Dragons slay Knights

Another inimitable writeup from Murray Sargant, Manager, Dragons

Drags Vs Valley Knights
10th November 2007, HKFC 3:00pm

A resounding 49 - 12 victory against one of the better teams in the competition.

Well led from the front by our latest captain Phil Reid, the team went about a great display in the first 40 min with well-structured and aggressive forward play allied with some impressive tries from our fleet-footed backs.

First half tries to Callum Nieto, Adam Raby (twice), Dinks (what???) and a penalty for Pat Foreman made it one of the best halves of the year for Drags to date.

The forwards dominated the first half line outs after their extra training session on Thursday evening, which clearly paid off well. Thanks to CJ for running the session. The back row with Rupert (Churchy), Jared and Shannon all played well, with 'Jarhead' deservingly earning another man of the match performance after an unusually democratic team vote. A worthy winner of the Stevie Speirs Mug (more on this award later).

The second half started the same way with tries to Peyton Burnett, Tim Robinson and a second try in as many games for Shannon Ford.

The backs played impressively throughout the game with Phil, Robin, Pat, Tim, Cozzie, Callum and Adam combining well. The extra speed out wide was put to good use and the backline always looked dangerous with ball in hand. Pat had a great game with some strong running and solid defence. He completed the day in style by preventing a late try from Valley with a great run across the field to put in a superb covering tackle just before time. A great effort given it was late in the game and everyone was running out of gas.

In the last 10 minutes of the second half, Drags did begin to get tired and started to lose the structure that had served so well in the first 70 minutes. Valley took advantage and managed to get a late consolation try from broken play.

Stevie Speirs Mug

For those not aware this mug was established to commemorate the late Stevie Speirs who was the regular Drags hooker. Unfortunately Stevie was tragically killed in the Bali bombing while on tour with HKFC Vandals . The pewter mug is now awarded each week to the player voted by his team mates to be the best and fairest on the day. The nominated player can then have the mug all night and at no time should it be empty. All drags team players and friends are obliged to keep the mug full for the rest of the evening. The nominated player can also at anytime hand the mug to any other team mate who must drink the contents. At the end of the night the mug should be returned behind the bar ready for next week's game.

Well done Jared on winning the Stevie Speirs Mug. Sorry you couldn’t enjoy it straight away as I know you benched and played well for Club later.

See you all at training Monday night. Congratulations once again on a great Drags win.