Hunting Rhinos

Sol Campbell - 2001
Emmanuel Adebayor - 2011
Tom Shirt - 2018? / Tom Shirt back again 2021?
Finsbury Park Panthers - 2022

North London is no stranger to transfer controversy, or to hard-fought local rivalries, and Saturday 2nd March presented an opportunity for a new story in the annals of Finsbury Park and Haringey Rhino's histories.
It would be the 242nd game a Finsbury Park team had competed in an official RFU competition since their inception in 2011, seeking their 150th win.
With the historic score in this Haringey vs Islington derby at 2-0 Finsbury; aggregated at 111-5... the stage was now set for Finsbury Park 2nd XV to take their first swipe at the beast.
For the view from the other side of Lordship Lane... founded in 1963, who knows for the games and wins stats... but I'm pretty sure they wanted it too.

Between them Hugo Murray, Alex Moran, Dan Thomas, Liam Buckley, Will Harris, Gareth Kirk have racked up a combined 132 caps for the green and gold having previously worn the rhinos crest - and all were present for the exhibition at their former wallowing ground.
Four had kit on and were ready for a run out after varying degrees of warm-up.

A spilled kick off, a few knock ons, and some pretty splashy scrums... it was fairly clear what sort of game the Fins would be in for in the New River swamp. A few heated rucks later saw the intensity ramp up a little (special mention to Dan Brett) before the ball was spread from left to right for Gareth Kirk to pop down in the corner, a missed kick but first blood to the Fins. Another from Gareth and more of the same from the Fins: great ball retention, clever kicking and set play solidity created the platform for Hugo Murray too.
Tempers were beginning to rise with some silly penalties creating the opportunity for Finsbury to extend their lead. Some of these were dutifully taken. Others... less cleanly taken - James Pattison earning that free DOTD pint accordingly.

Bloated benches from both sides meant a lot of half time changes disrupting the flow. Dan Ross, George MacDuff and James Pattison seemingly the only men immune from Jersey's tinkering hands meant a disjointed re-introduction to the second half. Some great show and go from MacDuff had the fans on their feet, but it came to naught and some lax defending gifted some points to Haringey. Despite Gary van Heuven's best boshing, and Jake Painter's deceptive recovering pace, some more points grew on the board for Haringey, bringing slightly more jeopardy than had been expected at half time.
A shout out at this point to the Rhino's back-row who felt the effects of trying to bring down Finsbury stalwart Santi Garcia. Hope he's alright and there's no lasting damage.
With that break in play an opportunity to "take a minute to not say anything"... a bit of order and calm was restored, and some well worked line-outs with Will Harris, relentless ball carrying from Will Monk, and great securing work from Jude Little saw frustrations boil and another penalty for the Fins, slotted this time by JP, ending any fears of a nervy ending.

Fulltime 23-12.
Tries : Gareth Kirk (2), Hugo Murray
Cons : James Pattison
Pens : James Pattison (2)

MOTM : Hugo Murray
DOTD : James Pattison

Finsbury Park 3 - Haringey Rhinos 0
Finsbury Park 134 - Haringey Rhinos 17