Barbarians Finish Season on High

The Props Barbarians finished off the 2009/10 season in style at Frampton. Congratulations to Yann and Nick for extending the Barbarians unbeaten run to more seasons than I can remember! The Barbarians are an integral part of PROPS, and here’s Yann’s report of the action:

What a game…
For a start, this was Dean Morsner (Deano) last game before going back to
his native South Africa. After playing for Frampton Cotterell for the last 8
years he is now heading back to Gauteng, Johannesburg to be precise, and
this was his farewell game.All players on the Frampton Cotterell RFC team
have played with him at least one game in the last 8 years.
Great opposition for PROPS, who had a cracking side yet again and players
from Chipping Sodbury came in numbers, as well as Kingswood and Cleve as
this is so often the case.
This charity game was going to be pretty intense, and it was two good sides
looking forward to a good game of running Rugby since no kicking is allowed
in good old PROPS tradition.

The Frampton Deano’s invitation side was as follow:
1 Mark smith
2 Dave Cornish Pawlyn
3 Paul Beet
4 John Stewart
5 Nathan Cole
6 Dean Morsner
7 Brian Rides
8 Mark Cane
9 Matt Lawrence
10 Mike Weaves Weaver
11 Jerry Tily
12 Mark Chaps Chaplin
13 Mike Ashwin
14 Alex Cutes
15 Simon Belsten

Bench:
Pete Zaff Zaffiro
Andy Maccy McCleland
Wayne Kaye
Mike Lynett
Dave Lawrence
Steve Shand Hendy
Joe Bennett
Barry Whitehead

PROPS side was
1 Rob Lamb
2 Chris Trivett
3 Ray Stevens
4 Martin Hedges
5 Nick Bull
6 Alex Bull
7 Mark Davies
8 Jack Spooner
9 Lewis Beer
10 Richard King
11 Yann Amouroux
12 Nick Trivett
13 Ian Kirley
14 Ben Taylor
15 Roger Perce-Jones

Bench:
Joe Neath
Charlie Taylor
Pete Butcher
Ashleigh Honeywell

The game was fast and furious, and we had 3 referees to officiate the game
and they did a really good job. Thanks to Tony Swash, Jack Russell and the
third referee too, although sorry I haven’t got his name.
The first try came from Frampton, they worked well and made their way to the
line in style. The second try was theirs again, this time a rather soft one
as their full back made the most of a long pass to intercept and ran all the
way unopposed to the line. But, as usual, the PROPS team was beginning to
get to know each other, and there were signs of some potential after 20
minutes. Although we could not get the better out of their pack, especially
in the scrum, our pack was very mobile and combined really well with the
backs. This soon paid off, with a great run from Ben Taylor wooshing all the
way to the line. Not long after it was time for another PROPS try, this time
from Mark Davies, levelling the scores to 2-2 (neither side could convert
for toffee on the day by all account). But, as we were getting closer to
half-time, Frampton added 2 more tries, one from a lovely run from their
scrum-half, and the other from a bashing run from one of their big forward.

Half time came as a relief to all, but the PROPS side was far from defeated.

A few changes in the second half, and the fresh legs soon started to get the
results. There were more tries from both sides, and I lost count of who did
what, but when I was on the bench and able to make a few notes the score was
then 32-24 to Frampton with about 30 minutes to go. Ben Taylor added another
try to his tally, 32-29.But Frampton replied with yet another try, 37-29.
Time was running out, 10 minutes left, and it was now Lewis Beer’s turn to
run a cracking line and getting the scores to 37-34. We were now with less
than 5 minutes to go, and the crowd was really into this game, played in a
fantastic spirit and high intensity all the way long. Returning from long
term injury was Joe Neath, running on his way to the line for PROPS but as
he was driven out of the pitch he managed to offload just in time to Nick
Bull who cut through the solid Frampton defence and score the last try of
the game, 37-39.

This official PROPS draw was a great result (whatever the result it is
always a draw) and well done to both teams. We saw plenty of new faces
within the PROPS side, and hope to see them again (Lewis, Jack, Ben, Roger,
Mark, Pete and Ashleigh).
All together we played against a really good side, and all for charity in an
unusually cold and wet May afternoon.

After the game we all gathered at the Live and Let Live Pub (
http://www.bathales.com/pubs/live-let-live.html ) who made us all feel
really welcome and serve some lovely beer too!
Nick Trivett took charge of the raffle, and between that, the money raised
from both sides, an auction (thanks again to Sam for that, landlady from the
pub), and a donation of £100 from Frampton, the total raised on the
afternoon was £535. Fantastic result, and all for a great cause.

This was the last game of our 2009-10 season, which has been a really good
one for us all.
We saw 53 players, over 4 games, from over 10 clubs in Bristol, and graced
by ex-Bristol players and legends such as Dave Hilton (twice!).
We raised over £2000 this season, this is doing so much for the charity we
can’t thank you all enough. Some of you copied in this e-mail may have not
played this season, but we hope to see you next year.

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