What rugby memory do you have that has improved over time

[Ecky]

Jedi & Frontrower.......didnt we get this answer right at the quizz night???

What? I was a question at the quiz night? Awesome! I should've come to it...

[prop53]

well my favorite memory playing rugby and as a front rower they as been many believe me. (he he ) was one of my last grade games playing for Wanneroo. I was in my late 40s playing tight head when in the last ten minutes of the game, a sub was made and my son came on in the second row. When the first scrum was set after the sub had been made my son packed down behind me. As the scrum set all that could be heard around the park was from me yelling for ---- sake shove your head up my arse. as i had not felt any pressure being put on. laughter could be heard around the park as they heard father calling son. but what a memory playing with my son.

[frontrow]

That's bloody hilarious, too funny....How long since you played for wanneroo as i played for them a few years back...I may know your son even...Great story mate...I still have tears in my eyes...

[prop53]

well front row that was around 1997-98, my sons name was Dean

[frontrow]

I would have been playing for Wests back then i think, and i know a few Deans, does he still play at Wanneroo???I think we need to catch up for a pint at the Whale and Ale next week, i am home from Thursday so we should arrange a time to meet over a pint, maybe catch some ruggers on the big screens....

[.X.]

( I believe the official rugby term is seagulling)

When I was taught about Rugby - I was told this was called Labrador-ing or bludging on the blind

[prop53]

Frontrow we both moved on to Joondalup Brothers i believe we are going to make the Whale and Ale a regular from the next home game. So see you there mate

[frontrow]

Seagulling, bludging, i call it tactical pre thinking to conserve valuable energy reserves for the next phase of play....Look at Hardys' try for example, took advantage of his position to score a great try, and he threw a dummy, passed, then backed up to score, bought the memories flooding back...Any one would think he read my story and thought he would one-up me...
Prop53, give me a time and i will meet you there, maybe pre game next weekend if you like...

[Signals]

I read your story yesterday frontrow and when i saw Hardy's try this morning i couldnt believe it!!! Tell us another one see if one of the force can one up you at home next week. Its a pattern i would love to see form

[Ecky]

Seagulling, bludging, i call it tactical pre thinking to conserve valuable energy reserves for the next phase of play....Look at Hardys' try for example, took advantage of his position to score a great try, and he threw a dummy, passed, then backed up to score, bought the memories flooding back...Any one would think he read my story and thought he would one-up me...

I was thinking about your post when he passed, and then kept running to receive the return pass. He's obviously one of TWF - wonder what his user name is...........

[frontrow]

Ok, this one is pretty funny, and i believe me old mate Fulvio was there to witness this one...
It was a pretty blustery day on the foreshore at Tompkins Park, playing for the Palmyra thirsty fourths against the old foes, Nedlands, our arch enemy, who had apparently beaten us repeatedly for the past decade or so, according to the dinosaur Gary Mickle, and this day we were having a great but tough day giving it to them...
Now, my recollection is a bit hazy, but i know it was a pretty low scoring game and i think we were up by like less than 3 points and it was getting pretty physical and at times a bit of biff would enter the game, but simmered down pretty quickly and play kept on going...I love the biff, and so too does Gary Mickle, i guess it's a front row thing, but we are pretty fair players as well, who give as good as we get...Well, so i thought...
Anyways, things were looking pretty grim with only a minute or two remaining on the clock and we were under intense pressure as raid after raid on our tryline by the neddies forwards, and backs, resulted in our dogged defence turning them back at all phases...
So, when we finally get the ball back we knock the ball on ( bloody backs) close to our line in defence, and someone went down injured, so this was when Gary called us into a huddle (forwards) and told us in no uncertain terms that these so and so's had beaten him for the last ten years and that this was his best chance to beat them and break the hoo doo hanging over our heads, so don't, whatever you do, don't, let them in...He was truly fired up, and so too were all of us...
Crouch Hold Engage...We almost drove them back to the 22m line, but they still managed to retrieve thier ball, so once again we came under a relentless assualt with only seconds remaining before the final whistle...They spun the ball out to the centres and we managed to cover-defend well and a ruck formed about two metres from their tryline...
This is when i saw one of the funniest things i have seen on a pitch...from an evil frontrowers perspective...
The ruck is formed and we are doing our best to push them back to get to the ball, and i look out the corner of my eye and Gary is just standing there, eyes twinkling, just waiting like a hawk before it swoops in for its prey...In my mind i was like , what are you doing mate, but all i could do was watch as he casually waited till the ref was looking at the ball, then he casually reached over and punched the halfback fair in the head...pretty bloody hard too i might say...
What happened next i hear you ask...
Retalliation was always on the cards, and gary just stood there smiling as the halfback picked himself back up and proceeded to dive over the top of the ruck and land a hail of punchs on his ungaurded head, all the while under the refs watchful eye, as he had returned his gaze back to the contest....
The result was a penalty to us for unfair play, i think the halfback may have even been yellow carded, and we proceeded to kick for touch and the game was over, the whole time gary had a smile from ear to ear you could not wipe off...We had won the game, and in a sense, we also won the fight...

[The EnForcer]

Another cracker frontrow...

[Happy]

hahahaha love it FR .. did you ever play any "normal" boring games?

[prop53]

Another moment i recall was while playing up in the Hills , the ref accused me of striking one of the opposition. I went on to question how i did this and his reply was by a karate chop. I saw red as a prop we would never scoop to such tactics. So i said to the ref if you want to see a strike i will show one, at that i ran towards the ref but before i could reach him the rest of my forward pack dropped on me from a great height and there found my self on the deck. My life flashed before my eyes. I thought have i scored a try was this it. Alas no it was just me being a plonka.

[Burgs]

HAHAHA, a prop seeing red???? Never!!!

This one of mine is memorable for the wrong reasons, actually I'll go two under that mood to get them out of the way.

I think it was Year 10, we were playing Guildford at Guildford, the home of the "Rugby Bog" in WA.
It was a pretty close match as I recall and we were pretty much playing for sheep stations (well at least bragging rights amongst the respective Boarders) so the tackles were going in nice and hard.
s usual for Guildford matches, I recall it was either raining or between showers, it was wet weather anyway.
Late in the second half one of our fellas, a Lock who was already over six foot, found himself with a fairly slight Centre running at him with only his tackle to save a probable match winner.
As he laid the tackle (remembering he was a pretty tall bloke) his shoulder slid up from the middle of the blokes chest and up into the jaw of the ball carrier.......now freeze the frame there.
A big hit for sure and undoubtedly, although unintentional, a penalty for a high tackle. Make sure the bloke is alright and on with the game, right?
Unfortunately wrong, turns out the Guildford boy was wearing braces.......top and bottom......braces don't really like head high shoulder contact.
Even with the correct mouth guard that he was wearing.
I still get a dry mouth at the thought of the scene now
The tackler gets up from the ground to look down on this bloke who is virtually screaming (he is a Guildford boy after all!) in pain and thinks he has seen something out of Predator.
The braces have let go and the wires (hold onto your lunch folks) have pierced his cheeks and blood and wire is sticking everywhere.
Needless to say this is a pretty disturbing sight, especially for our tackler and he looked like an albino as he walked back to our team huddle.
It took a fair bit of convincing to get his mind back on the job and I know the image stuck with him for weeks, a bit like witnessing a car crash.
I believe it all turned out okay for our fenced friend, after some time in the chair and apart from the metal nothing had happened to his actual teeth.
Probably not too surprising that I can't recall much of the rest of the match but I will pretend we won.

Number two comes from a Scotch 1st XV Tour to Malaysia and Singapore back in 1990 when I was a Year 11.
SO many stories from that tour but the one that sticks out like a Sheiks forearm (keep reading ) to me is from our second match in Singapore against the International College.
So, Singapore, International College, should be a pretty easy match right?
Wrong!
Well, right on the scoreboard but dead wrong in terms of the physicality!
After the match we discussed a theory that none of the students had wanted to play but were forced to so they took their fury out on us!
To add to this, back in "my day" a touring party of Year 11 and 12s meant boys anywhere from 15-17 years of age, maybe with one or two 18 year olds if they had repeated a year, but we didn't have any of them.
Now contrary to ones belief at the time, at 15-17 you are still a boy, maybe with a mature Rugby brain and a hard body from Rowing but none the less, a boy.
Now what on Earth were we doing playing against 19-20 year old MEN?!?!
Some, I kid you not, with full grown beards!!!
Anyway, play them and thrash them we did.
The incident is; getting myself up from the bottom of a ruck deep in my twenty two this weary #8 see's that we have charged out to the halfway line , turned it over and the ball is now at about twenty thousand foot straight above my head and coming down like a feather.
The rest kind of went down to slow motion or "Prop speed" if you like.
Look up, ball coming down.
Look back, hello try line.
Side to side? Daylight, the Wings are back at Halfway.
Look forward, a 20 year old bearded, turbaned angry Malay student coming at me from about ten meters.
Move and he gets the ball and scores a try. (Thought goes through my mind, "It's only one try, we are thrashing them to nil!")
Stay where I am and I will surely die. (It occurs to me that I have enough time to roll my last cigarette and puff away before the ball and executioner arrive.)
So, with a trench warfare mentality of "What the hell", I stand my ground.
Herd of bearded bull charging, poxy feather ball fluttering....beard-ball.....beard-ball...beard-ball-ball-beard-ball-ball-ball-"MARRR...."





It's peaceful lying on a nice green lawn in Singapore...or is it Sydney? Where are we playing? I'm sure it starts with an "S".... Wish that bloody finch would get out of my ear..... "Burgs?" ....... Coming Mum, just washing my hands.... "BURGS!?" la lala lala.... "SIR!!!", "HOI BURGS!".....mmmmh, I need a pillow....BURGS, WAKE UP!!!, Hey? Wake up? I am awa..... OH!!!


Wow that dude hit hard.
I'm sure he pulled a baseball bat out of that turban but the boys assured me it was just a good old fashioned forearm to the mouth.
The decision was made that it was far more promising for my general well being not to go to hospital so, around the corner out of sight of the rest of the Reserves, I lay back on a bench and copped five stitches to the top lip without any form of painkillers. It hurt. Our Doctor did a great job...but hell it hurt!
The main thing was though, for all you Rugby purists, yes I did take the mark
Buggered if I know who took the kick for me though!