The West Potomac Rugby Football Club played North Bay at home. Bill Evans - our esteemed President - marked his return to rugby. After open heart surgery less than six months earlier. Welcome Back Bill.
So I show up five minutes before game time - and already have four voice mail messages. Hey - I got there.... I knew right away that I would not sit for long - not with that crowd in there. Speaking of crowds we had 32 people there.
Two Old Boys that don't dress for Young Boys matches (the Diesel and Emperor for Life). About five Old Boys that normally play - but not with this many players present. Drew, Ali, Greg were among those Young Boys not playing due to injuries (course Jesus was off trying to heal his nose). We still had a ton of people.
This is what will make WPRFC strong. It was awesome. As was the accompanying crowd of ladies - hey baby. Craig, Goody, Jake, Jack, Neal, Brian, Rich, Oli, Marvin, Wes, Dain and Bill were all accompanied by some FINE looking women (Lord help me if I forgot someone - I was not on the sidelines long, I was late, there was an earthquake, I got hit in the head, oh please please please forgive me).
Mike G. was the ref. The Cherry Blossom Tourney took all the standard ones but Mike - the head of the PRU Disciplinary Board - performed the task admirably if not in a completely color blind manner (which explains why we had Andy W. ref the third chucker).
The early part of the game had a lot of injuries - Dain's back, Nutter 2.0's knee, Phil's abdulaoblongata and Mookie's hangover. I got in pretty quick.
There was some outstanding play by Rich (nice kicks), Oli (you gotta love this little guy - despite his weak chess game), Neal (did that hurt?), Jack (are you on roids?), Wes (going to miss her, oh I mean you - going to miss you at the games) and Jake (oh zulu warrior).
But the man o' the match was definitely Craig. You see Craig ran hard, hit hard and created opportunities. The only things he did not do is ever try to go around a defender or pass (sorry Craig).
The first time - WHAM. The second time - WHAM. The third time - I see it all - I swear he pointed at the guy, gave him a wink and a nod and tried to vault him. Oh, Craig, by the way you can't leave your feet. On the resulting restart the other team accidentally bobbled the ball and knocked it forward...at the point of the penalty. Scrum to WHITE.
Craig did play a heck of a game - and in his defense no one was with him those three times to pass to... I think he scored too.
Neal had a heck of an assist - running out to the right - near the goal line - little Oli yelling ("With you mate! Put another shrimp on the barbie?"). Neal held it until the defense had to commit - then a nice pass to the Yorkie who trotted cross the line and scored.
Somewhere in there we had some good back play - with Wes booking to the try line and scoring. He also levelled a guy in a ruck (close call - don't leave your feet). It is his last game with West Potomac as a full-timer. He may play when he is in town...but we will miss him. Ali - bring out more brothers!!! (I think he is holding some in reserve). And tell them to bring their girlfriends to the game - "Oh behave!"
I line judged the third chucker - some newbie's (at least new to us) played - Noah, little Mike and John W. played - we got Rich 2.0 it seems. In it Brian (no not the fat slow prop) - new Brian from Ft. Belvoir - had a big time run. At the end he went down in a cloud of dust just a couple of metres from the try line. The defense kicked the ball into the try zone and the Grey Ghost scored. Our captain - Jake J. That is what you get for following the play.
The wind picked up and the temperature dropped just as we finished packing up. We retired to the Emerald Isle for a big party (tons of people). For some reason a woman was there who warned us - "If your child is on antibiotics and gets vaccinated they can (will?) get Down's Syndrome or autism or something bad - I dunno." But you've been warned.
There was more - it was a great game - but I didn't take notes. Send me a reminder you bums.
And the player from VA Beach with the overactive boot? #6 - Philip J Cass still has three games on his suspension and is on disciplinary probation for 51 more weeks.
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webmaster@westpotomacrugby.org
Rugby Hot line: 301-946-5607
