Barbarians Edged at Yatton
A very narrow losing draw for PROPS today at Yatton RFC.
Meeting for the first time the Old Blues lead by Ian Spiller, there was not a lot of old and they were far from blue in term of playing quality Rugby either. Tidy side, that gave PROPS a lot of work indeed.
The PROPS team today was bolstered with many new faces, unfortunately I could not get all the names and contact details for all of those new players so please let them have this update and hope they get back in touch as we would love to have them back in action again.
We saw 25 players todqy, 6 from Yatton RFC, 4 from Chipping Sodbury, 4 from Cleve, others from Kingswood RFC, Clifton RFC, Ashley Down RFC, Frampton Cotterell, and a few players not linked to local clubs but playing the odd game. Thanks to you all, so many clubs involved, so many guys and so much fun every single time!
So, how was the game then, you might ask?
All went under the direction of Dave James, Bristol Society Referee who very kindly stepped in for the injured Tony Swash. Dave, like the rest of us, was taken aback by the speed of play and intensity from Old Blues.
It took a few tries from them before PROPS boys gradually realised the potential they had in store and started fighting back.
The first two tries from Blues were scored by their captain Ian Spiller, great work on both, especially the last one with a superb drive from their pack. The third one was from their burly 3, hard to stop when in full run that one! And PROPS did what they do best, by not giving up and taking it back to the opposition.
Free flair Rugby started to get together, lovely show of hands, and PROPS were back scoring. By half time it was 4 tries to 1, but the tide was now in favour of PROPS, the game was far from over and there was plenty of positive to be taken into the second half.
Although PROPS never quite got in front, they came really close, and the tries kept coming. Defensively, this was not a bad game at all, Blues had to work really hard to break through and when they did some superb cover in defence denied them of what looked like a certain score. PROPS had some lovely runs too, coming from a super energetic Neil Surman (Yatton RFC) for example, weaving his way from inside our 10 all the way to the try line, superb. Also to be noted were tries from the ever elusive Chris Edwards, also from Yatton RFC, who seems to get faster year on year. Their efforts put PROPS almost in the lead, but Blues were not over, and went for a last push, finished by a lovely run from their centre to swallow dive a la Chris Ashton, and that was technically the winning try.
Officially this is a losing draw, the final score was 38-31 to Old Blues though.
From the teams out today, on both sides, we saw plenty of commitment and superb play at times. It was good to see guys like Aaron back on the pitch, unfortunately for the Blues, with powerful runs as he knows how to do them. Good to see many others back in action (Smeagol!), hope to see you about again soon.
This was the first PROPS game at Yatton RFC, they made us all feel really welcome and provided some delicious hot food after the game as well, thanks again! Stuart Hill from Yatton was unfortunate enough to pick a knee injury during the warm-up, and unlucky to make an unfortunate move of the hand during the auction that took part at the bar later as well! Fair play to Stu, he paid up. PROPS raise about £300 and thank you very much to Yatton RFC for giving us such a good day. Ian, let's see if we can get another game to Old Blues next year?
Looking at the more immediate future, as you all know, the next PROPS game is rather special, against Bristol Legends at Clifton RFC on 4 March.
We have approached an initial squad, players in that team will be on invitation only, sorry lads, we know many of you would love to take part.
Then we are back to the PROPS Babaas, at Kingswood RFC on 18 March, hope to see many of you about for that one! Let me know now if you are keen, and if you already told me please tell me again as I might not have made a note of it...sorry!
Thanks again to all the players, Yatton RFC, Dave our referee, and everyone who came out to support PROPS on the day.
The money raised helps out youngsters with severe learning difficulties, all of them Bristol based, and every penny given today goes directly to this worthy local charity: http://www.propsforward.org/
See you all again soon, until the next time!
Yann
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