Burgess Hill RFC (6) v (53) Teddington RFC - RFU Junior Vase Round 4.

Last Friday was New Years day, the day when the whole nation wakes up at lunchtime, still in their party clothes with throbbing heads, and stomachs churning like cement mixers. We flop onto the sofa in front of the TV for an hour or so and watch The Wizard of Oz……again! We then devour a huge fry up and drink 20 cups of sweet tea, whilst trying to remember if we’d done anything embarrassing the night before like snogging someone’s granny or throwing up in the back of a cab (neither of which I have ever knowingly achieved) .  Like every other previous New Years Day we then make a whole host of healthy living resolutions for the coming year, which we already know won’t get us as far as actually buying a packet of muesli or attending a Pilates class.  

On this ‘National Hangover Day’ the furthest thing from our minds is actually doing anything energetic. In fact the closest thing to exercise we get is doing the toilet, Gaviscon, toilet, Nurofen relay.  By 7 o’clock we collapse knackered back into bed and try to forget that the 1st January even existed. Well for members of the 1st XV squad things were a little different this New Years Day. Giselle wanted them down at the club at lunchtime on New Years Day to train, in preparation for the National Cup game against Burgess Hill RFC the following day.  Anybody with even a rudimentary grasp of human nature would say that it would never happen, especially with a hard partying squad who’s average age is less than 25?  But surprisingly it did happen. Of course they all looked like death and some turned up in their party clothes from the night before, but 26, yes Twenty Six! players turfed themselves out of their beds or off somebody’s floor and staggered down to Bushy Park to train, which was remarkable. Giselle, who has some ethereal power over these players like no other person put them through their paces for a couple of hours, before they were rewarded with a hot shower and some home cooked food, including the obligatory greasy chips courtesy of a very understanding Mrs Cross. She even got up early to bake mince pies for the little cherubs (I feel that I have a few hundred Brownie points to earn after this).

 The preparation obviously stood the team in good stead as they once again boarded the minibus for another adventure on the road in the National Cup. We arrived sober at a frozen Burgess Hill to find the pitch a little firm under foot. But after some diligent risk assessments and negotiations with oppo and ref the game was eventually given the green light. The game kicked off with us defending the bottom of the hill. In fact the pitch had such a severe slope that I thought we may have to hand out ropes and crampons. Not surprisingly we seemed literally to be frozen to the spot, in fact a spot about 1 metre from our own try line. But as frozen and confused they seemed these boys were not going to let their try line be breached without a fight. They defended the line with utter bodies on the line determination for well over 10 minutes. In all honesty this was Burgess Hills best period of the game and they should have scored, but with cold bodies gradually warming to the task we got ourselves into the game without conceding a single point in that initial  onslaught. After a nerve settling penalty from Mark NITSCH we never really looked back. The phases started to flow and the gaps started to appear in the Burgess Hill defence. It must be said that many of these gaps where crafted by fine handling and sublime off the ball movement, but a fair share was also bludgeoned by No 8  Ferg FARRELL at his rampaging best. By half time we were leading 29-3, with tries by Ferg FARRELL, Tor DAHL-NIELSON and 2 from Tom DORAN, 3 of these were converted by Mark NITSCH.

The 2nd half saw much of the same with Burgess Hill gamely trying to stop the blue Teddington tide which now had the advantage of the wicked slope as well. The Teddington backs were using quality ball supplied from a dominant pack who had the edge in the scrums and were winning near perfect line out ball to inflict terminal damage on the Sussex ‘All Blacks’.  There were further tries from Paul MANLEY, another from Ferg FARRELL and a brace from James FERGUSON, backed up by 2 further conversions from Mark NITSCH. A satisfying start to 2010 and we wait with anticipation our opponents in Round 5.  A happy bus traveled back to Teddington after the game and everyone was tucked up in bed by 7pm.  Pass me the Nurofen!!!