Saints Vets v Derby Vets

With Mark Mauger, Alex Scott and Dave Griffiths missing due to 1st team duty, there were a few gaps to fill for coach Terry Collingwood. Ian Duncan remained at centre while John Menhennet stayed at scrum half.

It was soon apparent that Derby were superior in the pack, as the scrum went backwards at some speed on numerous occasions. Despite suffering the kind of hangovers only experienced by a Vet on a rugby tour, Derby's mauling and ball retention was very good.

The first Derby try came after fifteen minutes, when a series of forwards' drives up the middle were finished off by the backs with a sidestep under the posts.

Derby kept the pressure on throughout the first half, giving Southampton something of a rude awakening after yet another very successful season against Hampshire opposition.

The visitors took advantage of their dominance and kept the scoreboard ticking over, even taking the chance to slot over a drop goal- which was frankly unnecessary! Derby's nineteen point half time lead came as something of a shock.

Terry made a few changes during the game giving a run out to Nigel Hodge, Mark Brown, Ryan Pickering and Ben Vine. Winger Toby Steele made some good runs out wide, but Saints' tackling was lacking and gave the visitors confidence to run and make ground.

Saints came close to scoring on four or five occasions but couldn't make the final pass count. Meanwhile Derby continued to pile on the agnony to rack up a fifty point margin. The game saw some committed performances from Southampton, who faced the toughest opposition they'll meet for a while. Colin Martin got man of the match for some great tackling and strong running.

We learnt after the game (and during...!) that the lads from Derby had a number of players who have played a very high standard of rugby. This fact slightly numbed the pain felt by us vets after suffering our biggest defeat this season.

"That's the best scrumaging I have seen in ten years..." quipped Wayne Allen after the match. And what Wayne doesn't know about scrummaging... well, he now knows who to ask!

The Derby team put on a fantastic display in the club, including their own version of bingo (all the cards were identical) and they even brought their own karaoke machine for a close harmony singalong. A great effort lads- Cheers!

Finally, it was a pleasure to meet the new woman in Pete Jenkins' life, unfortunatly Alyson (and the rest of us) saw far too much of Pete when he insisted on getting on the chair and bearing all....