Corinthians Rugby Weekend

An Extract from the diary of the Scotland/Ireland tourists…

23^rd–25^th May 2008

The third annual contest for the Thimble trophy took place at Trelai Park, Cardiff on 24^th May 2008. The Scotland/Ireland XV had assembled the previous evening and were anxious to avenge their controversial defeat at the hands of England/Wales at Twickenham last year. There were several new faces for the tourists and as the team began to gather hopes of victory, began to swell with the sizeable and experienced pack of forwards on show along with some skilful runners in the backs.

Conditions were warm but a very strong breeze across the park made for difficult conditions for both sides in the early exchanges, which were scrappy and strewn with errors. After about ten minutes however, the monster Scotland/Ireland pack was starting to assert itself in the set piece and a line out on the England/Wales 10 metre line was collected by lock Jan Vos and the pack gathered around him to drive the maul into the opposition 22 and onwards at a rate of knots towards the try line where Stuart MacLean touched down to open the scoring.

After that display of power and control the Scotland/Ireland XV forwards were certainly warming to the task and after being awarded a scrum on the England/Wales 22, the front five wheeled the scrum exposing the open-side for no.8 Stuart Waddell to gallop at the home defence, which simply had no answer as he powered over the line.

There followed another scrappy period as the wind carried clearance kicks by both sides deep into the trees and balls had to be hunted out of the woods which lead to prolonged stoppages. However, it was Scotland/Ireland who struck again to increase their lead and predictably it was through the now dominant pack which was being helped by the presence of Simon Hawe, who when pressed into service at scrumhalf, effectively provided a 9^th forward. This allowed the tourists to pound away at the opposition defence at close quarters and eventually saw Gus McDowell force his way over right in the corner. The conversion was masterfully slotted from the touchline by Rick Reaney.

With only 2 minutes to go until half-time you would have thought the scoring was finished but, Adam Cupples aka Noddy, on for Waddell, made a good break in the midfield and found Andy “the gaffer” Bryce on his shoulder and Brycee could not be caught as he finished underneath the posts to make it 4 tries to nil at half time.

The second half saw a few changes for Scotland/Ireland with Simon Hawe reverting to his accustomed position at no.8 and John McClelland coming on at 9. Coming up the hill in the second half the tourists were faced with some resolute defence from the home team and the skipper Tom Hocking was at the forefront of this, denying the visitors time and again with some last ditch tackles. However, no one will ever know how Hawe did not touch down after the England/Wales scrum had been barrelled backwards over their own line but it didn’t matter as Brycee collected his double and Waddell also scored to round off a comprehensive 38-0 win for the visitors.

“To the winners - the spoils”, as the saying goes and players on both sides were treated to a once in a life time experience as Chris Jones unveiled both Triple Crown and 6 Nations Trophies which were presented to the winning captain Ben Leathes. Once all had taken their fill of photos with the trophies it was on to the snazzy Italian restaurant, Valentinos for lunch. After this Chris Jones provided both sides with a powerful insight into the turnaround in his life as a result of committing his heart to Jesus, which had turned him from the verge of prison to wanting to share the richness of God’s grace with everyone he meets. It was a powerful testimony and Tom Hocking followed this up with some equally relevant words on the urgency to deal here and now with the presence of sin in our lives in order to receive the infinite riches available to those who are born again into the Kingdom of God.

It was then on to the Millennium Stadium and the Heineken Cup final between Munster and Stade Toulousain, joining tens of thousands of Munster fans as they willed their team to victory against the unpredictable yet ruthless Frenchmen. Munster emerged victorious despite the tremendous chip and chase of Cedric Heymans to produce Toulouse’s try. Not many there will forget the atmosphere as the lights were dimmed in the stadium for the presentation ceremony. Cardiff was alive with Munstermen on the final whistle and the two squads enjoyed a few beers together in the shadow of the stadium.

A big thank you must go to our Welsh and English hosts; All in all, a cracking weekend of sport and fellowship – just what this event needed and plans are already under way preparing for the visit of England/Wales to fortress Edinburgh and Murrayfield in 2009.

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