• <Bar Talk 18>
• Bar Talk 19 - Season 2010 Review
• <Bar Talk 20>

Well, we thought last year was a struggle but season 2010 beat it hands down. A number of Unquenchables, namely Stuart, Nathan, and Jim took on management and coaching duties and Kevin Sandells played for the 3XV whenever required. Nevertheless, Stuart, Nathan, Kevin and Jim ended up playing several games for us. Pete Collins suffered a season ending injury early on and Chris the Chilean was out for most of the season. Dennis did his ribs again but bravely made a comeback for the last game. The season was not all doom and gloom because we picked up three very handy recruits Chris Van de Merve, Cam Gardner and later in the season, Chris Swaine. Alex Tau Tau played a couple of games before he was sidelined with injury. Carl Ramage when he combined with Chris Van de Merve made a formidable centre combination but rarely did we manage to get them playing together on the same day. Chris showed his versatility by playing an outstanding game at breakaway which had Burdett salivating. Bryan keeps on keeping on and due to our desperate situation had to play a full game on at least one occasion. Chris Swaine was hitting his straps in the final game. It is a pity he didn’t find us at the beginning of the season. Whatever happened to Andrew the South African? He paid his subs bought his kit played one game and disappeared never to be seen again. This year we had a plethora of forwards and only a few backs all of dubious quality. One can get a sense of our desperation when Colin and Peter Barge Arse, forwards famous for their one handed blind passes were selected in the centres. At least Phil Hand, Rod Parsons, Jason, Cam, Glen Hill and the gypsy Tony Traralgon knew their limitations. We had some very useful cameo forward games from Nico, mostly at half back, Scotty, Ziggy and A Another playing at centre. Strangely Clive Welti playing at five eight only got belted a few times this year but finally decided to protect his head by joining that elite group of backs that wear protective headgear. Quinton as usual kept the backs looking credible at half hack and Pommie Paul proved fat men can run. Francois put his body on the line and took a tackle but still managed to pass the ball to Dennis who scored a glorious try. Francois had been knocked unconscious by the tackle and came to as Dennis was giving him a big tongue kiss in appreciation. Chris Peugot only suffered minor injuries such as broken fingers and torn hamstrings this year but did manage to see out the season relatively unscathed. Ric Makin and Ant played one game for us and showed they are better players when totally unfit. We did draw one game this year when the round was cancelled due to unavailability of our common ground. University agreed to play us at Box Hill and the 39 all draw was to be the highlight of our season. That day we had four players named Chris playing for us. The game was a try scoring bonanza with Rod Parsons and Chris the Chilean making several rampaging runs towards the try line. We lost our games, we lost last year’s management team, we lost a number of key players, Dennis lost rugby balls, we lost our water bottles, Dennis lost our spare jerseys, but all in all we still managed to survive and enjoy our rugby.

Bring on season 2011! (PS. Our first recruit for 2011- a 50 year old- arrived at the Club this November, played 10 mins of touch and left with a dislocated collerbone. Not a good omen for 2011)

See you at the bar.

• <Bar Talk 18>
• Bar Talk 19 - Season 2010 Review
• <Bar Talk 20>