My family and friend have surprised me by coming up with rugby memories, some of which I have never heard before.
And one I hoped my good mate Fatboy had forgotten...
Please find below the Festive Family Wilbach Favorites Selection:
Scrum-Half play at its most vigorous:
Llandaff Youth team 1973 December played Cardiff Youth and lost 66-0 – three months later as lambs to the slaughter we were put in front of the same opposition as a warm up for the Cardiff BaaBaas game (2 people watching at the start 10,000 at the end) and we won 10-6 and their captain Terry Holmes was crying. How many people can claim to have made him cry? I stuffed him! JSD
Refereeing:
I refereed a 7s competition for Independent School under 13s about 10 years ago. In a hotly contested semi final, watched by a score or so heavily committed English bourgeoisie spectators, one young lad took a heavy tackle and went down, he looked just a bit winded so I let play continue. His team mate grabbed the ball and with a clear run into the line he dive-passed the ball into touch from about 15 yards. Everyone stopped; even the mums went silent - there was a tragic silence of utter bemusement. I was about to award a penalty for deliberately chucking the ball into touch when I realised he had probably been influenced by Match of the Day. What do good footballers do if a player is injured? Kick the ball into touch! Realising that my chance of officiating in the next world cup was about to go I bravely went for natural, as opposed to RFU, justice and awarded a scrum to the "throwing out side". I have never been cheered as a referee before, or indeed, since. JMD
Bravery:
Your brother Andrew running backwards towards his own deadball line whilst in the attacking 25 (as it then was) faster than he had ever run as a flyhalf, as the St Mary’s College flanker (who had not fallen for my dummy scissors run at inside centre) was gaining on him. The flanker? JPR Williams on tour with the Meds in Brecon…(there is an alternative version to this that has the pre-planned move of an actual scissors being called and brother Andrew, realising that if he did pass the ball he could well be charged as an accomplice [“A person who takes part in the offence, or who aids, abets, counsels or procures its commission”] to the act of murder [section 9 Offences Against the Person Act 1861] and so carried on his ‘lateral' run before flipping out a ‘flat’ pass to his winger who screamed in at the corner, on wings of fear, for an electric try. Said centre (apparently still shaking from his near-death experience at the hands of Japes) thanked Andrew for not letting go with the pass…)JMD & ALD
Giggling:
One of the more bizarre moments I’ve come across was during a 1st team match at school. Appalling weather and a near-waterlogged pitch convinced the referee to end contested scrums, rendering the front row redundant for the rest of the game. Two of my friends, Chris and Ed (prop and hooker, respectively) were our leading front row men, big, heavy and particularly ugly. Ed had played at England U16 level; Chris was soon to get a call up to London and South East's U18 squad. Two fellas not to be messed with on the rugby pitch. Anyway, about 4-5 uncontested scrums in, an inordinate amount of giggling floated out from the centre of the scrum...in an attempt to liven up the scrums, Ed and Chris had decided to give each other a good tickling! I don't think anyone could quite believe it! CAD
More Bravery:
One of the funniest if not the funniest thing I have ever seen was whilst playing for CHOSB IIIs against Penarth one cold December afternoon in 1997. We had a scrum deep in the opposition 22 which we lost, ball was passed out to their outside half who duly thumped it 70 yds downfield. Fortunately, our left wing was sitting deep expecting to hit the gain line at full speed when the ball came out of the scrum so had it well covered as it sailed over his head on the half way line. With no-one within at least 20 yds of him he was able to jog back into the 22, pick the ball up and assess the field of play before him with several seconds if not minutes to spare. As I turned away from the scrum to face our impish winger standing on the 22 a cold chill went down my spine. The obvious option, with no support behind him and the opposition centre ( who was 4 stone heavier, 8 years younger and several yds quicker than our winger) closing him down, was to thump it the 70yds back up field with interest into the corner flag. Thereby ensuring his forwards had little more than 20yds to move to the left to the next phase of play. However, the cold chill quickly translated into a “what the fcuk is he doing now”. Our left winger, instead of doing a Thorburn decided a Benny would be more appropriate. He sidestepped to the left not once, not twice, not thrice but approximately 18 times covering at least 30 yds in the process at a rate of 2 steps a second. Unfortunately, the opposition centre being the only player on the field not duped by lightening sideways footwork was still travelling at a rate of 5 steps per second. He caught up and ceremoniously dumped our winger 5 yds from the touchline, being 32 yds lateral from where he collected the ball and 2 yds further back closer to our try line. That is the good news. The very good news is that despite being winded in the tackle he held onto the ball so tightly the centre had to remove our wingers shirt and only 2 chest hairs before wrestling it free by which time the ref had blown up for a penalty for not releasing. The bad news is that myself and the rest of the pack after working so hard to get the fairies in the backline into a try scoring position had to trek back the 72 yds for a lineout deep into our own 22. Whilst not funny at the time, upon reflection it is definitely the most bizarre and possibly the funniest thing I have seen on a rugby pitch. No prizes for guessing the winger!FB
Ahem…