Porter turns Potter to cast a spell over Selby

Captain Tweds had assembled a useful looking team to face the might and mane of the Selby 4s on their pristine pitches. Always an enjoyable if sometimes tough trip.
Cadgey arrived having disembarked only hours earlier from his sojourn in the Turkish Sunshine, as ever he brought his considerable skill, rugby intelligence, leadership and humour to help stabilise the Leos forwards.
It was clear that the home team were very strong up front, big men carrying straight, doing the hard yards. Leos forwards fronted up, tackled well and won turnover ball, via some occasional coordinated breakdown work. Once Tweds at 9 got any quick ball the game plan became simple. Let the Leos skilful backs unleash themselves at pace!! The lineouts were fairly even. Selby had the nudge in the scrums.
From a simple lineout Neil soared, secured the pill, and as soon as the quicksilver Nick Porter received a pass at 10 , his natural elusive abilities and acceleration took him clean through and under the posts for a lovely try off 1st phase ball. This was but a mere soup sans of what was to come from that particular understated gentlemen of Leos !
Selby came back hard with their strong 12 running good lines, and only some brave determined last ditch tackling by Stuey Norton, Bindy , Billy and Blakey managed to stop the lad from scoring. Said Blakey rolled back the years with some dancing feet and delightful running, cleverly beating his man and then waiting for support. Tom at 13 also continued to showcase his running talents, and was perhaps a little unfortunate to grubber a kick directly into the grateful arms of Selby’s faster player who sped away for a deserved try, albeit it somewhat against the run of play.
Leos scored several times through simple quick hands, the ball passed out in front and men running on at pace. A joy to watch from 40 yards away in the backfield ! Mr Porter was again on hand to dot down. Leos backs by now had twigged that they were faster than the Selby lads, and despite butchering the odd chance tries flowed from some delightful silky play. Stuey , Bindy , Tom, Jason , Bill Adam and Tweds all used the ball well. Somehow Nick Porter kept arriving at the ideal moment and he finished with 4 tries. Bindy and Stuey got one each and the scoreboard rattled along. Up front Neil, Tom Claphams cousin, he of the impressive hair, Florian our Austrian Porn star, Cadgey , Dave Harrison and Nigel all worked hard to keep tackling all game. Even your aging humble scribe got involved ! Father time has alas decreed that his future lies in the forwards these days, but no 8 is mostly great fun !!
( not quite so much when Leos scrum got shoved backwards a few times and 300 hundred mph !! ) Nigel had a couple of lets call them "deaf “ moments on restarts when he caught the ball well and took off leaving his support behind !! He did however work hard all day and some gentle banter flowed his way in a very happy dressing room post game.
Selby managed to irritate the Ref who got fed up with the chelping, binned a home player to compound their problems. Leos also had Billy binned for side entry. Selby did score a second try from a tap penalty as tired forwards missed the odd tackle. Leos kept their mouths shut and ran out handsome winners 40-12.
A curious anomaly, In 15 seasons of travelling to Selby and hosting these friendly chaps at Leos your scribe has somehow never been on the winning team until today !!
We played in largely good spirits with plenty of humour in the heat of a fiercely contested game, with handshakes at the end.
Boys Leos is evolving as a Rugby Club, last week we had 10 players, this week 16 ish, and just 2 teams.
An appeal / request, ok gentle command !!!!
Please get on the bush telegraph, text, e mail, whats app, f book, and the good old fashioned blower to recruit your mates to play this wonderful game, so we can very soon once again run 3 teams as often as possible.
Your 100 year old club needs you !
( If not I’ ll have to unleash the Cadgersaurus on you all, a la Dan the Mann, and nobody ever wants to see that venerable Prop in a sumo nappy complete with baby oil ever again !! )
Once a Leo … you know the rest boys.