The Boars took a scratch team to Crawley for a friendly against St Francis and eventually ran out clear winners in a hugely enjoyable game played under blue skies. The Boars arrived in dribs and drabs and only reached a full compliment 2 minutes before kick off. This also led to a strange set of backs with Jim Cumming (2nd row now with hair gel added “to feel the part”) and Jack Bayley (flanker) playing as centres and centre Julian Wates stepping up to play number 10. With all the hair styling advice Wates had given Cummings before the match he had forgotten that he would have to kick off, not know for his precision kicking it was going to be an INTERESTING start... Wates brushed off Streeter sniggering about the quality and validity of the kick and the game was ON!

Wates doing his impression of Burdett

Despite the lack of preparation the Boars were first to attack and put pressure on the St Francis line. The saints held firm by a combination of determined tackling and the Boars trying to hard, they had several chances to score but came up a few feet short every time. This led to a game with too many scrums caused by promising back play breaking down.

Finally a score in the corner

The Boars finally opened the scoring when the ball finally made it out to trusted finisher Simon Hollingdale who scored in the corner. After this breakthrough the Boars returned to their habit of trying to force the ball in the last 5 metres before the line. Finally a good set move by the stand in the backs put left winger Nick Sands away to score under pressure in the left corner.

Streeter crashes through again...

At half time saw the addition of normal stand off Brady Burdett who popped in for a game on the way back from a skiing holiday (handy place Crawley) much to the chagrin of his long suffering wife. This returned the Boars backs to their tried and trusted moves and it was not long before ‘shoeless’ Sands cut in from his left wing to take a ball as an extra centre, hit the afterburners and run half the length of the pitch to score in the right hand corner.

Burdett back in charge... Well be OK now!

Then as St Francis started to tire it was the turn of ‘all action hero’ Jack Bayley to burst through on the half way line and show a good turn of speed to make the try line for a score that Burdett converted. Towards the end of the game Bayley repeated this move only this time he took the ball to between the posts and converted his own try.

A terrible pile up is caused when Kenny "KFC" Lewis stoops to pick up what he thinks is a chicken fillet burger...

There were several contenders including Julian Wates and the evergreen Rob Streeter but Man of the Match was Bryn Groves for surprising everyone with his power, stamina and commitment in his first full 80 minute game following 9 substitute appearances. He laid down a demand for a regular place that will be hard to ignore and shows the Boars strength in depth.

Boars Team – M. MacLeod, J. Sharp, J. Geesin (B. Togher – 30), B. Groves, T. Rose,  D. Bird, K. Lewis, R. Streeter, L. Vockins, J. Wates, J. Cumming (B. Burdett – 40), J. Bayley, S. Hollingdale (B. Taylor – 65), N. Sands, M. Brown

Match report by Mike MacLeod

3/17/2008 4:17:58 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)