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There are many landmarks in a rugby player's career, the Ed. reached another one this weekend. For the first time, the Ed. played with a team-mate that was half his age!
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Without any further boring digressions, readers will be able to enjoy the reort from one of the website's favourite writers Baz Lawson:
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WFC 3rd XV vs Preston Lodge 2nd XV
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Due to the promotion of the 3rd XV in an attempt to get more games into the season, we have seen the fun loving 3rd XV called into action at an earlier time of year and the numbers who turned up on Saturday showed this wasn't an overly popular weekend to start. After a couple of miserable trainings with very few numbers James "Bad Boy" McAinsh, with help from others, managed to pull together a starting XV and that was it, no reserves, no physio, no cheerleaders.
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Arriving at the club Saturday afternoon the mood was not overly confident but with a few old faces in the squad we knew we had a chance so after a last minute discussion on where we were playing we were off to Preston Pans to take on Preston Lodge, unfortunately only 12 arrived as Chris Hunter's ears are apparently painted on and he turned up at the wrong ground. Fortunately after a brief phone call with the by now very angry Bad Boy, the missing three turned up with 5 minutes to spare before kick off.
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The game started in a driving wind which meant it was going to be a kicking game, Preston Lodge started well and went immediately into Watsonian's territory but after a brief scare the 3rds managed to clear their lines with a huge raking kick from Andy Rae which put us hot on attack in the home side's 22. Some very solid defending and a non functioning Watsonians line out saw us camped in the opposition's half for the next 15 minutes but the pressure couldn't be turned into points until finally, from a botched clearance and some nice handling by the backs we saw Jamie Stevenson cross for the first 5 points which was converted by Rob Tweedie, WFC 3rd XV 7- PL 0.
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From the kick off the ball was passed immediately from right to left and after a nice interchange between Chris Hunter, Mike Souter and Rob Tweedie we had gone 80 metres to put Rob Tweedie over for the second 5 pointer of the match, again Tweedie converted to take the score to WFC 3rd XV 14 - PL 0.
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After the try we went back to join Ali Campbell, Bad Boy and the remainder of the tight 5 on the other side of half way as they hadn't budged since the last kick off. After two quick tries our tails were up but Preston Lodge were determined not to let us in again, we plugged away at their line but after a quick turn over they sent the ball down field and began to assert some pressure. With 10 minutes to go in the first half they brought on some fresh legs and their forwards began to take control over our tired pack, obviously a few of the boys in our team had forgotten about pre season training until 10 minutes into the game. After a well controlled line out the Preston Lodge forwards drove forward and after much defending a hole opened up and one of their big front row boys dropped over the line to score, he wasn't ashamed of letting us know it either. A very wobbly conversion just struggled over the cross bar to make it WFC 3rd XV 14 - PL 7.
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Back to the kick off and again the game switched direction and we managed to put the pressure back on PL, in the last play of the half some more wide passing and a tidy interchange between the backs allowed Jamie Stevenson to cross for his second try of the match, Rob Tweedie missed his first kick of the game and at half time the score was WFC 3rd XV 19 - PL 7.
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After a quick drop of water and some heavy breathing at half time we resumed the game hoping that another quick try or two would kill the game off. Unfortunately the game began to lose a lot of its form and tempers began to flare, another try to Rob Tweedie which he converted put the score at 26 - 7 and the home team were far from impressed with some of the refereeing decisions. The game went backwards and forwards but neither team could control the ball long enough to add any points so in order to mix things up and hopefully get some direction in the game Andy Rae was put into scrum half and under much protest a very tired Chris Hunter was given the honour of the stand offs position. I shifted my tired lazy self out to the wing where I was hopeful of taking a breather. Unfortunately this lasted for only 5 minutes before PL's try scorer came through the line out which had resembled a Swiss cheese for most of the game, and body slammed young Rae. When a 16 stone man lands on one of only 3 stone it is not a pretty sight and can result in serious injury which was the case here, Rae went off with an injured shoulder and we were left to tough out the last 20 minutes with 14 men, and to my disappointment my breather on the wing was over.
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From a penalty in midfield the decision was made to take the tap, mainly due to the fact we hadn't won a line out all match and by now were sick of seeing possession handed over from the touch line, the ball was handed off to young South African gap student Karl Von Buddendrock who had a rampaging run through the opposition and then had the toe to beat the shell-shocked backs to the line to score. Rob Tweedie just missed the conversion so the score was now WFC 3rd XV 31 - PL 7.
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At this point the rugby spectacle was well and truly gone and it became very close to blowing up into a round of handbag swinging so I'll move on to the final score of the game where from another penalty tap, the ball was shifted out towards the wing to none other James "BB" McAinsh with an unmarked Jamie Stevenson outside him. A simple pass would have given the young Stevenson his hat trick and seen him buying jugs for the boys but knowing this, the unselfish McAinsh held on to flop over the line for his first try of the season. Later in the dressing room he was heard mentioning his side step but to those of us on the field it appeared to be a sideways shuffle that would not have looked out of place in a room of line dancing pensioners living out their final days in a retirement home. Rob Tweedie converted to make the final score WFC 3rd XV 38 - PL 7.
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All in all a good win for the start of the season, and hopefully time, and the prospect of large quantities of booze on Saturday nights, will see more players turn up. Duck of the Day goes to Chris Hunter for taking his car load of players to the wrong side of town and then claiming no one told him where we were playing. Quote of the Day goes to Jamie Stevenson for saying before the match "I couldn't find my hair gel this morning so had to use petroleum jelly, it's more than likely my hair will still be like this after the match" For those of us who had seen his hair do that wasn't a good thing.
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BL
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watsoniansrugby.com
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Published: 6/9/07
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