The Malta Marauders Veterans Rugby Team notched up another win down at Marsa this evening, against The Paris Globetrotters Veteran’s Team. We didn’t touch their trotters, but we pulled their legs off and won 15-10. The crowd got an eyeful of running rugby from both teams, with no kicking outside the 22, but sadly, uncontested scrums.
The Frogs came out of the pond, with a mean look in their eyes and took the game to us, we had trouble getting our hands on the ball, almost as if someone had told us, “Don’t touch it, or you’ll get a case of warts”. They had names like Pierre, Enri, Jean Paul, Dominic and going by the scar tissue on their faces, it looked as if they had played a bit before. When they scored their first try, after only a few minutes they must have thought they were in for a waltz down Champs Elysee. But us old fellas always take a bit of time to shake out the cobwebs, get those arthritic joints moving and figure out which way the wind is blowing and what the gradient is on our side of the field, so we can use a bit of gravity. We gave the ball to that young boy, Leo Mifsud and let him dance his way downfield and score under the posts. They were a little pissed off and wouldn’t let us take the kick at goal, so we abolished conversions and penalty kicks as well. They got a head of steam up in their pack and drove a maul over for a try, which we applauded to give them a bit of encouragement(that’s a French word by the way!) Simon Mizzi grabbed hold of the ball at a penalty and forced his way over.A few “Sacre Bleus!” were heard from the stand and the French supporters started popping beer cans to drown their sorrows. We had a new boy, Dave on the wing who showed a bit of promise, he’d tiptoed down the line once and almost scored, so impressive it was, we thought he must have worked in the circus on the high wire. Later, he did score in the corner, to win the game for us, so quick he was, that some of the French were asking to see his birth certificate after the game.
We retired back to O’Kelly’s in Gzira (you know the bar, it used be the 19 Steps, then The Pink Cadillac, the Gay bar). Anyway the French came in happy and gay after they had all gone back for a shower and a shave. We all started feeling a bit inferior when we saw them and had to sniff under our armpits, just to check we weren’t too ripe. When we had heard we were going down to the ex-gay bar, most of us didn’t want to shower, just in case someone had the wrong idea about us. O’Kelly’s served up some great nosh of snails ( I don’t like fast food, I prefer snails!) and Chicken legs(we tried to pass them off as Frog’s legs,but the French wouldn’t wear it). Rugby is a great game really, here we were trying to knock each other silly for a good hour, then the next minute we are all patting each other on the back and buying beers for everyone. We awarded them a shield, I think it was made of Plaster of Paris and they gave Phil their club T-Shirt, apparently we are all going to get turns to wear it. “Long Live the Vets!”
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