The Annual Boxing Day run-out

Alleynians thought they were seeing double after all of the Christmas festivities when the Old Whits squad arrived on Boxing Day.

With a squad of 24 players, including an International player or two, along with our Chief Medical Office as well as a hobbling Team Manager we were by far the more professional outfit. In all my years of playing rugby I have also never had the luxury of 6 front row players in 1 squad which in the end meant we had to resort to a lucky dip to settle on a starting 15.

The match itself started off at a frantic pace with some very neat handling skills from Alleynians which resulted in a few tries in quick succession. However we were soon back in the game with a never say die attitude and some fine tries had the Alleynian players and supporters showing some cause for concern. Alleynians however managed to hold on for a 32-19 victory which was aptly summed up by Ian Watson: “Another hour and we would have had them.”

Thanks to all concerned in helping get the squad out and thanks to all the supporters who came along. The biggest thanks however has to go to the players themselves who all put in a solid performance for the full 80 minutes and made it a competitive and entertaining spectacle. So thanks to Andreas Dracoulis and his team of Jon Eynon, James Johnson, Alistair Drage, James Schad, Dan Mensah, Tom Joyce, Jon Weller, Tim Ward, James Hart, Charlie Johnson, Piers Johnson, Luke Dickerson, the Antoniades brothers, Jim Ryan, John Coleman, Sam Barke, Tom Holden, Jon Riches, Alex Blok, David Illori, Will Cheeseman and Matt Gunni.

Let’s hope this brings momentum into the New Year so that we can consistently get 3 successful sides out.