A TEAM TOPPLE TABLE TOPPERS !
The mighty A Team enjoyed the picturesque trip to North Bradford to take on top of the league Bradford Salem who had only lost once this season.
Due to Mini Rugby Tours, holidays, illness, missed train connections, funeral commitments & unexplained last minute absences it was a somewhat unfamiliar looking team sheet, that, for once contained more under 20s than over 40s.
The oppo looked serious – even going back into the changing rooms after their extensive warm up for a pre match teamtalk before kick off, which gave Huddersfield the chance to complete their game of touch & pass, drop goal kicking comp & laughably bad lineout practice in private.
They looked rather large & we looked rather small, disorganized & like we might be in for a bit of a kicking.
Skipper Baxter’s mercurial toss winning streak continued (insert own gags about him being a right tosser) & off we jolly well kicked , on a lovely sunny afternoon, downhill with a pleasant spring breeze at our backs.
We were soon in their 22 & for aforementioned reasons for once didn’t fancy the lineout drive much. We spotted numbers on the left so pinged it down the line. Prop Karl “ bloody hell, what am I doing stood here” Ickeringill flung a panicky pass out to James Crabtree who scored in the corner with his first touch of the game on debut !
Soon after a superb inside ball from Duffster off a line out saw the youngster repeat the trick. Think they might have scored in between but blimey we were playing well. Next on the score sheet was Tom Sunderland who took a break from tacking everything that moved to score from a lineout, followed over shortly after by Connor Stevenson who stepped their 15 with gay abandon & we were 4 tries to 1 up at half time. Oh & Duffy scuffed most of the conversions over.
The only downside was a nasty looking injury to club GM & general factotum Stuart Leach who tripped up over the only daisy on the rock hard pitch.
Anyway, he yelped quite a lot only for the re-assuring presence of GP Gav Rhodes to loom large over him (after two cancelled appointments & a three week wait). In his infamous bed side manner Gav telled him to “stop being so soft” ,“it were nowt” & made it crystal clear he thought he ought to carry on. Stu was sensibly having none of that & has in fact broken his ankle. If you live anywhere in the Penistone district you would be well advised to register with an alternative GP.
On with the second half, notable for a number of things;
1. The uphill had got more uphill & the breeze wasn’t so pleasant anymore.
2. They got their dander up a bit & we nearly let them back into it.
3. Duncan chased one of Duffys kicks so hard he got there before everyone else who all stopped & looked on with wonder & amazement. Maybe he’s fitter than he looks ? Don’t know what is in his bananas & Marlboro Lights but it sure does work.
4. Howard “The Worm” Hanks went three quarters of the length of the pitch to score off the back of a scrum, with a dummy pass, dummy hitchkick, couple of burpees & 10 seconds of plank thrown in for good measure, as well as handing off the same bloke at least twice, although apparently he was French. “ Merde” indeed !
Final score 39-24 ish
