Brothers In Arms

Its been a month or so since the finalization of my demotion from starting player to substitute. I pretty much got over it, mostly helped by the fact that I could be considered a supersub with Luohan and Gerald.

I saw plenty of action already after just three games, the third being today. I was brought on at every game, and while the first one was okay, the second and third one were the dirtiest matches I've every played.

The second match was against Green Ridge, got brought on 15 minutes into the second half, and they were plenty dirty already. Every scrum involved them hurling long sentences in Malay that George said were swear words. One guy tried to pull me out of the ruck by my neck. In a rage I shot my head upwards head butted him in the stomach and threw him my best pai kiah look (still not very good). Amazingly, he backed off. They punched, they kicked, their linesman was biased, referee was pretty blind, it made for a bad game, and if I'm not wrong, they tried to field an overage player. Worst game I had.

Till today of course. We scored first blood against Bukit Batok, but Tim missed the conversion. (His kicking has been off form of late...) Then they intercepted a pass Loy was offloading to Gabriel, and they burned down the wing, and converted their try. 7-5, we were actually losing. I watched from the sidelines anxiously with Gerald and Arjun (Luohan started in place of Jamal, who was injured) as our scrums got pwned by theirs. SJI has always been known for solid scrums, but right now we were getting owned left, right and center by theirs. Luohan was getting bullied by that brute of a prop they had, and by the 20th or so minute he was looking pretty beat up.

Thats when coach told me and Arjun to warm up. We got sent in not long after that to relieve Luohan and Jun Teng. Thats when I got my first look at my opposite number in the scrum. At around 180cm and 80-90kg, the first thing that crossed my mind at the first scrum was "shit". Of course, when we actually got down to business, he found he couldn't outshove me. At the next one he tried shaking like a bitch to try and destabilize me (Yes, this is against the rules. Duh...). Loy told me if I hadn't been wearing a scrum cap, I wouldn't have lasted against him. I held on for dear life and thanked the heavens for my scrum cap. Then when he moved up, I ducked down and rammed my shoulder into his stomach. Pwned bitch!

The game was bad tempered to say the least. The buggers were perpetually offside, they conceded at least 10 penalties, and thats not counting the ones the shortsighted ref didn't see... We fought our way back to their try line before we knocked the ball on and conceded a scrum to them. By now I didn't fear the behemoth that now tried to stare me down. All the times I had staring contests with Oliver and numerous other people paid off.

Now, on one ruck right on their try line, everyone was lined up for the final attack. Matthew and another 2 forwards were already lined up to crash through and score on the right. I covered the left side alone in case they won the ball back and ran through there. I waited to dash across to join Matthew once Arjun passed him the ball, but then all of a sudden, Arjun shouts "Micro, your ball!!!" and flings it to me!! The mother of all WTFs went through my head, and I only had enough time to brace for impact before two of their guys hurtled at me and shot me down. But as usual, they were offside, and we got a penalty, and while they were still stunned Loy took the ball, tapped it, dashed the short 5 meters with no one realizing what was going on to score and FINALLY put us ahead. I guess in a way I helped with that one, I did win the penalty after all...

The rest of the game for me involved charging with the ball once or twice or clearing rucks while screaming and shouting like a madman. I do it so often I've become known for it. Most of the team thinks I'm nuts to do it, but Max apparently finds it inspirational, or so he claims (Thats my apprentice!! 8] )

It turned really soured after Mr. Behemoth got so pissed off at not totally frigging pwning me in the scrum that he punched me as I came out of it. Incensed, I fought the urge to rip his necklace off and stuff it up one of his bodily orifices, and did the sensible thing, which was complained to my captain (Loy), who in turn complained to the referee. The ref said he saw it, but he didn't do anything about it. Well, just got one thing to say to you ref. Fuck you. Bitch. Well, thats actually two....

I wanted to try out Matthew's trick of pinching the guy's sides, but I had to move down to lock before I got the chance, since coach wanted Wei Shun out. Highlight of the game was when pushed all the way back to our try line, when they passed it out to one of their guys I rushed up so fast the guy didn't even have time to move. Matthew and Loy couldn't believe I could move that fast. I never actually felt I was going fast, but I was still really pissed off at the punch, so yeah, possibly that.

We eventually won 15-7, a scrappy win, but still a win. George was crying after the match. He thinks its his fault that we lost just about all the scrums in the first half. Well, Matthew did mention the scrum stabilized after I was brought on late in the first half, but seriously, how George managed to maintain so long with an injured back is beyond me.

George, if you ever read this, its okay man, I know how it feels. But seriously, you fought plenty hard, pretty good considering your back. Cheer up man.