Hillhead/Jordanhill travelled to the gloomy climes of Ardrossan, which apparently is right next to Satcoats, and a stones throw from a beach, last week to record their first loss of the league campaign. Hills got off to a flier, finding the Ardrossan club-house in record time, thanks to some solid navigating and few hints and tips from Morgan, who apparently has been there before. It’s the darkest place in the world, says he, it’s always dark…we wonder if maybe he’s a little bit scared of the dark?
So we got there, and that is just about where the success ended. Not having come away from Garnock with any positives the boys had to start playing lest the wrath of Keith build and he actually went on fire, the old Kukri fleece isn’t as fire-retardant as you might think…in a selfless act of Health and Safety awareness Keith spent most of the game under the posts, away from the crowd, in a stiff breeze, keeping the fire at bay.
Things that went badly include…kicking, indulging in a little kicking tennis rather than finding touch, in open play, from penalties, our two finest can keep the ball in the park in any situation. Contact area was sloppy, poor ball retention, one too many going one step too far and losing the ball. back yourself, yes, but you’ve got to back the rest of them too, set it up, tidy it up and play with it…the back play was uninspiring, the forwards looked a bit lost again, a la Garnock, we need some Captain’s magic to get the boys going, Captain Stu was reliable and solid, as ever, but no magic today. An early injury to Angels saw a swap-shop on the wing bringing Chris Jubb into the fray, looked a little off game standard, Angels had a few good runs early on, looking dangerous with bal in hand out of position on the wing, so we’ll be hoping to see him back soon…another knock came in the shape of an injury to Marty, who is apprently called the Bearsden Lighthouse, in his hip-hop crew…of Mitchell Snr, doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue…so off came Marty, which saw a pack reshuffle. The pack had looked to play a decent game of running rugby in the warm-up, a few changes from last week saw a dynamic back 5, mostly all back row, who should’ve run the show playing some quick ruck rugby. There was clearly an epic fail here…Newsteam’d like to see this set-up again, bit more fire, bit more drive and it could be a winner.
In among all of this stuff Vinnie was sin-binned. Never one to do things by half measures he evidently decided one wasn’t enough, body-slammed an Ardrossonian and got himself sent off. So a wee bit of a pack reshuffle next week too…
One final bad thing that happened, in this concise version of bad things that happened, was an injury to Scrum half David that saw hi confined to the wing. In technical medical type terms his thumb is gubbed, off he trotted to l’hopital, operated on on Sunday, and Keith may have a shiny new fixed scrum-half David, complete with bionic thumb, for Christmas, if he’s lucky.
So, awards for this week- Chosen One, for a consistent, tireless performance to David Armstrong, there’s only so much he can do at Scrum-half, he did a lot of it, but not much happened round about him. Ladies choice this week went to Stuart Rose, who again was strong a dynamic, but maybe needs to start leading a bit more when the boys heads are down, doing his bit as a senior player, as Hillhead/Jordanhill standards go…with an average age of 14 and a half Rosey’s an old man in the Hills team.
The trip home saw a slight detour as we got our heavymajorfecking junctions a bit mixed up. The detour allowed a scenic safari of Saltcoats, letting the boys peruse the local wildlife with the occassional mating call out the window…with a large population of the canine variety noone’ll be high-tailing it back to Ardrossan any time soon.
Chump of the week will go to the Saltcoats planners who put the road in the wrong place and resulted in us getting a little bit way-laid, but definitely not lost. Fools!
Cartha has already been…and will be written about soon, have to give it a bit of time, let the truth and facts fade a little.
