North Bristol Vets/Social V Gibraltar

With the 15s Rugby season coming to an end for another season, visiting teams, tournaments and the 7s circuit gets under way, and this weekend was a case in point with Gibraltar being represented in the Marbella Vets tournament with some of our players joining the Costa Barbarians, and a scratch Gibraltar vets/social side being thrown together to play visitors North Bristol at Guadiaro.

North Bristol visited about five years ago but where keen to come back for another game and the Gibraltar boys were expecting a hard physical game, especially if the last game we played against them was anything to go by, infact 5 of our team hadn't played since that last game, and a further 6 had all but retired or hadn't played for at least three years, so scratch team was the name of the game.

The warm up was something to behold, were do you play then, was the most strenuous exercise before we kicked off, and with North Bristol going through moves and line out work we thought, "Oh well its only a social visit."

However as all ways when the whistle goes, there is nothing sociable about rugby and not one Gibraltar player took a step backwards, the forwards fought at every contact situation and were actually able to turn the ball over giving our backs, time to play on the front foot making it a good spectacle for a sizeable crowd who came down to support.

The first fifteen minutes Gibraltar had to soak up a lot of pressure and played the game in there half between the 10 meter and 22, with a strong wind against us Bristol kicked us back time and time when we kicked to relieve the pressure, some excellent line out work also meant we stole or spoiled  North Bristol ball not giving them a chance to build a decent attack, it was from line out ball that the first score came with the forwards securing in the loose, scrum half Neil releasing Dibsy who ran from our 22 to score the first try, also converting it. This put an extra edge into North Bristol who attacked straight from the kick off and some strong forward play, in rucking and mauling saw them pass the white wash in the corner also converted 7-7.

That was the only try by North Bristol, a three day party in Belemadena might have helped the Gibraltar cause, but slowly and surely the forwards started driving forward giving room for the backs to run and one more try was scored at half time with Dibsy again running over.

Second half started much the same as the first with Bristol coming on strong in the first five minutes and legs were starting to feel it on the Gibraltar team, but the guys kept going with Captain Roger leading from the front, no quarter asked none given. Three more tries cam in the shape of Mikey, Steve and Dibsy but credit has got to be given to the forwards who took Bristol on up front with some crunching hits in the loose giving the backs the space and time to explode, it was a wonderful game of rugby which was spoilt only when on of the North Bristol guys suffered an injury with though painful wasn't as bad as first suspected and the guys asked for the game to be ended after 20 minutes of the second half, and since half the team thought we had only been going five minutes it shows how committed the team were.

The guys took North Bristol back to Gibraltar for a social in the Sports Bar Ocean Village, with a sing song and presentation, everyone had a good day and for a group of guys who were so unwilling to play, the buzz after the game was brilliant with a final score of 29- 7 to Gibraltar, though we did loose the sing song 5-1.

Can we give a big thank you as always to our Master Trophy Maker Paul Alexander who surpasses himself every time we ask for a trophy, thanks Paul.

I would like to thank all the guys who took part, albeit reluctantly, but proved the spirit of rugby is alive and well here in Gibraltar and they are starting with the forwards.

Pete, Gary, Taff. Roger Capt., Danny, Matt, Steve, Axel, Dinger, Allan and Greg.

Backs

Neil, Dibsy, Quicky, Steve, Bart, Mikey, Herbie, I have used their first names or nicknames as that's how we all know each other, and I bet half of us don't even know each others surname, but each one played his heart of for his team mates and that's all we could have asked for.

On another note Gibraltar rugby is coming to an era where the development of rugby is becoming more than just social rugby. There are enough players now to start looking towards a solid club structure, from Vets to junior rugby and people are asking what the way forward is. The GRFU and players past and present will be meeting soon to discuss how to lead Gibraltar Rugby into the future; we are in a unique position here, especially with the current economic climate and strength of the euro. Bath and Wasps have both used Andalucía for a winter training camp because of the weather, and this weekend saw the British Lions in Granada for altitude training before the Lions tour to South Africa, Gibraltar could have visiting teams here on Gibraltar based in Gibraltar generating income on a short break tour.

We have had Tredegar comprehensive school play our under 14 and 15s at Victoria stadium in April, this month says Barking under 15s visit on the 29th of May, rugby is thriving here in Gibraltar at the moment and we have to grab the momentum.