REPORT: Richmond Heavies 83 – 0 Ealing Evergreens

Well, anyone who was there knows it wasn’t pretty….We showed up with 14 players and no props, picked up a random player, courtesy of Norm Bloom, who hadn’t played for years (he bought shorts in the L Scottish shop for the occasion and despite his wife’s protestations started on the wing for us…. poor guy lasted five minutes before being helped off…. no doubt to a very sympathetic and comforting wife!!)

Richmond were up for revenge for our earlier victory over them and must have had 23 or 24 players togged despite telling the ref they had just scraped 15. They started with a few trademark mauls and racked up a few early tries thanks to weak Ealing defence. Down to 14 men after 5 minutes and 13 for most of the second half, after Paul Hoban departed with a hand injury, we were always vulnerable out wide. No point in going on too much about it, they beat us 83 – 0 but that’s what happens when you take half a team and no scrum to Richmond.

To be fair, full credit to all Evergreens who played on Saturday, it’s no fun being under the cosh like that for a solid hour but we never folded and kept trying till the end. As someone pointed out, at least we fulfilled the fixture unlike other teams who cancel unless at full strength, we got our two points and will have better days out than this.

Unfortunately for me, this was my final game as captain so the next chap can only see an improvement. BlackRock are opening a small office in Dublin and I am moving there in November to get that going. Although I will be back as much as possible it’s clearly not fair to the team to have an absentee captain but I’m very pleased to be able to tell you that John Ronane has agreed to take on the captaincy role for the remainder of the season. I know you’ll all give him the same support and good will you’ve shown me. It’s been a great honour to be Evergreens’ captain and I’ve really enjoyed it so thanks to everyone who’s played for us in that time.

Next game is Oct 23rd HOME against Esher so as I hope to see some of you at the club that day for a beer or twelve before I head to Dublin!

Best of Luck to John as Captain, looking forward to playing for you as much as I can….

Cheers
Declan Cronin