The first leg of the season’s double header against London Irish saw the tourists travel to Shaws Bride on a sunny ,but very cold Saturday, were the large crowd were entertained to a true spectacle of vintage rugby. Both teams played end to end, open, free flowing rugby, displaying passing and off loading skills that many senior clubs would die for. At the end of one of the best games of rugby for a long time, the Perennials ran out winners by 8 tries to 7 to secure their first win of the season.
The key to our success was the strategy to build the fixture around our captain Willie Oakes golfing holiday to America. With no wins to date, he needed the break as the pressure grew and with vice captain Michael O’Reilly choosing to play with the Cooke youngsters, as he felt the pressure to much also, it was left to stand in captain Mark Goldsbrough to lead the troops to victory.
Click Here for pictures of the Perennials Rugby in action against London irish – CLICK HERE –
After a shaky start a brace of tries from Ricky McIlmoyle, and solo efforts from Sheldon Coulter, Merv the “swerve” Brown, debutants Davy Barbour and Chris Weiniger and Mickey Doyle one of our Limerick Leprechauns guests, put us on the road to victory. The final try was claimed by Kevin Simpson, on the basis we were one try short in our count, we could not remember who scored it and Kevin was the player who bought the editor a drink in the bar after the match.
After the match some 100 people gathered for a sit down meal and post match entertainment , that saw the exchange of some Christmas presents between the London Irish Captain, Andy Hallam and our President Roger Cupitt. The man of the match award went to Gerry O’Donnell, however the jury is still out on this one and trying to find some video footage.
A big thank you to Colin McKee for team management duties on the day and Geoff Goldsbrough for the post match organization.
The return leg is in April 2011. Our strategy will be to stay sober on the Thursday and Friday, go to bed early on the Friday night, alone, and wake up motivated and ready for the re-match. On the other hand the best games are sometimes just turn up, kit out and get stuck in. Plan B looks the safer option.
