door ERC ‘69 gobble up GSRC
In the earliest of morning the men of ERC head north to face the Groningse studenten. A fantasy team that will play its first ‘Beker cup’ match on Groningen ground not knowing what to expect of its opponent.
After years of retirement but are back into action were Age de Haan and Martin Huizing. Featuring and ultimate first row of three giants: the retired Martin Huizing; ‘back where he belongs’ (in the forwards) Tonny ter Braak; and Bart ’40 minute man’ Kloosterman. On the second row, ready for action, were Guus and ‘rookie foward’ Alex. Third row were Wilfred, Joris ‘back to his preferred position in the forwards’ and Gijs ‘new in the forwards’. Scrum-half was Vincent and fly-half was Age. First centre (but should be applying for a position on the first row) was Oscar. Second centre was ‘the next generation utility’ Maarten. Michiel ‘the Frenchman’ and ‘Rookie’ Thijs were the ultimate wingers. The man covering Enschede’s side of the field was fullback Chris Jan.
The ref blows the whistle. Groningen makes the kick off. 10 minutes into the game and ERC was penalized under dubious circumstances and Groningen gets an easy kick right in front of the posts. Enschede’s line-outs were impeccable, but the windy conditions made for near impossible throwing conditions (at least that’s what the hooker claims). Enschede slowly came crawling back into the game and finally got a few penalty’s going its way. ERC should have opened the scoring much earlier. Finally, almost straight after being penalized, Age took it into the forwards, popped it up to Vincent. With only Sancho Bob to beat, our Chinese speedster was able to make an easy sidestep, make that extra goosestep and head the tryline. Under the AGAIN extremely windy conditions the resulting convertion hit the uprights (???). Ensuing kickoff was to involve into one of the biggest drama’s of the game. Wilfred jumps, catches the ball and gets a sissy tackle by a twat while still in the air. The ref finally notices Groningen’s ill discipline and penalizes them for this. Chris Jan takes the conversion and the ball easily finds its way between the posts. Half-time score ‘Groningen 3 – Enschede 8’
Second half and Vincent takes the kickoff. The second half, much like the first, was epitomized by some very poor refereeing decisions. This however did not effect Enschede and a strong pickup from the base of the scrum and the ball came into the hands of Vincent who offloads to Age and receives the pass again to score in the corner of the try area. After scrambling around on the field Groningen gets one last chance to make a try and add a conversion. Enschede, staying sharp and gaining control of the game, Vincent takes to penalty kick and the ball finds its way into Groningen’s twenty-two. The hooker throws it straight into the hands of ‘in the air’ Guus who passes it to Vincent. A quick decision had to be made…a cheeky little kick over the heads of Groningen, lands into the try area, bounces up right back into the hands of Vincent and Enschede is up for some more try-time. Final score: Groningen 10 – Enschede 18.
Juan Weijers
