Fullers triumph in the mud

“And trunks, face downward, in the sucking mud,
Wallowed like trodden sand-bags loosely filled;
And naked sodden buttocks, mats of hair,
Bulged, clotted heads slept in the plastering slime.
And then the rain began,--the jolly old rain!”

Okay, it might be stretching the analogy a bit, but the fixture against Tring did have a touch of The Somme about it.
The weather was horrid, and one look at the pitch was enough to tell us that the game was going to be a war of attrition. ‘Mud soup’ was how someone described it and it was clearly going to test every player’s ability to look after the ball. The forwards were in their element, and all six played very well. Amazingly, Fullers and Tring did try to play rugby, and despite the difficulty in doing so, both sets of backs tried to move the ball along the line when they got the opportunity to do so.
The Tring pitch was on a fairly steep gradient, and the home team had the slope and the wind for the first half, scoring three tries to one and looking very good in the scrum. The second half saw Fullers come into their own with some very good, powerful running.
The front three all played excellently, but prop Monty Rennoldson deserves a special mention for never giving in to the conditions, and going over for three tries. Robbie Marsh also deserves a nod for his all-round good play, showing good skill under the high ball and contributing well in defence.
Five Fullerian tries in the second half to the one scored by our old teammate, Billy Boot, meant Fullers As came away 6-4 winners.
Cold, wet, bruised and battered, the boys did themselves proud by performing in the most heinous of conditions a rugby player can face. Well done Fullerians.
Try scorers: Monty (3), Fin, Colm and Oliver H.