Sunday 11th July day 13.
someone on Gwlad linked in the tvnz coverage and have now had 350 hits on their message- cool huh! have asked for the unused material, mind you we already have about 10 hours of our own footage: Warriors the movie (XXX). As an aside anyone whose reading this and knows where my house is is welcome to the Bar b q on Sat, 3 til 3 (NZ drinking hours)
Right Sunday. well 1st we sort out the rooms, find Darren Dadis bag, get Nusiance a single room (and sound proof it). It's match day today so no drinking, people head into town for some retail therapy in small groups. (me, Shed, Lee, Jumpin' and Louie), all Lions gear is half price or better (but still not cheap enough to tempt me) except the half black-half red jerseys which have about 20% off. Shed bags a huge 'bus stop' Tana poster. The guy is changing it as we pass, he tells us he is supposed to take them back to the office but if someone takes it whilst he's not looking what can you do. (tidy!) We suffer a Burgerking and head back to base.
All tour we have been told that today's match is the 'test match'. We play the South Auckland Kiwis at Auckland Marist RFC. (Marist means catholic, I ask Marsh about this. Gappa coaches Hamilton Marist and I ask if the religion is a strong part of it. He says no but most of the hamilton boys send their kids to Catholic schools but it doesn't affect their rugby behaviour too much. he also says that the Marist St. Pats U21s (the side I played for in Wellington) all prayed after they had finnished their match but it was the 1st time he'd seen that)
Betws contigent Emyr Tim and Rob holmes come over to share a lift to the game. We swop stories of the tour with Emyr Tim confirming "they like bigger men out here". They had presented a Betws shield and jersey to Ponsonby RFC as part of a dinner there - the bloke dropped the shield.
we arrive at the ground where another good crowd is already forming. The Pontiates boys have managed to find us again (we couldn't miss the final test). I say hello to the rest of the Betws party: Cellan, Steve Big and Big Jim. Our tv crew and another are here, tvnz ask me not to talk to the other crew.
As we change the ref comes in and goes through the rules including 'only tackle around the legs' which is a new one on me. Rich bach hapus (5'1) asks if we are allowed to spear tackle, this from a man who complained when normal tackled in Whanga. Gappa and Marsh decide they don't want to start 'in the test match' but change for the bench. Darren Dadi gets his 1st start on tour. We have heard (correctly) that the SAK will have no 'staff' so we assume (correctly) that most of their players will be of a relitivley high ability. Game plan: break the game down and keep away from structured stuff- kick a lot. We are told we will have a haka so we brief jason not to join in and Jumpin' to concentrate and not look at the birds/planes/clouds whatever as this may be construed an insult. he asks- 'whats a haka, is it something to do with computers'!!!??
The haka was quite cool, who can say they've faced one on a rugby field? The SAK are a big side. they know one route, pick up and go! the 1st quater of an hour is tackle tackle tackle tackle. Darren is soon injured (no suprise there, espcially if you've seen Anton's Warriors), followed by Captain Dai Ed and more seriously Andrew John (twisted ligaments). We manage a score against the run of play- big Al thumps the ball down field, I re-gather, Dean shouts "give it to Lee he's got the legs", I shout I KNOW THAT as I pass the ball. Sheep gets a try as well before half time. they pull one back with a lineout ball to the scrum half who is a) 3m behind the line & b) 2m in from the touch line. To be fair he does very well and scampers all the way to the try line from 1/2 way.
They try this tactic several times after this but I but Dai Newson in the channel and that more or less stops it although Rich gets injured.
In the 2nd half we score again (Rowlands) and are now dominating play. We decide to ease off a bit and Rowlands has to go off for a spew. we borrow Rhys from the SAK and he produces a try saving tackle although they score straight afterwards. We try to step back up, they score again, and again. 21-20 oh heck. we put in a huge effort against the 19 players they now have on the field and score once again to edge home! We'd done it, 3 out of 3 in NZ including the test (now we'd won we started calling it that for the 1st time)
After match I gave the worst speech i have managed since Taunton. We each get a green stone for luck another good feed, some beers and other stuff. The club is a bit big for the few who stay more than half hour but we have a good kangeroo court and there is an 'entertaining' sing-song kareoke including Jason having a go at the SAK 'for pushing me'. I get a good swop on the jerseys and give the SAK hardcore a keyring each. It was a good laugh and nice to catch up with the Betws boys in NZ. Quiet though, a bit subdued after the Whanga and Carterton matches and the previous nights efforts.
We head back to the Queens head with the Betws and Pontiates boys, I also bump into Son of God from the Amman. The Betws boys are having a quiet one because they fly in the morning (although Cellan stays out later). I am all for a quietish night but Al and Sheep head off with the Pontiates boys looking for the Mermaid bar. Marsh tells me that he knows the owner and asked him what sort of week he'd had- brilliant apart from two poms being mugged just outside the pub and some Moaris pinching rum over the bar!!!! (OOpps) Gappa has a go in the casino as the joint jackpot has to be won before it reaches $NZ1000 (It'll go tonight he tells us). We don't stay out too long and go to bed happy.
Right Sunday. well 1st we sort out the rooms, find Darren Dadis bag, get Nusiance a single room (and sound proof it). It's match day today so no drinking, people head into town for some retail therapy in small groups. (me, Shed, Lee, Jumpin' and Louie), all Lions gear is half price or better (but still not cheap enough to tempt me) except the half black-half red jerseys which have about 20% off. Shed bags a huge 'bus stop' Tana poster. The guy is changing it as we pass, he tells us he is supposed to take them back to the office but if someone takes it whilst he's not looking what can you do. (tidy!) We suffer a Burgerking and head back to base.
All tour we have been told that today's match is the 'test match'. We play the South Auckland Kiwis at Auckland Marist RFC. (Marist means catholic, I ask Marsh about this. Gappa coaches Hamilton Marist and I ask if the religion is a strong part of it. He says no but most of the hamilton boys send their kids to Catholic schools but it doesn't affect their rugby behaviour too much. he also says that the Marist St. Pats U21s (the side I played for in Wellington) all prayed after they had finnished their match but it was the 1st time he'd seen that)
Betws contigent Emyr Tim and Rob holmes come over to share a lift to the game. We swop stories of the tour with Emyr Tim confirming "they like bigger men out here". They had presented a Betws shield and jersey to Ponsonby RFC as part of a dinner there - the bloke dropped the shield.
we arrive at the ground where another good crowd is already forming. The Pontiates boys have managed to find us again (we couldn't miss the final test). I say hello to the rest of the Betws party: Cellan, Steve Big and Big Jim. Our tv crew and another are here, tvnz ask me not to talk to the other crew.
As we change the ref comes in and goes through the rules including 'only tackle around the legs' which is a new one on me. Rich bach hapus (5'1) asks if we are allowed to spear tackle, this from a man who complained when normal tackled in Whanga. Gappa and Marsh decide they don't want to start 'in the test match' but change for the bench. Darren Dadi gets his 1st start on tour. We have heard (correctly) that the SAK will have no 'staff' so we assume (correctly) that most of their players will be of a relitivley high ability. Game plan: break the game down and keep away from structured stuff- kick a lot. We are told we will have a haka so we brief jason not to join in and Jumpin' to concentrate and not look at the birds/planes/clouds whatever as this may be construed an insult. he asks- 'whats a haka, is it something to do with computers'!!!??
The haka was quite cool, who can say they've faced one on a rugby field? The SAK are a big side. they know one route, pick up and go! the 1st quater of an hour is tackle tackle tackle tackle. Darren is soon injured (no suprise there, espcially if you've seen Anton's Warriors), followed by Captain Dai Ed and more seriously Andrew John (twisted ligaments). We manage a score against the run of play- big Al thumps the ball down field, I re-gather, Dean shouts "give it to Lee he's got the legs", I shout I KNOW THAT as I pass the ball. Sheep gets a try as well before half time. they pull one back with a lineout ball to the scrum half who is a) 3m behind the line & b) 2m in from the touch line. To be fair he does very well and scampers all the way to the try line from 1/2 way.
They try this tactic several times after this but I but Dai Newson in the channel and that more or less stops it although Rich gets injured.
In the 2nd half we score again (Rowlands) and are now dominating play. We decide to ease off a bit and Rowlands has to go off for a spew. we borrow Rhys from the SAK and he produces a try saving tackle although they score straight afterwards. We try to step back up, they score again, and again. 21-20 oh heck. we put in a huge effort against the 19 players they now have on the field and score once again to edge home! We'd done it, 3 out of 3 in NZ including the test (now we'd won we started calling it that for the 1st time)
After match I gave the worst speech i have managed since Taunton. We each get a green stone for luck another good feed, some beers and other stuff. The club is a bit big for the few who stay more than half hour but we have a good kangeroo court and there is an 'entertaining' sing-song kareoke including Jason having a go at the SAK 'for pushing me'. I get a good swop on the jerseys and give the SAK hardcore a keyring each. It was a good laugh and nice to catch up with the Betws boys in NZ. Quiet though, a bit subdued after the Whanga and Carterton matches and the previous nights efforts.
We head back to the Queens head with the Betws and Pontiates boys, I also bump into Son of God from the Amman. The Betws boys are having a quiet one because they fly in the morning (although Cellan stays out later). I am all for a quietish night but Al and Sheep head off with the Pontiates boys looking for the Mermaid bar. Marsh tells me that he knows the owner and asked him what sort of week he'd had- brilliant apart from two poms being mugged just outside the pub and some Moaris pinching rum over the bar!!!! (OOpps) Gappa has a go in the casino as the joint jackpot has to be won before it reaches $NZ1000 (It'll go tonight he tells us). We don't stay out too long and go to bed happy.
posted by Llanelli Warriors match blog at 3:29 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home