Legends v Mossley Hill

Well a new day and a new dawn to Anselmian Maverick rugby. After a torrid few weeks of near fatal consequences for the Mavericks and twenty minutes from folding the true spirit of Anselmians RUFC came to the surface. This week wasn’t about individual teams it was about a whole club ethos. A real sense of what this club is capable of and what a true Anselmian looks like.
For the past few weeks The Mavs availability list has been in single figures with players either unavailable or up filling and as such it was no secret that the gaffer was having to give serious consideration to winding up the Mavericks in order to release players to follow their individual aspirations of playing rugby. As long as there is a Maverick team then there will be Maverick players. With this in mind Tuesday evening came and went and the Maverick squad consisted of six players. One of whom was barely walking wounded. The less said about the subsequent 48 hours the better, suffice to say that the Gaffer has spoken to the chair to warn about the imminent winding up of the team. To cut a very very long story short a welcome call was received from Steve Pilgrim who asked whether he could be of any assistance. He then obtained a very large top-hat and a made his way down to the local bunny farm where he proceeded to pull all of the rabbits outbid the aforementioned millinery attire. Cutting the story even shorter it was one o’clock on Saturday when The Mavericks hit Vauxhall’s with a vengeance. The legends returned Dylan Roberts wiped twenty years from his age once the shirt was adorned, Neil Turner (the man who retired twenty years too early)! Obviously Steve (The coach) Pilgrim, Captain Fantastic and Pat Riot led from the front taking the rest of the team forward with a renewed spirit of optimism. The final score of 38-22 showed what a strong, skilled and united team could achieve against a very strong opposition who asked after the game whether we had fielded our first team front row against them and all credit goes to Pat, Eddie and (ahem !! ) Steve Brookes. Reminiscent of the old Ponty front row of the 1970’s.
The backs were in incredible form this week with star performances from every single one. Neil and Dom, workingbince again as an unbeatable half back combination with Andy and Jack the new superstar centre combo. With Jack scoring points for fun as he bagged three superb tries. Wings and full back created a dynamic attacking threat whenever they had the ball in hand.
Noteworthy incidents from the game include the ‘hit of the season’ when Charlie went through the opposition number that hard he dropped the ball allowing Tristran (our Caped crusader) to scamper over for his try under the posts. The immense contribution of Jack Hancock in beating MH almost on his own with three well taken tries. The Gaffer was particularly pleased as a result of the defensive contribution from all 17 players a truly immense performance from every single individual created the winning platform.
Final acknowledgement goes to this weeks Man of the Match Tom Hutchinson in the second row continues to develop into a great player and showed exactly what he is capable. If it hadn’t been for a marginally forward pass would’ve bagged his first Maverick try. It’ll come mate, of that I’m certain.
Scores this week were from Tristan, jack x3 and Steve brooks.
I know it’s been along read this far but as a closing statement I once again wish to focus not on individuals but on the spirit shown and the character of us as a whole club which pulled us together to put out a third team this week. Truly inspirational and a real credit to us as a group.
Thanks Pilly for what you did to bring the legends back and here’s to many more.

Semel a Mavericus, Semper a Mavericus

The Gaffer