CCXV Young

Mid-April in Young means one thing: frost on the ground, rugby in the air and the CCXV venturing well and truly out of their comfort zone.

Before the game even started the weekend was already delivering. The Yabbies have something quite remarkable happening with their junior programme - over 220 registered juniors. On Saturday morning a small army of enthusiastic young players took to the field for a Skills and Drills session run by the The Impact Academy.

Leading from the front, on approximately two hours of sleep, was our own Jeremy Tilse - rolling around the field like the biggest kid on the park, entirely in his element. The girls and boys absolutely loved it - and many of them stayed on for additional scrum and lineout work with Youngey and Tilesy long after they were supposed to finish. That’s the effect this club has on a rugby community.

The game opened in entirely predictable fashion - forwards doing the required grunt work, backs doing what backs always do - dropping the ball.

Approximately 14 minutes in, the CCXV played what can only be described as their masterstroke when they unleashed upon an unsuspecting Young Yabbies their worst nightmare. Geoff ‘The Duke’ Diddier. Fresh from an evening of thorough preparation at the Aussie, The Duke had three glorious minutes on the field before being dramatically escorted off following the production of a red card.

The reason? The referee had taken exception to The Duke’s attempt to introduce his elbow to a Yabbie’s face.

When interviewed after the game and asked to explain himself, The Duke’s position was straightforward: '“He had it coming”.

No further questions were asked.

After a seesawing battle that produced everything a good old boys rugby game should, and probably a few things it shouldn’t, the final score has been lost to the ages.

On a serious note, the weekend raised approximately $17,000 for The Sargood Foundation, which given the nature of the preceding forty eight hours, is no mean feat at all. Well done to everyone.