Halbro Plate

The club-house is a converted pub and what looks to have once been a fine drinking establishment - a warm and welcoming venue, if a little on the cosy side. The changing facilities are similarly sized and even with a depleted team, the tigers were having to take shifts when changing into their kit (to which we must thank John for acquiring such appealing apparel - socks included!).

The revered referee made an appearance at this time and with a jovial demeanour declared that he wouldn't be checking studs until at pitch-side due to the fact that with a trek over concrete to get there, some studs may get sharpened.... Most thought his words were simply in jest but it rapidly became apparent that the man was speaking the gospel!

Edging out of the changing rooms, and having chance to survey the scenery, it was glaringly obvious that there was no rugby pitch in the immediate vicinity - for a start we were on the side of a hill which fell away at two sides of the clubhouse! In one corner of the yard, a stone staircase led precariously down the hill side at a gradient that Sir Edmund Hillary might have found worrying.

After much thought about attaching crampons and climbing harnesses, the boys, led by a Congleton player/guide, made their way down the mountain and towards the pitch which was no less than two industrial estates, a social club and a scally-infested fairground away from the clubhouse. Suffice it to say, the location of this pitch, and it's undulating lie, left some of the tigers in a state of disbelief and others wondering if any of the better looking female scally's would be watching the game. This wondering was put at ease by the fact that the only reasonable looking lady had twelve boisterous offspring, a 3 litre bottle of cider and was entirely reminiscent of Vicky Pollard....

With the Sedgley boys being a number of men missing, and Congleton having a full side with an army of replacements, an agreement was reached for SP to borrow some players and following a brief warm up both sides started the match brightly whilst the fairground carousel turned to the tune of How Much Is That Doggie in the Window or some equally irritating ditty! And irritating is how the match became.

The formerly pleasant referee and the bane of the SP forwards never seemed to have his whistle far from his lips as even the straightest of line-out ball was declared to be not-so-straight and the 9's feed into the scrum was also said to be favouring the SP pack. Neither could have been straighter had we used a set square and pencil. Conversely, some of the Congleton set plays (whilst well practiced) were set off with ball that was about as straight as Elton John although this went un-noticed by the man in charge.

Congleton soon began to notch up the points, using the penalties well to gain decent yards and push SP backward - for some time camped within their own 22 although some decent defending prevented too many tries from going over in such a short period. Going forward, the Tigers looked strong and made good ground, picking and driving from the breakdowns and proving their worth in the rucks/mauls.

The problem for the boys came about in the scrummage and line-outs, both of which were under practiced and ill-formed, a problem which plagues this plucky team. Scrummages were lost frequently as the pack tried their best to push against a well rehearsed Congleton unit but mostly to no avail. The line out suffered greatly from having only one jumper and confusion with the calls which became even more of an issue when the sole jumper left the field with an injury to his back. One of the lighter members of the backs took his place and did a stirling job in securing as much ball as possible at the line.

The game continued in this vein, and after much too-ing and fro-ing finished up at 50 points to zero with Congleton coming away victorious and moving on to the next stage of the Plate. The Tigers can take some solace from a decent performance on the whole with the game being somewhat squandered at the aforementioned set plays, an area of the game which requires much work if the team are to compete on an even keel and succeed. This author would much prefer to write about (and participate in!) a resounding win for the boys rather than another good thumping....!

The 4th XV (it would be nice to have XV, who knows, maybe a replacement or two...) square up against a so far undefeated and top of the table Broughton 1st XV this Saturday away at Yew Street.