Friday night rugby a great success – Bricks 15, Morpeth Stags 10

With Saturday designated a RWC weekend we were asked to avoid fixtures on Saturday 3rd October to support the competition, which we did and Morpeth came up with the idea of playing on the Friday night, hats off to them, what a great suggestion. I sent out the text on previous Sunday to see what sort of team we would get out and, to my surprise, just about every one of the squad came back available, it was like putting a text out for a cup match…. we had 10 subs, even with late cry offs

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26086313%40N08/collections/
Scores:
Trys: Divers 2
Conv. Hopey 1
Pen Hopey 1
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It was a perfect night for rugby, we had a good crowd to watch and they were entertained by a cracking game from two balanced sides, both with good squads and full commitment from all players to the game, it was close and, in reality a draw would have been a fairer result given the performances from both sides, well done to Morpeth Stags, they won’t lose many league games this season with that squad.
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We had a number of people making a first appearance of the season:
• Mark Todd home from sea played well, tackling, lineout and at second row and back row, he missed out on his Brick’s Black shirt (5 appearances in a season) last season and wants to achieve it this year.
• Rob Pyle whose back from injury from last season and couldn’t play for the Development on Saturday, turned out (another one who just missed out on his shirt last season and year before) and we moved him from normally playing in the backs, into the backrow where he was yellow carded for tackling too quickly….
• Davy Lowes (Lowsey) made a come back from his retirement from rugby, to focus on playing football, playing in the centre in the 2nd half
• Finnas and Ryan, who have been working Saturdays were both available, giving us a strong front row presence, as GB was available as well.
• Gerry even made himself available, another one working every Saturday
• We have a new playing member, John, who had not played since playing for his regiment a few years ago, he was to start 2nd half, I named the team, we took the pitch and realised we had 14 men, (he had been called away) I must pay better attention and improve my counting..
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Highs & Lows:
• We had a complete second set of backs and we changed the whole back division at half time, Craig going back on when we notice we only had 14 men on the pitch.
• This was 2 experienced sides with loads of talent and some good young players with pace, difficult to single out individual performances, they were so many good ones, let’s mention the young (Colt) Morpeth 15, he used the ball kicked to him well, with some great running lines and bags of pace.
• Divers took his two scores well, but we still haven’t seen the jugs from his hat trick, from a couple of games ago.
• Turnover ball to Morpeth with us attacking in their 22, they kicked ahead and foot race with Phil (60+) and Thacks (no-where near 60, so we’re told) to secure the ball before Morpeth get to it, Phil wins the foot race, it was mentioned to Thacks consistently after game, but he insists he let Phil get to the ball first and stood ready for the off load, it would have been a forward pass, in everyone else’s view.
• Finnas and Ryan trying to persuade the Bricks to train on a Thursday, they were out of breath due to this being their first game, but they wasted a lot more trying to persuade likes of Keith to train….
Next weekend was designated a RWC weekend with a break in league fixtures, but given the result on Saturday, we will get a game and still be in the bar to talk about what could have been, if England had got through the Pool round.

1. Ryan   (Scott)
2. Keith W. (Criag McBurnie)
3. Paul W
4. Mark Todd. (Cliff)
5. Windy.
6. Strachs (Mark Todd)
7. Ian Bennie. (Rob Pyle)
8. Harry.
9. Stu Reay. (Gerry)
10. Chris Coates. (Joe)
11. Liam. (John Hood)
12. Chester. (Thacks)
13. Phil Divers (Lowsey)
14 Craig Barlow (Damien)
15 Hopey (Phil Rayson)