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Saturday 17th Feb..Match report by Duncan Disorderly
It is difficult to capture the atmosphere in the changing rooms before any team of seasoned (read old) players take to the pitch - you really have to have experienced it first hand. From this particular band of "fat old bastards" (the ginger kid has been demoted to the first team) there came a couple of pre-match rib ticklers.
Mike: Christ Noggin, look at your gut you fat bastard.
Noggin: Yeah, that's because every time I shagged your missus, she gave me a biscuit.
And then there was the warm-up where Hamish exhalted his troops to "kick ahead.....any head....and get your first tackle in early.....even if it's late." It doesn't seem to matter that the jokes were old and tired, in fact it seems somehow apt.
As the Titans rumbled out onto the Perran paddock they knew for sure that this wasn't going to be the 60 point soiree they enjoyed last time these two teams met. For a start the home team were younger, fitter, better drilled and better looking . They also had no less than 10 subs - all of whom got to play. What they didn't have was the Titans pack - which has more grunt than a shed load of Harley's. Nor did they have skill, speed and guile of Hamish and Charlie at half-back or the dancing feet of Ginge and Kieran in the centre. Add the big wheels of Nico & Timmy on the wide outside and you have a potent outfit who have yet to taste defeat in this campaign.
It was Noggin's Titans who started the better - going close twice in the first 10 minutes before Ginge took an outside pass from Kieran to dive in on the left. Although he missed the conversion, Hamish made amends by scoring he first of his four tries in exactly the same place, following a big dummy some 5 minutes later. Hamish missed the conversion.
It proved to be a very popular place as Nico sped in for the first of his brace only 20 minutes in after the ball went through 12 pairs of hands. Hamish missed the conversion. When the Titans bearded, long haired South African lock brushed aside 4 weak tackles to score, Saints VP Norman Cowley called out "Jesus Christ" from the touchline. No-one quite knew whether Norman was being blasphemous or simply offering a description, but at this point the game was looking to become a repeat of the one-sided affair at Tregorrick Park before Christmas. That was until the evergreen Bobby (he will admit to 56) burrowed in from 5 metres out to put the home team on the board.
Half-time arrived with the score at 5-22 the home team changed half of their side and it payed immediate dividends when the replacement full-back scored a fine individual try from the restart. The home sides left winger "Chas" added another before Nico sped in from 40 metres out to move the score on to 10-27. Hamish missed the conversion.
Although Perran scored again the final 20 minutes were lit up by a virtuoso performance by Hamish at 9. In addition to scoring twice from tapped penalties Hamish broke three times from his own 22 to put in Kieran under the sticks and finally "Crazy legs Timmy" for the best try of the game in the right hand corner. Guess what Hamish did.