Ye Olde Enemy!

Well, it's been a while, lots going on in New Zealand at the moment. I'll put some of the detail into another entry. I'll try and stick to the rugby in this one.

The last game was against our old rivals High School Old Boys. Marist Albion has a couple of feeder schools, St. Bede's and St. Thomas'. Both are catholic schools and pretty big when it comes to rugby. HSOB are fed by Christchurch Boys High (hence the old boys bit) and I think this is where the rivalry began.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to train last week due to unavoidable circumstances (certainly not that I couldn't be bothered, anyway) I was benched and took no part.

It was a seriously good display by the boys though. The forwards stamped control all over the game. We contested every lineout, scrummaged well and we used the muscle to get the backs on the front foot every time. We were 30-0 up at half time and we took the foot off the gas a little in the second half.

It's very gratifying to see rugby played like that. At this stage, 3 referees have complimented the coaches on our style of play and our discipline. It's been noticeable that we're conceding very few penalties each game and really frustrating the opposition.

This weekend we have a refixed game against Otautahi. They're a predominantly Maori team (Otautahi being Maori for Christchurch) and I think we'll be expecting pretty much the same as the other leaguie type teams, plenty of bosh, loads of on-off runners at the fringes. We'll need to neutralise them early and score some points to kill off the challenge. Hopefully I'll be back on the scene by then!