Hi chaps
First of all let me thank one of our top backroom Bulldogs, Tom Smith who looks after our web site and quickly put out the email last Friday changing the venue….always look on the Bulldog web site on a Friday …good safeguard and well done Tom…..Tom is a great centre but now works for Sky TV on the Sports desk so is not avail be to play at the moment. [Thank you - sic.]
What a jolt to the New Year
Our last game was before Christmas and we were very rusty on Saturday….the Christmas holidays was highly successful for Bulldog players “bulking up” and all challenging for the front row positions…some players were even asking for private showering facilities’ …..a number of players were away and others looking at re-positioning their lives for 2008
Fortunately we still had 18 players out there and a very good team but against Roslyn Park Nomads ( under 23 development squad??) it did prove a difficult game …I personally felt the ref was still on his Christmas holidays having ordered the coach off the pitch when the coach was trying to attend to one of his players and Santa forgot to give him a yellow card!!! A coach is entitled to go onto the pitch but such was the pace of the game and chat that perhaps he forgot ! It was not a time to create any animosity to what was a difficult game for the ref.
Well against this well drilled and well trained, fit and young side we had problems
After changing at the clubhouse we then went on route march to Richmond Park to find a pitch recently vacated by a few sheep and leaving their mark
This in itself is a challenge to Bulldog fitness and also navigation…..there are no directions to the ground once you are through the gates and it is guesswork from here on
Anyway let’s get on with the match t report
Tony’s photos show the game very well indeed and the size and age of the Nomads is clearly seen
We had a good team out and with our normal standard of opposition we would have had a win but these Nomads were far too fit and fast for us and they were all obviously chasing a first team spot
In the process they found us!!!
The main problem revolved around the size and speed of the Nomads…they were slipping our tackles and it quite often took two or three of our players to take the man out….the results was we then had our players sucked into the tackles and this provided a huge overlap for the Nomad outsides and the tries just came in….
Having said that we held our own in the set pieces and in fact did win one against the head and only lost one oursleves….and this was a tremendous effort and achievement against a very well trained pack of forwards..
Our determination was seen in many aspects of the game….from Dave U ‘s pack leadership and example and very much the “Man of the Match to our new player “Haymaker” Nick who put a good right hander on the Nomad player who tackled him high and put him in his place ….Santa forgot to leave a yellow card in the ref’s stocking but he still sent Nick off in the sin bin….the ref also sent off the coach from the pitch wen he ( the Bulldog coach) went onto attend one his Bulldog players….
We all need referees otherwise there is no game……however, coaches are allowed on the pitch ……BUT we must all accept decisions that are made…..the game on Saturday against an eloquent side was not an easy one to ref
The score did not reflect the game or the Bulldog commitment…we played well but we were rusty, out of practice and with the average of over 30 against say 23 it was a tough call
The final score was 47 points to nil
Well done chaps and onto the next one
Cheers
Colin