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As Santa Claus prepares for his trip down South, Richard Latimer heads North for the last game of 2007:
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Aberdeen 2nd XV v Watsonians 2nd XV
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Date: Saturday 15th December 2007. Kick off 1:30
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Venue: Aberdeen.
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The fixture calendar saw the 2 XV away to Aberdeen. Due to a number of different circumstances we were fortunate to raise a team. Picture the scene on Thursday night at training when Gary Scott and Moussa were filing through their mobile phones literally ringing any one who owned rugby boots, pleading with them to play at the weekend. Needless to say all responses were a negative one. Are you surprised to learn that we lost this one? It was mighty frustrating but I wasn't overly surprised.
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To say we went into this one under prepared was a massive understatement. And a few of the lads that were available were feeling a little worse for wear due to the previous evenings Christmas parties antics (are you noticing a trend.)
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We assembled around 9:30 on a glorious crisp winter morning and set off at 10 for the trip north. The bus was compact and perfectly adequate for our humble needs.
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The 3 and half hour bus trip was relatively uneventful. Some of the boys read, listened to music. Stuart Mac helped pass the time by calling out with the aid of the road sign the number of miles to Aberdeen. This "game" quickly evolved and by about mile 98 the whole bus (including the driver) were calling out, on a trigger call of "how many miles to Aberdeen?" followed by a WOO WOO! Juvenile? Maybe. Funny? Very! Well done Stuart.
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Inevitably we arrived about 40 mins prior to kick off and were herded into temporary Portakabins. Clearly this was due to the major redevelopment work currently under way. In the fear of sounding like a snob, they weren't great and it didn't aid our already creaky preparations.
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Any way, whingeing aside we warmed up and made a pact to go and give it our all. Everyone was in a determined mood.
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Our team was seriously decimated and had a very unfamiliar feel particularly in the backs. At scrum half we had Andy who is young, talented and very courageous. The centre combination was Stuart Mac and Kenny. Alex Grant was on the right wing while Fobos 18 year old son was on the left wing (sorry I don't even know your name!) Euan Robertson played at full back. Robbo was playing his first game in about a month. The forward pack had a more familiar feel to it led by the ever young Gary Scott.
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Kicking off to Grammar on a lovely winter afternoon fly half Rob Tweedie floated a great kick-off and we got stuck in. The early exchanges were good. We opened the scoring within the first two minutes. It came from first phase. Our put into the scrum about 10 metres from their line saw Andy pass to Tweedie at 10. Tweedie then used his power and pace along with his eye for the gap to break the tackle from his opposite number to go over to the left of the posts. Nice start we all thought, unfortunately it didn't last long. It was 7 - 0 before we knew it.
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Aberdeen came back hard at us and were showing far greater commitment and cohesion at the breakdown area and it seemed that any hard fought ball we did win was frittered by basic errors (mostly handling to be honest). On countless occasions we'd take it into contact and we'd get turned over by their backrow.
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Basically Aberdeen were playing simply and as a team and we couldn't match it. Their opening score came soon after ours, from a driven line out close to our line. Aberdeen executed a simple catch and drive and frustratingly drove us over much to their delight.
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We got straight back into their half and won some good ball. We were dominating the scrum and getting an excellent push on. It was only a shame we could only drive them a metre and a half! Otherwise we'd have pushed them all over the park. As you will be aware at the scrum engagement the referee calls, "crouch, touch, pause, engage." However this particular gentleman who did use those four words, but it was more like Crouch, touch, paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaause and engage." and it took us most of the afternoon to get used to it. To be honest it was irritating for everyone. The referee spent a lot of time summoning the front row over for a "chat" to try and sort the scrum out.
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Grammar scored their third try through their centre after a mid field mix up. Their centre coasted in. Rightly so Captain Gary Scott roasted the troops, something along the lines of get the finger out with a few Gordon Ramsay esk expletives thrown in.
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The second half was a pretty forgettable half of rugby. There isn't a great deal to talk about. I recall a point where there were about ten resets in the scrum and as a second row that is pretty tedious. All the scrummaging led to young loose head Eddie Crawford to injury his shoulder and in light of the fact we had no, I repeat no substitutes we had to go to uncontested scrums. Excellent for a second row!
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The only score came through a try by Grammar, again as a result of weak tackling. We had a few encouraging points. Near the end of the half we called a line out (which functioned well for most of the day). Instead of an orthodox throw to either two or four, hooker Danny Moussa threw the ball directly to Scott standing directly at the front, who immediately passed it back to Moussa. Creating a narrow space for the big man to rumble up the wing. He almost made it over the try line only to be tackled just short. It was a good move and a piece of inspiration in a game largely lacking any.
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At the full time whistle we had been comprehensively beaten but not necessarily out played. The whole experience had been very frustrating. As we'd been unable to give a good account of ourselves and trudged off the pitch and back to the poky portakabins knowing we could have given a much better account of ourselves. If only we had the full fire power that is available to us.
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Spirits didn't stay low for long as slowly the smiles returned to the faces and the much anticipated Santa ride back to Edinburgh began (the dress code was Santa or... naked! Ed.). It commenced with a brief stop to the local ASDAs to stock up on beers and a few other "snacks"
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The court session on the bus was tremendous. A tad harsh at times maybe but only for the greater good of the 2nd XV and the rugby club in general. We rolled (literally) into Myreside around 7 pm full of gusto. Personally speaking as soon as the fresh winter night air hit my face I knew my night wasn't lasting long. It didn't.
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Special mention must go to South African scrum half Andy. He has equipped himself very well during his short time at the club. He played a good game and showed excellent resolve, considering his antics the night before (see Moussa for further details!) By the time this is written he'll be back in SA. All the best mate.
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The season now sees a two week break for Christmas. The league resumes on the 5th January 2008. Have a lovely Christmas Break and I'll see you in the New Year.
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Final score was about (don't quote me) 26 - 7
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RL.
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watsoniansrugby.com
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Published: 19/12/07
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