Vandals away

The Bulldogs got brave again just before Christmas and decided to venture on the road, as they went to face the Vandals of Walton-on-Thames. There were ominous signs as we pulled up and the referee was sweeping water off the pitch with a garden broom. After squeezing in to a small changing space the Bulldogs 18 made there way on to a pitch with only one set of posts, the original pitch was just simply to wet. The referee agreed to play the game without conversions, whether this was a good thing or not we will never know. Colin had a tough decision to make with regards to the team selection, but I believe his decision to stay loyal to the Bulldogs regulars was correct.

The game kicked off and immediately a danger was spotted in the shape of a very, very nippy fly half for the Vandals, the hockey playing boy could most definitely shift. With the Bulldogs struggling to retain possession on their own scrums we were soon punished after a well worked chip and chase. Even without the conversions we managed to gather underneath 'the sticks' (literally!!) and gather our thoughts. We rallied and put them under some pressure, but were forced back by a good defence and a 20 stone forward! The same man mountain was pushed over for another try and the slightly highly strung 2nd row for the Vandals lost his head with poor little me, it was not long after that incident that Steve Crawford politely calmed him down with a clip around the ear. The same flying fly half broke through to score a couple of tries, but the last word of the first half was the Bulldogs, as Jamie showed good pace and finishing skills to make it 20 - 5 at half time.

So half-time brought about some changes and a little extra strength and speed was brought on in the shape of JT, Ben and the long awaited guest appearance by Officer Hugh Parsons. The second half was very much a different story as we began to dominate proceedings with the forwards putting in an immense display of scrumaging including Chris trying to hook the ball with his head!!! The good work showed after a quickly taken penalty by Hugh lead to JT running over a try from all of 5 meters, not really his normal range but they all count. We were then stopped in our tracks as the Vandals hooker went down with a shoulder injury all scrums were switched to uncontested which was a great pity as we were all over them at that point. JT scored another try from all of 3 meters this time after a great break up field when we were stopped just short.

Despite all of our effort and hard work we just could not get over the Vandals line again, and were very unlucky to loose in the end, we had the chances to win comfortably but we came up just short. It was a good day on and off the pitch and very encouraging with the quality and the number of players who were there for the Bulldogs even with quite a few regulars missing.

Apologies if I have got anything wrong or forgot people's moments of magic but after four days drinking culminating in the Bulldogs Xmas lunch the brain is not working as it should.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Tom