NADOES v Turtles, 12 May 2010

Nadoes – 53 : Turtles – 5

With last week’s fixture resulting in the end of the Internal League’s first round, teams across the league were eager to see who they were up against going into the second leg. The Nadoes were matched up against the Turtles, who were somewhat of an unknown entity at this stage of the competition, having finished 2nd in their group consisting of Wild Boys, Kopano and Catsville.

The Nadoes focus at this stage is not so much on the team that they play against each week, but rather focusing on key areas of their game and aiming to improve upon these areas, helping them to establish a solid platform from which to build upon game-to-game.

A pleasant break in this week’s Cape Storm presented the Green Mile with warm and semi-dry conditions…as-close-to perfect for flairing rugby as you’ll get at this time of year. The warmer weather welcomed the usual stalwart supporters, with the Scotsman, fresh off the Africa X-trail, also lending his support from the sidelines. There was a good feeling in the changeroom as the jerseys were handed out by our 2nd oldest player, Te Pokes, with the silent assassin James Control-Alt-Delete getting his first start for the Does since 2005 and relishing every minute of it as he linked well, ran hard, fetched ball-after-ball and tackled whatever was in front of him, showing he’s still got a few miles left in the tank for sure! Uchacha!

With Captain Ollie Boombayeah still seeing stars, Greg Jenkins was asked to step up and make the transition from hooker to openside, which he did with a smile on his face as he hit plenty of rucks under the watchful eye of the ever present referee! With OJ out, the captaincy was placed in the capable hands of Bermuda, leading by example all night long and strengthening the players’ confidence in his ability for future years to come.

The game started off with the Nadoes struggling abit to gain any momentum or use the boot effectively enough to get out of their half and the Turtles were handed a rare opportunity to put the first points on the board with a shot at goal. The unsuccessful penalty resulted in a 22m drop-out, which now gave the Nadoes some much needed territory from which to attack the Turtles line.

And attack they did, as a few good phases of play led to a little blind side break for Josh Gloakocoko who drew the last defender before offloading to…yip, you guessed it, Shaffieq-He’s-Queeek-Scoring-Tries-Every-Week. The little winger, with his platted mullet got a double again last night, rocketing ahead of not only the Nadoes Leading Try Scorers, but the entire League aswell.

Shaffiq’s second try came a few moments later from an offload and some strong fending from The-o, who “pick-and-go’ed” effectively all night. In the process of this try The-o put his hand up for a potential Meerkat award, but I mean really it just wasn’t enough to steal it away from AB later on in the game…kwak.

With two tries against them in a short space of time, the Turtles were starting to realize the strength of the Nadoes dominance, which didn’t diminish and another two close-quarter tries were scored before half time by AB and Horns, once again using gaps round the ruck and the blind-side effectively.

The remaining few minutes of the half were played with 14 players on the field as Lock-and-Load, having a bad hair day, decided to enlighten the ref to the possibilities that one of his decisions was incorrect. Unsurprisingly, the ref thought otherwise and Loxton spent time underneath the poles. It must be said though that the first half was not “all-Nadoes”, as the Turtles scored a painfully easy try from a wayward pass, putting the depleted backline under pressure.

Halftime score: 24-5

Thomas Vaughn gave some good and strong words in the halftime huddle, mainly revolving around a few missed opportunities due to some bad passing and possible over-eagerness resulting in very flat lines of attack. He also called for 50 points, which the Nadoes eventually achieved.

The first few minutes of the second half saw the Turtles come out firing again and capitalize on one or two Nadoes errors, gaining some territory. However, this territory was all that they gained and even this was short lived as the Nadoes put successive phases of play together resulting in a further 5 tries being scored in the second half. Curty and Horns enjoyed piercing the defence time-and-again before off-loading to the many Nadoes in support. As Vaughn says, we are lethal when we keep the ball in the air!

The fourth Jonas brother, Mark Winter also ran through effectively at pace from fullback, always beating one, most times two defenders then sending his ever-present wings, Shaffieq and Te-Pokes on some jinxing runs down the touchline. Impressive combinations are being formed as players get more game time with each other, reading each others lines better and allowing themselves to be in the right place at the right time.

The same can also be said about the forwards as they perform better as a unit in loose play and at set pieces. Once again a number of tight-heads were won with the front-row and pack as a whole yet to meet their match this season. Gloakocoko was again impressive as he cleaned out rucks with both biceps firing, whilst also running over/ through opponents, resulting in yet another try for the youngster and the coveted Big Lick award! Uchacha!

Big Lick: Josh Gloak

The pack’s dominance makes the game a whole lot easier on defence and attack for numbers 9-15. This couldn’t have been more evident than at one particular scrum which ended up producing two award-winning pieces of play. A backwards moving Turtle scrum allowed AB to hamper their scumhalf, forcing him to spill the ball, before snapping it up himself. Taking the gap between the flyhalf and scrum, AB then drew another defender before offloading inside to Cally Hayes’ Boyfriend who jinxed abit himself before firing out a pin-point pass to Heals, who fed Curty at his usual queeeek pace onto the ball, who then swung the ball to Te-Pokes on the wing who sped home for his first of the season! Uchacha

Meerkat: AB
Try of the Match: Lloyd Te Pokey Anderson

With the game flowing and opening up, fresh legs were bought on to get involved in the action. Bevillo Puccini was once again massive in the rucks, almost putting his hand up for the Big Lick. Sam-the-Man made life tough for the opposition at ruck time…sometimes to the disagreement of the ref, but this can be put down to youthful exuberance aplenty! Ben the Gem got some more hard-graft mud on those brown boots of his, whilst Pierre “Fokofpolisiekar” VdW, Heals, Matty Cowan and Ucha-Cha-Chad slotted in effectively in the backs keeping the flair alive!

Unfortunately yet another yellow card was handed out to the Nadoes before the game was done as AB gave, what he thought was a fairly friendly kwak of advice in the direction of the ref, who unfortunately didn’t see it that way. He did manage to make it back onto the field just in time to see the Nadoes score one last creaming/ flairing/ vibing try from their own half, taking the final score to 53-5 and another confidence building victory under their belts.

This week’s Thornadoe was awarded to a player who stepped up and took the opposition on in their faces, leading his fellow Nadoes into each ruck, into each scrum and into each hit, providing those that flair out wide with the vital inches they need to produce the running rugby which gets the crowd on their feet and the points on the board. Man of the Match, for another quality performance goes to this week’s captain, Brad Bermuda Jamaica VdW! Uchacha!

The best fine’s session of the season followed, with a notable absentee being Bomber, who left for another venue in the Shadow of the Mountain to have a drink with a female friend, before returning for the last two songs…Say it with me: Not in MY day!

With the league on a break now until the 28th July, there is plenty of time for those little niggles to recover; those legs to get quicker; those hands and passes to get more accurate; and those bodies to get fitter and stronger in order to come out next term and continue our onward march towards defending OUR trophy!

It is AB-solutely vital that we keep coming down to touch and get involved in the few events that we have over the next 8 weeks. There are two 7’s festivals taking place – one at UCT (5 June) and one at Villagers (over two days at end of June). There is also the annual Plett Tour / Nadoes Oyster Festival, which Raun is in the process of finalizing the finer details of – accommodation; opposition; ref’s; beers for changeroom; number of girls at VIP; etc. So there is still plenty of Nadoes vibe to be thrown around and enjoyed during the break with the World Cup almost underway aswell!

Uchacha

NADOES v Marquad, 05 May 2010

Nadoes: 62 – Marquad: 0

“Brrrrrrrr-its Cold in Here – There must be some Winter in the atmosphere!” These were true words for last nights Green Mile clash between the Nadoes and Marquad.

Despite the wintery weather conditions, which consisted of a pumping North-Wester and light rain falling practically parallel to the pitch, Wednesday evening still saw the Donk-father, Ruthy, Raun, Roffie, Merry Christmas and Glenda, amongst a host of other loyal supporters, making their weekly pilgrimage to the Green Mile to support the boys in Red& Black. They were there with high hopes of having something to cheer about to help keep them warm on the sidelines. And something to cheer about they did have!

(Disclaimer: As I sit here at work with a dry mouth, little headache and semi-hungover after last-nights “Decorum/ Tecorum” changeroom fines, it seems impossible to remember ALL the tries, let alone place them in their correct order…so bear with me as I do my best to recap a fantastic performance in less-than desirable conditions.)

Jogging back to the half after our first try within 2 minutes from Shaffiq-He’s-Queeck-And-Scores-Tries-Every-Week, I passed a few Marquad players on the way and gave a rye smile as I heard one of them mutter “Oh fuck! Here we go!”

And how right he was as the first half produced no fewer than 5 Nadoes tries from all corners of the pitch. With Cally Hayes’ boyfriend down with flu, the experience of Matt Naas Russell was called upon expecting his boot to play a vital role in gaining territory in the windy conditions. However, I only remember one or two neatly placed torpedoes being used as he chose to run or pass most balls, providing his backline with the opportunity to carve.

With the ball being so freely swung around, a few handling errors were inevitable and thus it was a front-rower’s time to shine. A welcome inclusion into this week’s front-row was not Damian Stander, but none-other than ex-captain and life-time member of the Experience, Bevillo Puccini!! The fire in his eyes was once again re-ignited as he hooked ball-after-ball onto the Nadoes side, not caring which team had put it in. He was also massive in the loose, cleaning 3 okes at-a-time at each ruck and even finding the opportunity for his trade-mark chip into the corner…Uchacha!

With so many tries in only 18minutes (ref blew the 1st-half short) the pace of the game was fierce, at one stage causing skipper Ollie Boombayeah to take a little time-out on the hallowed turf after getting man-and-ball from a kick-off. Spending the last few minutes before halftime on the sideline seeing stars, he then gave a very memorable/ mumbled speech in the huddle before rejoining his troops for the second half

The first half didn’t offer much in the way of Awards, but all this was to be rectified during the final 25minutes. With lines being broken, tighthead scrums and turnovers at rucktime, the Nadoes continued to dominate and make ground into the Marquad half.

Two awards, the Meerkat and the Big Lick came from the same movement, as a loose pass was cleaned up by Ben-the-Gem who, inspired by his brand-new-brown-vibing-Adidas-boots, stepped inside and drew a few defenders, before delivering a deft offload to AB down the touchline. AB chipped ahead and once the ball was eventually regathered by their no.8, Bermuda Jamaica came firing through with a serious look of intent on his face and smashed the poor chap, leaving him gawking and gasping for air, winded on the ground, wondering how a freight train had made its way onto the Mile.

Meerkat: Ben the Gem
Big Lick: Bermuda

However, Ben was not the only gem with new boots. The-o Kankowski sported a serious pair of golden boots from the back row and had another strong game linking well with Stander at flank. With Shaffiq up to 6 (7?) tries this season already, Stander put in a good effort for Most Season Tries, as he began his campaign with no less than four last nite – the last of which was Try of the Match and came from another post-try kick-off. He received the ball from Dayne in the Nadoes 22m, before stepping a few, palming a few, swerving abit and speeding his way across 80m of pitch to dot down next to the poles! AB-solutely pushing it!!!

Try of the Match: Stander

The bench was once again effective last night, with Te-Pokey (who took over from Control-Alt-Delete this week as the Oldest Player On The Field) being the utility back that he is, having a few good runs at wing and center. Greg Jenkins ran straight on and produced a little moment of magic, stealing the ball out of a tackle before offloading. WP (who recently took the next big step with his girlfriend and introduced her to his Nadoe Family over the weekend) and Pierre VDW also got some more game time under their belts as we enter the 2nd Pool stages next week before the break.

The coveted Thornadoe was obviously up for grabs again with a few players deserving a mention. Bermuda scrummed all night and was hitting rucks with some much needed aggression. Josh Gloakocoko, on his run-on debut, produced a fantastic performance, scoring no-less than two tries as he bicepped his way through the defence. One feels that as this man gets more game time and gains confidence he’ll be a valuable force in the 2nd row! Stander’s performance and his 4 tries also deserved a big nomination.

However, as Donk said in the post-match huddle, it’s a team game and it’s the Grafters that allow for the Flairers to score their tries and in this light, the Man of the Match and worthy Thornadoe recipient was none-other than Keric’s Brother, the Great Dayne for building on last weeks performance and getting stuck in when it counts!!Uchacha!!!

Thornadoe: Great Dayne

Complacency can often set in once a team scores a few soft tries, but I am happy to say that this was not the case last night. With potentially only 9 games a season, every game needs complete commitment from each talented player to allow for the team as a whole to keep performing to the best of our ability. Yes, it got a bit loose out there last night, but overall, we stuck to the Way Of The Nadoe, producing a confident performance as we enter the next stage of the league.

Although it sounds clichéd, there is a good mixture of new and young players involved, with a few experienced players back in the form of Renzo, Alt and Riva who provide exceptional value to the squad…in fact the Donk grabbed me at the bar on Friday evening and couldn’t express enough how amped he is again for the Nadoes…he can feel that the vibe is good and with all the new kit on its way, whats not to love about being a Nadoe!!!

Uchacha!

PS: After fines, the weekly AGM was held at Steers, where our Coach Vaughn started a food fight throwing paper, chips and packets at AB, who ducked (kwak) Vaughns missles, which went on to narrowly miss three policemen, quietly enjoying their Wacky-Nadoes-Day meal…They didn’t quite see the funny side of it.