Well, that was a great day for 1871, 3 teams at home and 3 big W’s, also what a great game of rugby to watch.

It was a warm, dry day, with plenty of sunshine and loads of smiling faces.

After good, solid warm-up, some great team-work, structured comms and an air of excitement the team came out and put on their best smiles for the camera, then got down to business.

It only took 11 minutes for the first of the 7 tries to be scored then converted, before Grasshoppers got in on the action by scoring and converting.  However, some quite excellent defensive work throughout the game prevented Grasshoppers for crossing over the 1871 try line again.

Grasshoppers are a big and physical side and save for a handful of moments, particularly in the first half, 1871 resisted the temptation to get into an arm wrestle with them, which would have hurt.  So sticking to the process, 1871 moved the ball at pace and with some very, very good handling, the try from Joe Blakemore from a quite superb Harrison Slater rocket like miss-pass at 29 minutes in the first half and the outrageous offload by Alex Tarrant to Kayci Bernard at 28 minutes into the second half being testament to this.

Ooohs and ahhhs went around the ground, as did some laughter from the sheer audacity of the play, but the best came from Kayci Bernard, who tore across the field, when Grasshoppers were in try scoring mode and he executed a quite unbelievable try saving tackle, giving no thought for himself, took the player, the ball and the corner flag into touch.

That would have made any highlights reel you care to mention.

Class!

The 1871 colts who stepped up Callum MacGregor and Jack Feeney did not look out of place at all, with Callum scoring a perfect sniping 9’s try on his 1871 debut.

A very special mention to Millie Watts, who once again put the players back together running from the 3’s game to the 2’s game.

Great stuff all.

Next job…