We had a week off last week. A time to relax. We had planned on going to the training session that was being put on at Kingston Park for all teams but really we’ve been a bit jaded with rugby. It’s hard playing every week. A last minute change of heart lead to some team bonding at Tynemouth beach. There was a BBQ, frisbee, body boarding and some tryhards even got out the rugby ball! It was a great day out, minus some sandy sausages, but was is the right thing to do? Finals week was fast approaching and for all we knew the other teams had been at the training session putting in the hard hours.

Finals Week

This week we were placed in a group of five teams all of similar skill, that meant we had 4 games and the chance at the coveted Bowl. It would be a tall order however, during the regular season we had beaten two of these teams but lost to the other two. We were definitely one of the underdogs for The Bowl.

We had a dedicated cheer squad this week with Rachel, Faye and her family all coming to see the world famous GoodGym Newcastle Touch Rugby team. We were also joined by Richard for his first time!

Up first were Aimee’s Glutton tag.

GoodGym Newcastle 4 – 0 Glutton Tag

Evan

Tom

Andrew

Tom

We had beaten these before and had a plan how to do it again. We identified their main strength of a nippy winger with some serious pace and made sure we had our best runners on the wing to cover him.

Evan got us off the mark with a mazy run through a gap in the middle of the defence. Up until then it had been cagey but this helped settle the nerves. Then the floodgates started to open – Tom romped home our second and just before half time I avoided the clutches of a certain GoodGym deserter before collapsing over the tryline for our third.

A raft of halftime subs allowed Richard to make his debut in the red shirt, commenting:

The last time I played rugby John Major was PM.

You couldn’t tell though, as he slotted straight into our well-oiled machine of a touch rugby team. Tom completed the scoring with his second and our fourth try of the game meaning we had just gain what could be a crucial attacking bonus point.

We also brought home a clean sheet. We left it until late in the competition, but this is the first time we have stopped a team from scoring against us for the entire game. A shut out. Our communication and organisation has improved so much from when we first entered the field.

GoodGym Newcastle 2 – 1 Move Like A Pro

Miranda

Tom

The first game we knew we could win, we had done it before. This was different. We’d lost fairly convincingly last time we played Move Like A Pro. It was a 3-0 loss where we barely threatened their try line and spent most of the game backed up against our own. It was different this time, a loss in this game would have meant it was over but a draw or a win… then we could dream.

You might remember they were very quick at recycling the ball after a touch, leading to offsides which eliminated our players from the game. After a tight opening few minutes they used their speed in recycling to catch us off-guard, running through the middle of our defence with futile touches from our offside defenders not counting.

This was the first time we had been behind all night. I could feel the dream starting to slip away. Only for us to be equal almost immediately. I can’t remember the order of our try scorers but I feel like the equaliser game from Tom’s jinking past their entire team before sliding to a try.

The tension was ratcheted up after this. We actually had a chance. Even a draw would mean our attacking bonus point against Glutton Tag could see us edge out Move Like A Pro. I got caught up in the tension and got a stern telling off from the referee, but rules are made to be bent. He showed off the usual chip on his shoulder saying “It’s not football.”

But have you ever seen a football game where the referee forgets half time?

That’s exactly what happened in this game. Half time was forgotten and it became a battle of endurance – this probably was in our favour but we weren’t lucid enough to realise this at the time. Despite rarely feeling like we had the ball Miranda glided through a gap in the defence to put us in front! Now we’re dreaming.

The rest of the game dragged on to eternity. We were pinned against our tryline for around 5 straight minutes. Constant offsides meant they were getting touch reset after touch reset. They always had 5 touches to probe for gaps high up the pitch. We stayed organised and worked hard to keep them at bay. We struggled to get any yardage back ourselves – it seemed like every turnover we would drop the ball before a single touch. Nerves were high.

Eventually the final whistle blew and we could relax.

From here on though, we knew we had a chance to win. The last game of the night we felt like we could win easily, maybe we were a bit complacent about it, I definitely was. That meant the next game would be the decider.

GoodGym Newcastle 1 – 0 WBD Womblebees

Evan

We had a long wait for this. We had to watch game after game of our foes while the pressure built. Since we had inflicted defeat on Move Like A Pro we knew our only rival for the cup would be the Womblebees.

We watched them play Glutton Tag, knowing if they didn’t get a result we might not even have to beat them to guarantee The Bowl. The first half of Glutton Tag vs Womblebees was 0-0, for a moment there was hope but the final score saw our rivals come home victors in a 2-0 win.

We had a quick warm up before taking the field, only to be informed the game on the field currently was at half time and we couldn’t play yet. You could tell we were nervous. It was a tetchy affair. There was a lot going on in the middle of the pitch – battles for position and yards but no real penetration. The first half ended 0-0. Maybe 0-0 would be enough? We didn’t know the result of Move Like A Pro vs WBD Womblebees. If Move Like A Pro had won that game, a draw would have been enough.

In the second half we were on top. Evan found himself overloading their left wing multiple times but we just couldn’t find the right pass. Which Evan was completely fine about and didn’t take to heart. Despite the obvious danger of our de-bearded winger, the Womblebees didn’t strengthen their left side, Nick picked out Evan who brought the ball down on the tryline. 1-0.

This must have been pretty late in the game. There was a big cheer. Throughout the 8 game weeks there have been moments we have enjoyed. There has been polite claps for our try scorers but nothing came has close to the expression of our adulation of this try. It really felt like it meant something.

Unlike our last game of backs to the wall rugby, we saw this one out without any scares. Nonetheless, we still held out for our second shutout of the competition and this time against much stronger opposition. The final whistle came. We had done it. Just one game to go and it did not cross my mind we would lose it.

GoodGym Newcastle 4 – 0 The Untouchables

Nick

Andrew

Richard

Tom

This was an enjoyable game. After two incredibly stressful games of touch rugby we could loosen up a bit. Truth be told, the first try took a while to come. Maybe we shouldn’t have been so complacent. But before we had time to really worry, Nick slipped through a gap in the middle of the defence. 1-0.

It was plane sailing from there. Richard got a try on his first week, Tom jinked through for a trademark Thom try whist Dan played me in (with an obvious forward pass) to bring our try total up to 4. Meaning another attacking bonus point – not that we would need it anymore.

The final, final whistle blew. Another shutout. We went from none all competition to 3 in one week.

At this point I (we?) were in disbelief. Today felt like rugby. We knew what we were doing. We were professional. We won every game we played. We scored 11 tries, we only conceded 1! That is incredible!

Just 10 weeks ago most of us hadn’t even played rugby. This was the first match we ever played.

GoodGym Newcastle 0 – 7 The Ringers

Wow, we do not know the rules.

Everything we did in this game led to the referee signalling for the ball to be turned over to the opposition. You could barely call this a game of touch rugby, it was just a game of tag for us. We learnt a lot as the game went on. At the beginning we were panicking whenever we were close to being touched, so the ball was quickly thrown in any direction - usually directly to the ground. This led to the ball being turned over. Then any time we got touched we didn’t know the correct procedure to get the ball back in play. This led to the ball being turned over. After we tackled, we didn’t know we had to retreat 5 yards before we could tackle again, so most of our tackles didn’t count. I don’t even remember having the ball.

Can you believe that was written about the same team?

We have all come so far. I am so proud of all of us.

Awards

We headed up to the West Stand for the awards ceremony and food. The food was 100% carbs. Chips, pasta and pizza. Classy stuff.

For a brief moment we wondered if we somehow hadn’t won. We were just assuming we had, but we didn’t know we had. What if Move Like A Pro had some how collected enough bonus points to overcome their defeat?

Anyway, before the official announcement we had our own award ceremony. Here are our winners:

The Creator - Andrew

The player with an eye for a pass, if you are in space they will find you with an inch perfect ball.

The Motivator - Lauren

The player who was always there to give you encouragement when you were feeling down.

The Feeder - Abi

The player who brought the best snacks.

The Gazelle - Nick

The player who was fleetest of foot and gained the most ground in attack.

The Safe Pair of Hands - Miranda

The player who you could always rely on to catch a pass.

The Learner - Siobhan

The player who has come the furthest and improved the most in the pursuit of rugby perfection.

The Wall - Evan

The player who none shall pass.

The Bowl

The official awards ceremony got underway with a confusing speech but I think it was meant to be positive and nice. Thank you (most) refs and all the teams for coming, whatever, tell us who won The Bowl.

We did.

MVP

The GoodGym Newcastle MVP for Finals Week is Evan! For getting the only try of the tight Womblebee game, sealing our fairytale victory and allowing us to dream! (And for totally keeping his cool throughout.)

Congratulations!🎉

Week 7 - Week 8