Pakuranga game 5 - The Saints

With St Kentigens breeding stars like rock-star Rokocoko, Kaino and Afoa, all of whom are huge speedsters on the field (including the prop), we were playing their lightweight versions in touch rugby ready to take on some class from kids still enjoying the benefits of "SSR" in class.

At Pakuranga, its a pleasant surprise to play a team that gives you possies because its part of the game, not part of their attitude; or a team that yells out plays to one another, rather than irate remarks to our guys. These were the Saints, and they beat us in a 7-5 in a sporting game that probably flattered us.

Earlier the girls with Scarlett Fever played their best game of the season, coming close to scoring many times. So close in fact, that one girl dropped the ball over the try line with no defender in sight. Coach Sean Lim will be writing in his plays book: "Teach girls how to put ball down onto grass without dropping it", but will generally take a lot of encouragement from their performance.

Us guys played later in a showpiece match of speed and skill. On the 5 m, we were evenly matched, but the Saints had a more organised driving play using their third formers to do the hard work for the school leavers to set the moves later. Playing with poor field position with most of the game, we were giving them too many opportunities to do their moves in our half, and despite good defence mixed with some poor finishing from them, they still had more chances than us to cut us up seven times.

Thursdays will be tough now - no more ho hum games - nothing but the best teams - and we need to start scalping them.