Match Report: Advocaat Cup

What a great day of rugby!!
As usual the Legends greeted us to Connaught Park with a stacked team! Yup! they were up for playing the Evergreens, for sure!!
After a sting of e-mails earlier in the week we had the pleasant surprise of not only having a full team, but also a few replacements as well.
Our starting 15 was
1. Ian  2. Zack  3. Dick  4. Jiff  5. Blair 6. Dwayne  7. Brian  8. Paddy  9. JR  10. Brett  11. Ronnie  12. Tommy  13. John  14. Sonny and 15. Stu.
Replacements: Gary, Hal & Bill.

From the get-go we got stuck in and put the Legends under pressure. Of course they tried to get the ball out to their star studded back line but our forwards put them on the back-foot and our backs did a good job on defence.  However, we got caught a few times on breakaways and were punished by conceding 4 tries, at least 2 of which may have been prevented by making early tackles.

But, that being said,  we had plenty of our own ammunition. In the first half Paddy stretched his 15ft arm over the line for our opening try after great pressure from our forwards. That was followed by the try of the game coming from John Napier's brilliant fingertip catch in midfield (from a long stretch pass from inside centre), breaking two tackles taking the ball 35 yards to cross the try-line for a BEAUTY!!

In the second half Brett barged over for a late try (yeah, yeah, he has to score a try - every game!!) which pulled us back to within 1. However with time running out we were pipped by a final score of 4-3. In all reality, at the very least a 4-4 tie would have been a fair result, and had we been making better tackles on some of their breakaways, we could have come out 3-2 winners.  But, we played brilliantly and everybody gave it their best. Well done guys!!

Special mention goes to the following:

• Steve. Great job on the sideline as Co-Captain.
• Ian, Dick, Paddy, Dwayne and John for making it out to the game. Huge contribution to the team, great stuff.
• JR, Blair and Brian - our over seas players from the "Sunshine Island". Once again making the long journey over! A1.  .....More about JR later.
• Zack for answering the call we put out to our Scribes/ESG friends and coming to play with us. Great having you on board Zack.
  
• Gary, Hal & Bill our "ageless" veterans. Great contribution by you guys.
• Keg, Larry, Nick, John (McGilvarry) and Pattie for being our traveling supporters.
  
• Sonny & Stu:  And last but definitely most importantly mega kudos to our two new "STAR" players. Sonny coming from a soccer background and Stu from Aussie Rules are not just newcomers to the Evergreens but also were playing their first ever game of rugby.  Sonny was outstanding on the wing and it was unfortunate that we weren't able to get more ball out to him and give him a few opportunities to attack. Stu was getting bored at full back until the Legends started tiring later in the game and began kicking long balls into our 22. For an Aussie Rules star this was just meat and potatoes. Stu was perfect under the high ball and looked threatening when breakaways.  Awesome display you two guys, didn't put a foot wrong all game!! Very fitting that the very last play on the game saw Stu grab another Legends long kick - spin a crisp pass out to Sonny and Sonny duly putting his big boot to it and clearing the ball half way up the field.  Text book stuff. 

Back in the clubhouse, we had to relinquish our Advocaat Cup for 2012.  Not surprisingly, John Napier received the Man of the Match award from the Legends.  Paddy & Stevie were competing for the title of who is the loudest talker in BC - A tie!!
But it was the fat kid who eats too much sugar who made the most noise. JR - FOOK YOOOOOOOOUUUUUU!! YEAH BABY. LOVE YOU ALL - YOU ROCK - I ROCK - WE ALL ROCK. YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERGREENS FOREVER. YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
ONCE MORE. YEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
OOOOOOOOHHHHHHH YYYYYYYEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
YEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  THANKS TO JR, WE WON THE POST-GAME CLEEBRATION YYYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH BAAAAAAABBBBBBBY

Ada Boy JR!!