First up it is important to note that these early season matches are warm up games with team rotations and rotations of the combinations within the team being tried in a match situation. You learn nothing from the risks you don’t take.………I’ll pause while you read that again. Again the weather was warm and inviting (in fact I left that in from last week) long may it continue. Our opposition looked like they were from Brobdingnag (look it up, but I bet you’ve heard of Lilliput) and would definitely have known if it had started raining before most of the Heath players.
Rugby is a simple game of two halves, played by 15 players with gum shields each trying to score a try which is followed by a conversion…..or so I thought. In fact it was 4 ten minute quarters today which helped with the rotations above.

Quarter 1
The boys had a strong start and fast hands combined with good switch play enabled an early try for Heath the scorer of which I missed but Joe T claimed it. Then followed some good runs by JPR (not hiding place in a rugby team with those initials!) and strong tackling from Yuwen L. EG had strong runners however and went over before great interplay between Joe T and Will K enabled a Heath try in the corner. The conversion, which would have been ambitious at best, was voided as the requisite time to complete it had apparently elapsed.
EG 7-10 HH

Quarter 2
Following a search for a gum shield which resembled a forensic crime scene investigation, not much helped by it being light green, the second period started with between 14 and 16 Heath players lining up and following some comedy Leo/Leon call ons the match started with the required 15. I think that’s right, the mind plays tricks. Having found said gum shield the protagonist took a good 10 seconds to get pinged for booting the ball away. EG scored from strong running again but Heath replied in kind following a strong run from Yuwen L and great front foot pressure on the EG backline enabling Will K to scoop the loose ball and score under the posts.
EG 12-17 HH

Quarter 3
With rotations new combinations were being tried. EG started strongly and despite great cover tackles from Carter M and Brodie R they were able to run in a couple of quickfire tries. The following passage involve the gum shield player penalised for holding on to the ball much like I do a zip wire, grimacing and not letting go. EG sored again before a great cover tackle from George H prevented further points.
EG 33-17 HH

Quarter 4 (last one I promise)
I’m all for trying new tactics but starting with 16 was frowned upon by the ref, fussy if you ask me. Heath started with attacking intent, a good rip by Joe T followed by a scrum against the head allowing Will K to score. The final few phased resulted in a couple more EG tries but the Heath boys effort never wavered.
EG 43-24 HH or 2-2 in quarters – call it a draw.
Overall much for the players to be proud of, dare I say an advance from last week, the scrum functioned very well and the coaches would have learnt a lot from the different things which were tried. Key is to do the basics right and perhaps add a bit more intensity and tackling. We go again.