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Mudchooks' Successful Season Start
[ April 27, 2007 ]

As with any return to normalcy after a big event, last Saturday's start of the 2007 Rugby competition for the Mudchooks, following the previous week's big game against the Silver Foxes, was a return to earth with a thud. The contrast between the Silver Foxes charity match and the first competition round could be best described as comparing chalk and cheese.

The Mudchook team, weakened by the absence of six key players, travelled to dry and dusty Boorowa on Saturday, to battle it out with a similarly under strength Boorowa team. Like the curate's egg, the Mudchook performance was good in parts (and rotten everywhere else), but nevertheless good enough to win by 29 to 18.

The good parts were demonstrated in securing quality line out ball and proficient backing-up in general play. The bad parts were mediocre tackling, failure to be aggressive enough at the breakdown and silly handling errors. These errors, plus a penalty count that was very much against the Mudchooks, allowed the young and inexperienced Boorowa team back into the match time and again. To the Mudchooks' credit they did not become rattled, and regularly bounced back to put together some excellent moves to score 5 tries and thus earn the bonus point.

New prop Shane Botham scrummaged well and drove forward low and hard with the ball in hand to win three best and fairest points. James "Butters" Pryde demonstrated an increased confidence on the field to earn two points and Kim Veness also played a strong match to earn one point. In the absence of any Mudchicks, big Adam Towney was awarded the President's pick for his strong running with the ball and improved scrummaging technique.

In contrast to the huge and happy crowd at the Foxes' game, the number of spectators at Boorowa was tiny with most of the Boorowa supporters attending two weddings being held that day. The Mudchooks' supporter numbers were also low with only the "Number 1" supporters, Brian and Susan Ridley with one or two others, travelling to Boorowa to support the Bungendore team. Despite a patchy game, the result of a win plus a valuable bonus point and the introduction of two new players into the Mudchook team, meant the game was a successful start to the 2007 season.

The Mudchooks would like to thank the small band of supporters who travelled to Boorowa and invite all other supporters to this week's first home competition game against Wests at Mick Sherd Oval on Saturday 28 April commencing at 2:30pm.