Malindi RFC 22 - South Coast Pirates 13

Traditional post-match photo, thanks for coming South Coast, the coastal rugby brotherhood is getting stronger!

Malindi RFC took part in another excellent friendly match with South Coast Pirates whom this time made the return trip up to come and visit us.  I can't say enough about the character of these boys, I always enjoy playing against them and it's great to be able to count on a team to show up when we organise a friendly and now they are 2 for 2!  Great show!  They were accompanied by their County Sports Representative, a fellow called William who is quite a nice bloke and seems to be pretty committed to the team.  Unfortunately David Nolan was away on holiday, would have liked to have him up so that I could return the hospitality provided to me on the first leg!

It was quite a different match this time around, South Coast was not quite as big as they were on their home ground and we added a bit of size.  They were still on average heavier than us, but I suppose also the trip takes something out of you and we had a flying start and got to 22-0 quite early on. This was done mostly through some wonderful bruising forward play, mostly pick and go but also some off the scrumhalf's hip passes with big bad forwards coming from a bit deeper.  There was also a classic Zeinia run for a try at some point and Harold Simba, this time at a more natural out half position rather than scrum half where he played last teime, kicked like a champion.  His kicking worked very well and I hope that we keep him in that part of the field orchestrating play. I switched from openside flanker to inside centre just to fill in a gap (As we had lots of back row players already) and loved it!  Had an awesome first half and a poor second half, but might get lazy and stay in that spot, was a great spot to coach from!

We finished the half at 22-3 and South Coast seemed to regroup in the second half, taking the game to us more strongly.  We resisted for quite a while with the Pirates knocking on the door for most of the first part of the half and asking questions of our tackling which I'm proud to say held out for quite a while despite great pressure.  This eventually gave in.  I took a yellow card for taking the rules into my own hands. Their number eight was constantly offside in the ruck and playing the ball with his hands while lying down after the tackle, and the first couple of times I had words with him, the next I allowed him to feel my frustration.  Luckily the ref only gave me a yellow, but I learnt my lesson and felt sheepish as I trotted to the sin bin, my first ever sin bin but not first yellow.  Just goes to show how long it's been since I played semi serious rugby!

South Coast went on to Score a couple of unconverted tries, and while they had the momentum the whole second half, it wasn't enough.  We substituted on a bunch of younger guys to give them a game for showing up, and in the end everyone was pretty pleased with the effort!

Can't thank enough the South Coast guys for coming up, good on you!  And thanks also to Waweru and Odima for all the hard work done on pre-match preparation, getting the posts up and the field mark.  We even had quite a few fans this time around!  Karibuni next weekend for our match against Pwani University!!!

Malindi RFC pre-match photo