After a week off due to heavy rain last week Kingston Park was basking in the sunshine yesterday for a glorious evening of rugby.

But before we can talk about this evening, we must address the midweek drama. Our first ever try has been struck from the record books. It was a debatable try but we definitely remember it being given. Dan’s Keegan-esque rant which ended with “It’s a try.” will become iconic as it turns out, it wasn’t. I spoke to a few of the referees tonight and they said they would be happy to look into it if we get in touch.

Back to tonight, we were joined by some first timers in Siobhan, Miranda and Lauren. Lauren lead us out for a very professional warm up, a few quick drills and then we were quickly out on the field for our first game.

GoodGym Newcastle 2 – 7 Ward Hadaway Corinthians

Andrew

Lauren

We won the rock paper scissors to get to start in attack. We drove the ball forward with the first few touches and before we knew it, we were at the try line. Nick received the ball from the dummy half, committed the defended then shifted the ball left down the line to Amy. Amy drew the two defenders inside before shifting the ball left once again where I had found space. All the hard work had been done by that point, all I had to do was run to the try line with no defenders in sight.

What a start. The 20-minute warmup and touch rugby masterclass from Lauren paid off instantly. This was an historic moment as it was the first time we’ve ever been in the lead in a match.

We were brought back down to earth instantly, with a try straight from the restart - they didn’t even pass, just jinked through on a mesmerising solo run.

The game stayed close in the first half, we traded tries but entered the break trailing by a few tries. We introduced some debutants in the second half. Despite their inexperience, having literally never played rugby before, they defended valiantly and managed to keep the score respectable. A really impressive game for people playing their first ever game.

GoodGym Newcastle 4 – 1 The Untouchables

Nick

Andrew

Andrew

Andrew

This was the big one. We knew going in that this could be our first win. It didn’t start well; we went behind midway through the first half but our spirits remained high. We were driving the ball forward and using our touches well, meaning we were at the try line for much of the half. Knocking on the door. In truth we got a lucky break, the try we scored was from dummy half and there was a huge enquiry from The Untouchables but the ref stood first, 1-1.

With time in the first half ticking on we were on the verge of going into half time level, which I think would be the first time we had ever managed that feat. Then, spurred on by indignation, The Untouchables started to attack with speed, they had us pinned back close to our own try line. However, they took a risk with a long pass which looped up kindly between the lines for me to intercept. I had to sprint a long way to the try line but I was too scared to look back so I couldn’t slow down - I almost couldn’t stop in time to put the ball down. Then the whistle went. Halftime.

We entered the break ahead! This was definitely a first. An inspirational team talk from Lauren gave us focus for the second half.

We defended incredibly in this half. Multiple times we made them exhaust all their touches. We also pressured them into some fumbles which lead to turn overs. We didn’t have the ball much but when we did, we used it effectively. Managing to get two tries from the only two attacks we had. Fulltime. Our first win. We even managed to shutout a team for a whole half.

Lauren summarised the win after the game:

Every time we got the ball, we were all gunning for it. We were taking it up to them. That’s why we won that game.

GoodGym Newcastle 2 – 8 KPMG

Siobhan

Dan, the referee

Well, this game was crazy. KPMG had a lot of experienced rugby players who seemed intent on showing off. This led to the ref taking pity on us and joining our team. We played the last 5 minutes 7 vs 6.

The standout moment has to be Siobhan getting her first try of the tournament in her first week of touch rugby! An incredible team effort made use of all our touches and got to the try line allowing Siobhan to touch down. I think it was another try from a dummy half but the ref was on our team and what the ref says goes!

GoodGym Newcastle 0 – 5 MLAP

The first half of this game was tense, we nearly got in at half time 0-0 before slipping to trailing 1-0. In fairness, we had already played 3 games by this point and we were starting to tire. This wasn’t helped by MLAP having about 5 thousand players all ready to come on.

Their superior fitness levels (and dirty tactics of growing long sharp fingernails) allowed them to drag us out of shape and run home a few tries, leaving the score seeming a little one sided.

The stand out moment for me in this game was receiving the ball early on and being tackled a bit too physically. When I looked up I recognised my assailant. He used to sit behind me for about 5 years at St James Park. We caught up after the game and were both surprised we recognised each other, since we’d never spoken to each other.

Emma took some time out of this game to try to sell GoodGym to our opponents.

When I told him where we were from, he was well impressed - he thought we were amazing.

Quick aside here, we actually were playing two games simultaneously as Amy had joined KPMG to be their female player. She returned victorious after a 3-1 win.

She said:

I didn’t score but I did some good passes, at least twice. I feel like I was an integral team player

GoodGym Newcastle 1 – 3 WMD Womblebees

Nick

5 games are too many games. If this was our first game and we were a bit fresher, we would have had a good chance in this game. However, we’d already played an hour of high intensity rugby by this point.

Nick did manage to get a heroic last minute try by putting his body on the line. It was disputable as there was the shout of a touch and we looked to Nick to test his honesty:

If I am gonna break my leg for it, I’m not going to dispute [my own try].

Here’s some footage from the second half of our last game with Nick’s leg breaking try happening right at the end. I was really impressed watching this back at the speed we are playing. Especially that last attack, we look like a rugby team!

Sorry if there are ads on this video, Sony have claimed the advertising rights because of the music in the background.

As has become a GoodGym Social tradition, we had snacks. So many snacks! Thanks everyone who brought delicious treats!

MVP

The GoodGym Newcastle MVP for this week was award to Siobhan for achieving something that no one else on our team managed to do. That is scoring a try in her debut week! Congratulations!🎉

(Technically, Dan also did this last week but since it’s now been ruled out his heroics have been erased from history.)

Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4