The lonely road of retirement

It’s the eve of the new season. The most exciting time in every Rugby player’s life. Weeks of gruelling pre-season drills under the belt, miles of tarmac covered, bleeps ingrained in the psyche. At 3pm tomorrow, the league kicks off.

But instead of being a ball of bursting, bouncing energy – sick with both nerves and excitement – I am typing this on a train home from Cardiff, sending tweets about the beautiful scenery.

I’ve changed.

This is the first time I have not been involved in the build up in anyway. The first time I have literally been on the sidelines looking in and I’m missing it already.

The end of the season was fantastic. A 40-0 County Cup win against Hertford rectified some of the hurt from the year before and secured some well deserved silverware for the Rangers.

I was awarded with the ‘Supporters’ Player of the Year’, which was a real honour. I think it may have been a victory for self promotion rather than genuine achievement but I’m extremely grateful all the same.

I’ve been through the reasons for my apparently early retirement any number of times with anyone who cares to listen! But the main question is – what do you do without Rugby? The categorical answer will come in a week or two.

Pretty soon my life will be a dizzying carousel or soiled nappies and sleep deprivation. And the last thing I’ll want to do is face up to a roid-rage mutant from Ampthill or the like.

The huge chasmic void has so far been partially filled by running and cycling. But it’s just not the same! (Start the violins) There isn’t the same camaraderie, there’s no banter, there’s no sense of group achievement. I’ve enjoyed running for the first time ever and I love cycling…but you can’t escape the sense of belonging that automatically comes with team sports.

I have been to two of Tring’s pre-season games so far. I saw the slightly under-whelming mini tournament between Marlow, Wheatley and Tring. But I was extremely impressed with the performance against Chinnor at Cow Lane.

I missed the first half, which apparently saw Tring concede a few soft scores. But what I saw was extremely encouraging for the oncoming league year. The pack looked very strong and dynamic. New signing French in the Front Row and an enigmatic Italian 2^nd Row certainly gave some extra bite at the scrum…where were they last year?!!

Radders will need to be at his destructive best this year

It was difficult to admit but I was particularly impressed by the new 8, Lawry. He looked strong, athletic, direct and fearsome in defence. One bone-crunching smash on the unsuspecting Chinnor Winger even raised a wry smile on Radders’ battle-hardened features – no mean feat in itself.

The potential problems will be finishing. With no Mataei Express or Liam ‘Sicknote’ Chennells available, who will rack up the points this year?

There is the standard Fly-Half merri-go-round to contend with. First Jimmy ‘No Shower’ Fouracre and now Scotty ‘In-try-ception’ Browne has turned-coat and joined Canterbury. The stage is set for a battle for the 10 shirt.

As for me, I’ve already reduced my retirement to a sabbatical! I enjoy watching…but not when I know I could be playing.

I do love cycling and running and no doubt the competitor in me will enter some races at some point. But it will never replace Rugby and it is only a matter of time before I make a comeback in some shape or form.

Good luck to the Rangers tomorrow - or today when this eventually goes up. Win or lose, it'll be a rocking bus trip back from Westcliffe!

Disappointing December sparks fresh hopes for New Year

As an eventful 2011 drew to a close, Tring were given tough lessons in reality at the hands of Dorking and Ampthill. Two disappointing losses took the sheen off our impressive start to the season and meant we slumped to 6th from our nose-bleed high 3rd league position. 


Dorking at home was always going to be a tough ask. They came to Cow lane sparking with confidence after putting Tonbridge Juddians to the sword the week before. However, we had trained well and felt we could get a result. We have always enjoyed games against the Surrey club and believed the Home advantage would play into our hands.


Hearts were in mouths straight from the whistle. A fumbled kick off landed straight into the visitors hands who quickly moved it wide but were miraculously held up over the line by Josh Smith and Papa Bear Lambden. We were able to clear our lines and gain our composure.


And sure enough, our self-belief was rewarded soon after. A well worked move and patient build up play lead to an easy run in for Papa, strolling over the line following some effective phase play from the forwards. 


Dorking hit back and dominated much of the first half. Our defence was too eager and pressed too hard in the wrong areas. We lost our shape on a couple of occasions and were punished by an intelligent running backline. Full-back Ryan Jeffrey crossed the line twice from similar moves, making the most of our defensive naivety. 


The Game see-sawed back in our favour and two penalties from Liam Chennells clawed us back to 11-15. However, we couldn't keep control. In all too familiar circumstances, their backs capitalised on defensive lapses, this time Wing Hunt extended the lead to 11-20.

Chennells touches down against Dorking

Just when all looked dead, the Game swung back to us and we pushed hard for another last minute result. A try and conversion from Chennells certainly had the alarm bells ringing at 18-20. But it proved to be one Houdini act too many as Dorking calmly slotted a penalty to secure the win. 18-23 the final score and a losing bonus point to console ourselves with.


The following week's debacle at Ampthill was the opposite end of the Rugby spectrum. We were not expecting a free flowing spectacle of running Rugby. In fact, the few games we have played against them have been bad tempered wars of attrition and the 17 December was no exception.


There is never a good time to play Ampthill - there are a brutish team of Lord of the Rings extras. But you definitely don't want to take on the Bedfordshire side on their own turf with an Arctic wind howling and the pitch rather fittingly resembling the Somme. The Rugby Gods were not shining down on us.


The game was savage and brutal as we predicted and we were under the cosh from the start. The home side took advantage of the slope to pound wave after wave of heavy running forwards, like heavy artillery. Our scrum twisted and buckled but our defence in the loose was resolute. And with mutant Second-row Lewis inevitably in the sin bin, we pulled the score level at 6-6. 


Unfortunately, despite some excellent opportunities, we failed to capitalise on the man advantage. Our driving line outs were hugely effective and our backs were far superior but we couldn't turn possession into points. And, sure enough, Ampthill's own solid set piece provided the platform for Back-row Burke to cross on the stroke of half time.

The second half was a depressing affair. Our relentless defence had taken its toll and we couldn't muster the clinical edge to best utilise the slope. As we pushed the Game, we made crucial errors and gifted the home side a number of tries in the dieing moments. The final score, a spirit-crushing 33-6.

I have never felt so battered after a Game and I was still feeling the effects a full week after. It was a very disappointing way to finish an otherwise excellent year and we have had the whole Christmas break to sweat and stew about it. 

Our fancy new scoreboard!

We have always done well in the second half of the season and have put together strong end-of-season runs. The boys are definitely looking forward to getting stuck into 2012...although it would be nice if the weather calmed down a little!

Santa has been to Cow Lane as well. A shiny new digital scoreboard will be officially unveiled on Saturday against league leaders Canterbury...hopefully it will make for good reading!

Super September rolls on

Forgive me for it has been 5 weeks since my last blog – the pitfalls of a temperamental laptop and no Internet connection! 10 Hail Marys? How about four wins from our opening 5 games instead?

Yes, September has been a bumper month of records for us…and it shows no sign of slowing down. Highest ever score, best ever start to the season, highest league position at this level, best looking team in the league, the records keep tumbling.

There is no doubt the key to this successful start has been our gruelling and merciless preseason schedule. A new focused game plan, punishing fitness sessions with Steve Bumstead, hill sprints on Saturday mornings, Pilates, the Bleep Test – all playing their part in fine-tuning the Ranger machine.

The games against the West Country monsters Exmouth and bitter local rivals Chinnor were enormous physical battles. Both teams have sizable packs and really smashed any Summer lethargy out of us. We may have been bruised and battered but we gained a huge amount of confidence as we approached the season, knowing we could mix it with bigger boys. 

We have traditionally been a slow starting team, waiting until at least late October/November to start notching up some league points. However, this year, we rode our wave of confidence to Havant for our first game – and the poor blighters were like lambs to the slaughter!

We’ve come a long way in a few short years, thanks to the expert coaching set up and strong team bond. But few would have been so bold as to predict a powerful 64-10 away win to kick start the 2011/12 campaign. Even fewer would have dared believe Chris Rose would score a first-half from text book driven lineouts! Tring dominating an opposition pack….no that isn’t a flying pig!

It was a spectacular performance but we knew tougher tests would come…such as Ampthill at Cow Lane the following week. Last year’s fixture had proved to be something of a bad-tempered affair, with the Bedfordshire side snatching the victory in the dieing moments. The bitter sting of a bloodied mouth made worse by such a maddening loss.

But this year, Lady Luck favoured the Rangers. With minutes left of the clock and the referee wetting his lips for the final whistle, Tring sneaked a late score to win 22-21…the sweet and satisfying taste of revenge victory.

This year we seem to be more at home in this challenging league. We are no longer ‘plucky underdogs’, but experienced campaigners able to impose our will on a game rather than hanging on for dear life. There is a real belief that we are a top table team, so we were not phased by an away trip to Canterbury.

As we suspected, they were big and strong, but we were still riding on a wave of confidence. Against the odds, we dominated long periods of the game and even took a 10-5 lead into the half time break.

Canterbury came alive in the 2^nd half and took advantage of the conditions more effectively. The final score was a creditable 38-10 – certainly no disgrace and there were plenty of positives to be taken out of the game.

Every week we seem to be growing in stature, confidence and self-belief. The arrival of Flying Samoan William Mateai merely added fuel to the flames. A scrappy but clinical performance against Luton gave us a 41-20 home win. A debut hat-trick for the Super South Sea Islander lifted us to an astonishing 3^rd in the league.

The Mateai Express on his debut against Luton

The final game I need to update you on is last Saturday’s sweltering 37-26 win at Civil Service…or CS Rugby 1863 as they are called now. A lack of Civil Servants in the team perhaps prompting the name change?!

CS had enjoyed a successful start to the season and had recruited new faces over the Summer. However, our momentum was too strong. We took an early lead through some typically sparkling play by the backs. Papa Bear Lambden, Points Machine Chennells, and the Mateai Express gave us a healthy 22-12 lead at half time.

In the bizarrely Mediterranean conditions, CS fought back through the forwards and even briefly took the lead. But late scores from the mercurial Tommy Newton and a second from Chennels secured a well earned win against a strong side.

We hold on to 3^rd place in the league and our confidence train steams on. This weekend’s game will be a real test – Bishop Stortford at Fortress Cow Lane. It will be perhaps the sternest test of our resolve so far this year.

No one expected us to get anything from Canterbury away. But after our stunning and epic win at Stortford last year and our current impressive run, the boys are going into games expecting to win rather than just ‘put up a good fight’.

Stortford will be gunning for revenge, no doubt about it. But can they derail the Ranger Train?!