old eds 10's - Sunday 3nd May
Team: 1. John Beart 2. Danny liqairi 3 Paul Ryan 4. Liam Munro 5. Rob Collins 6. Adam Nixon 7. Pete glackin 8 Mike rust 9. Matt Goode 10. Shaun Thomas 11 Huw Thomas 12. Sam Patel 13. Steve Clarke
With 2 early season wins under our belt and defending champions at this tournament there was always a hell of a lot of pressure on us to perform. With the weather not sure and the players being kept waiting for nearly 2 hours before play could commence we started of very slowly and almost got hit cold by a tough and fit young Hartpury college side. Eventually the class of the team and a last minute solo effort from matt “the feet” Goode was enough to win 17-10.
Another long rest and time to see how Carl and his lovely wife, who had made the trip down from Warrington, were fairing on the Raging Bull stand. Also it seemed a great opportunity for my son and nephew to re-arrange the stall to their liking, sorry Carl.
The families and friends of players had also made the trip including team Thomas all the way from Wales, Pete lockitt from Darlington, Nina and Danny from Manchester(having flew in from marbella that morning) and wives, children and friends from all over the midlands including Alex Gray and cast.
So with a great family atmosphere we really did not want to let them down so the next game against the handy hoods we really let loose racking up a cricket score which lost count somewhere past 60pts+ .
The next game was on the main pitch and was against a side that had 2 teams in and had both looked good so in front of the main crowd we again had to show the goods. This we did and with a huge score line the GD’s 2ND 10 really had no way back but full credit to them they really stuck at it and played with immense spirit.
We were now in the semi finals against the GD’S 1ST 10. after having again waited nearly 2hrs bodies were really beginning to stiffen up and only through the immense work of team physio gemma were the lads ready for the challenge. Again another hard fought victory which was taken to the wire , including one of the biggest hand offs ever from danny and some great speed work from clarky and tommo we were now in the final.
No waiting around for this one though , within 10 minutes we were on the main pitch to face the local team Old Eds select. They were very committed and came out of the blocks early scoring 3 un answered trys. This is always very difficult to recover from in tournament rugby and although we battered their line on many occasions we couldn’t break through. Then the final blow came when speedster Shaun Thomas was red carded for what seemed to be a clear out at a ruck which on any other day would only warrant a talking to and a penalty. The wind had been taken out of our sails but a well deserved win to the Eds side. Another learning point in the team’s journey, and another proud management team.
We now move into the thick of the sevens season with Ashby 7s on the 15th may so please get down and support us whenever you can.
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