We were lucky to turn 3 teams out yesterday. Ravaged by injury and beaten better teams... that's our day summed up.
Credits to Hills, Forest and Blueys who turned out better teams and performances on the day. Fuck me, 1s was a classic encounter and with two 95m intercepts to one of the best attacking wingers I've ever seen, the scoreline reflected a bigger win than the game displayed. Good luck to them all next week.
With regards to the rest of the bullshit I've read on this forum over the last two years, fucking grow up. Every club in every grade in every comp gives and gets mouthfulls of shit from the sideline and on the field. You cop it sweet and at fulltime it should be done. I've been on the end of personal attacks both as a player and as a coach and at full time approached those involved and said thanks for the game and the banter and good luck next week. Yesterday, the Rams copped it from all 3 clubs we played against and we took it with the good grace that grown men should. At full time we said thanks and good luck and threw their banter into the kit bag as motivation for next year. We're not going to cite anyone, we're not going to email anybody to complain and we're not going to dob to subbies about people's behaviour. There was nearly a punch up on the sideline in 1s during the 1st half and as soon as the game was over, all blokes involved said "cheers boys" and laughed it off.
I stood right next to the blueys coaches during 1s and we absolutely fucking verballed each other for the whole game and as soon as the fulltime whistle blew, we shook hands, had a laugh and congratulated each other on a great, physically and mentally tough game. I shook hands with and thanked every blueys player and plenty of them said congrats on a great year (particularly Junior and Big George were especially graceful in victory). I spoke to guys from Forest and the big 2nd rower from Pats and had a good laugh about their game and wished them luck for the next 2 weeks.
We went back to our pub, complained about the refs, whinged about how much the other teams cheated, laughed about all the dumb shit we did on the field, bagged each other for our mistskes, drank too much, told each other how much we love each other, said we hate every club we played against and said let's fucking do it again next year!!!
That's what rugby is supposed to be about.
In regards to the absolute bullshit racist stuff leveled against our club and against me... get fucked! We've got loads of players from all around the world... we've got guys from Asian, African, European and Pacific Island backgrounds/nations at our club. Many of them new to us this season. Do any of you honestly think that if we had a racism issue at our club, that those guys would stay and play??? Do you really think that I could call on those guys to take the field in any grade if we/I treated people like that at our club??? We've had messages sent to our whole club from our players from different backgrounds, thanking us for welcoming them into our "family". There is no issue with racism at the Epping Rams. Period.
If anyone has an issue with me personally, that's fine. Does not bother me. I've got plenty of mates... I'm not trying to find new ones. But I won't stand for people talking shit about my club or my players. They are great blokes, with big hearts and a passion for our jersey. I hope you all feel the same way about the blokes (and ladies) who play with yours.
Good luck to everyone who has the joy of playing in the next two weeks. Hope the rugby is fun and the beers are cold. Fuck you all. Go the Rams!!
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