​Luke Collins' RUGBY TRIES: 

It’s never easy to write about two losses on the bounce but this is competitive rugby and we all take the highs of the game so must accept the occasional low!

The game against Bedford was one of some excellent pieces of play from the players, however, it seemed that the game was hampered by some outlandish refereeing…  There are always good points to pick from a game and I think the players showed great heart and determination, not to mention the excellent defence we had in some periods of the game.

Picture by Phil Mingo/Pinnacle.

This weekend saw us take on Exeter Chiefs at home, which saw us go down 30 points to 15. There were several changes to the starting line up from previous weeks, which I believe is in preparation for the play offs, to make sure every member of the squad is match fit and has had a chance to put their hat in the ring for the selection (this is only my opinion, not that of any comments made by the coaches).

The 1st half went reasonably well with some great defensive efforts - it was always going to be hard against the wind. But the players dug deep and put their bodies on the line. It was a shame we had a mistake in the boiler room to gift them a try.

In the 2nd half we came out firing but the odd mistake let the Exeter backs find holes and exploit them, which of course good teams will do. Now as players we will sit down and analyse the game and put right the wrongs.

I would like to say I was a little disappointed to see some of the comments on the unofficial forum. At the start of the season I always put that the main objective is to get into the play offs and have as many match fit players as possible to allow us to get as far as we can, but there were several defeatist comments made. No matter what team we put out on game day, with the squad we have we can compete with any team in the league. So lets have some faith and believe in the ability and desire for match day 22 ! We need our supporters’ faith as much as our coaches.

This week the ever present Simon Raynes arrived at training wielding his body fat callipers [er, Luke, you’ve done this to me before - Ed] - you could almost hear the players trying to suck in the extra inch of spare tyre added by a good Christmas and New Year!

As we expected a lot of the players had indeed added an extra few pounds in the flab department (as opposed to the muscle department) so the executive decision was made to re introduce ‘fit club’ which sees these players put into extra training designed for fat burning.  

Unfortunately the poor front row got picked on once again to join this monotonous training schedule. However, as the roll call was made of which sorry players would be joining the fat club – er, I mean fit club – a back row name popped up - who could be flabby enough to be pulled into this group? None other than the infamous Rob Cook! Holding a body fat percentage higher than most of the forwards! Shame.

Daft quote of the day goes to Tyrone Holmes for “do the Chiefs have a nickname?” Well done Tyrone!!

I would like to make a mention of a friend who is running the London Marathon for a great charity! He is running on behalf of a charity called Shelter. Shelter is a charity that works to alleviate the distress caused by homelessness and bad housing and tackles the root causes of bad housing by lobbying government and local authorities for new laws and policies, and more investment, to improve the lives of homeless and badly housed people.

Please try and donate generously for this worth while cause, and remember he has to run the marathon!! I think that’s worth a £5 donation. Please donate at www.justgiving.com/whitneymarathon

Well that’s it for this week, I look forward to writing my next blog, until then have a great couple of weeks and remember Goeth Kernewek!

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