Great Day for Rugby, Difficult day for Availability

The 10 men of Leos arrived at our good friends and neighbours Roundhesians on a sunny September Sat.
Hesians knew the cupboard was somewhat bare and kindly lent us lads so we could play a 15 aside game.
It was apparent to your humble scribe that during the “ warm up “ of international T and P there was something of a relaxed mood among the chaps. Too chilled.

Despite Captain Neil urging us to hit the ground running it was possibly not totally surprisingly it was the home side who started the game very much on the front foot. Their forwards secured quick ball for the wily 10 to run the game. He did so with skill and used his strong hard running 12 to puncture the fragile Leos defence repeatedly. From the ensuing quick clean ball Hesians spun it out wide and scored several impressive tries in quick succession.

Leos were off the pace, missing first up tackles as they backed off, and shell shocked. We needed to wake up and smell the coffee, otherwise an 80 nil shellacking was looking on the cards.

The scrums were unopposed so much cuddling and friendly chatting between the 2 teams was de rigour!
The lineouts were competitive and were largely dominated by Hesians, who often got in front of Neil at 2.
Bindy at 10 put in some good clearing kicks, but did struggle a little with his restarts that often went about 8/9 yards, which was a bit unfortunate as it handed possession back to Hesians.

However from a chip and chase Neil smuggled himself over the whitewash for a deserved converted try. Bindy took one for the team as he got a low blow to the family Jewels!!
We all pretended to try hard not to snigger! and then laughed anyway.

Halftime arrived and the Captain laid it on the line. Buck up in defence, work hard to get to the breakdown and we would at least be able to compete in a game where it had been broadly one way traffic so far.

We had barely mounted a serious attack of any note in the first half. Hesians kindly gave us more players, including their strong, quick and elusive winger who had scorched over for a couple of tries already. He went to 12.

The second stanza was different animal entirely to frankly the dross of the earlier rugby from Leos. We began to hit much harder in the tackle, work in 2s and 3s at the breakdown, and at last Bindy got some ball to whip out to his backs. With a much younger quicker 12 Leos made ground. It was notable that when some of the Hessians boys chelped at decisions, a certain large older Leo was heard to properly bellow:

“Shut up, it‘s not as if you are not winning by 40 points!! “
Ah the impetuosity of youth. I remember it well!

From one flowing backs move, simple hands well executed at pace, Tom at 13 was put into the wide open spaces, he took off and only a last ditch tackle stopped a Leos try. He is quick and a good player. Brad on the wing also ran very hard and straight making good ground, it was heartening to observe from a good 25 yards behind the play the younger quicker Leos storm into hessians with real aggression and relish.

Billy Adam took a nasty knock to the chin and saw stars, he had bravely made tackle after tackle on much larger marauding Hessians lads. Billy sat out the rest pf the game very sensibly.

Every so often a tackle would be missed and a home score would result, but the effort levels were so much more encouraging from the 10 Leos and the Hessians boys who played with us.

This was demonstrated very clearly when a home attack was held up over the line. Bindy also put in a massive and slightly late high hit in on his opposite 10! Being the gentlemen that he is Tom immediately apologised saying
“Sorry I have never been any good at tackling! “
Much chuckling on both sides, and thankfully the home 10 took it all very calmly.

The game ended with Hesians comfortable winners 53/7

It was played in top notch spirits throughout, and we thank our hosts Roundheasians for their hospitality in lending us players so as to make a 15 aside game possible.

Chris the Ref was firm but showed plenty of empathy with both sides. He was heard to remark afterwards that he had been impressed with the spirit and fight Leos put in after halftime to make the game a proper contest.
We had a drink with our hosts and then retired to Kingdom Crag where our 1s had also lost a hard fought game with Roundhesians. The Leos legends were out in force so we said Hi to Ellis Rickwood, Milton Lennon, Jason London, Richard Helmsley, Niall Monk and the ever slimming Dan Eddie. It was great to see these boys again. We enjoyed a few well earnt beers in the sunshine as we socialised with wives and girlfriends as their little folk played happily.

A tangible, genial atmosphere permeated the September evening air as old war stories were recounted, and much hearty laughter was the order of the evening!

Finally we welcome a new Leo, Congratulations to Simon Dowling and his Mrs on the birth a month ago of their son Jonah. The sweepstake has already started as to what position Jonah will play, my money is on centre, as his sizeable father has always thought of himself as a frustrated centre who just happens to prefer playing Prop!!
Remember Huddersfield Simon?

By Pete Chapman