Fins Struggle to Whip Up A Storm

Just like any Saturday in the winter when FPRFC has a home game, the morning started on Citymapper trying to figure out how to get to a ground that is nowhere near Downhills Park. There is no better feeling than finding out that the pre-game ritual won't consist of walking 45 minutes and having to somehow go through a forest or a 6-lane motorway. Many thanks to Bancroft RFC for being on the Central line but more importantly for hosting our 2 teams and their oppositions. Also, kudos to Toby and the committee who work tirelessly behind the scenes to make this happen.

But if the journey was fairly simple, the conditions were absolutely horrible with storm Dennis having decided that today was not the day for champagne rugby. During warm-up, Gaz's instructions were very clear, we have to 'play smart'. Note that as a Frenchman, smart rugby means absolutely nothing to me - we have this thing called French flair instead but looking at the results of Les Bleus in the recent years, I'm not sure it qualifies as being smart. I somehow worked out that the tactic was to use the wind to win the territory battle.

Finsbury Park started the first half against the wind and the whole team put in a huge shift. The forwards were ferocious in defence, denying Stevenage any line break. The backs were solid when covering the kicks and getting back up the field. Despite playing most of the time in Stevenage's own half, some unfortunate handling errors and circumstances out of our hands (read questionable decisions by the ref) resulted in a scoreless 40 minutes for the Fins. Stevenage managed to find their way behind our try line at the very end of it following incisive runs from their backline.

With a respectable 0 - 7 on the board at half time you could feel a sense of accomplishment - the Fins were convinced that the hardest part of the job was done and full of hope going into the second half with the wind behind us. It started well indeed with a penalty awarded to Finsbury Park in front of Stevenage’s posts after a period of sustained pressure – Gaz stepped up and converted the 3 points. The chase was on for FPRFC to take the lead in this game. Stevenage showed a resilient defence and an exemplary discipline when defending their line, sometime for 30 successive phases (still not champagne rugby, 90% of these phases were actually good old Rhinos). At the 60th minute, the momentum unexpectedly changed with Stevenage’s number 8 running a deadly line inside of the 10 and dotting down under the posts. The same number 8 did it again 10 minutes later to make the score 3 - 19.

The scoreboard didn’t really reflect the game and Finsbury Park’s huge effort in defence, leaving a sour taste in the Fins’ mouth. Some may call it karma, someone had to pay for this injustice and what better symbol than the game’s official. Shortly before the final whistle, DB ran straight into the ref in a very Farrellesque no arm tackle manner. There are two sides to this story – according to DB, he was gently making his way around the ref when the official decided to change his course and block him. According to the ref this was deliberate, and DB was asked to reflect on his disgusting gesture and come see him after the game because at the moment his ribs were too painful to even talk. Surely if that was the case, DB would have been shown a red card… but no, another interesting decision by the official.

At the post match function, DB settled the dispute by offering the ref the most unmeaningful of apologies. Pauly was awarded MotM for an overall solid performance in the backrow to stop Stevenage’s assaults. Fred was voted DotD for not making the required 5 meters on a lineout throw despite flinging the ball as hard as he could, and for ignoring Paddy being available for the game.