Nadoes smash another unbeaten run…

The Tornadoes of 2004 continued their march towards the semi’s with a tough and closely fought encounter on the A field at UCT. The Vamoos were previously unbeaten and came with all their weapons against a slightly wounded Nadoes team. Again the squad system prevailed and some of the youngsters stood tall in the Red and Black.

With tensions running high in the build up to the match guys knew they were in for a cracker. Kicking off the Nadoes were immediately all over the Vamoos boys who seemed like they had lost their bite after much barking during the week. The play was broken up by the continued professional fouling at the breakdown which prevented us from getting the quick ball needed for try time. The Nadoes threatened to score a handful of tries but some good defence and average hands from all led to the Vamoos keeping our onslaughts at bay. Just when things seemed like they were going to give the Vamoos hacked the ball up field strung some phases together and sent it wide to score with 10 minutes to go in the half. Up 7-0 there were a lot of chirps flying about scoreboards etc etc, but having been in their half most of the game I never noticed any panic. With a flair for the dramatic the Nadoes love to make things hard for themselves. So we kicked off and started to settle into things again. Opting to go for poles from another Vamoos infringement Harry Hairless Hobson kicked a shocker and missed from spitting distance. Not like our young Steven.
Late in the half the Nadoes began to create a wine from an older vintage with phases being strung together that even the French would have been jealous of. Unfortunately the fiery Scot at flyhalf stepped over the boundry again after seeing another late hit on his beloved Nadoes. While he was checking how the tackler was, Daniel “go you good thing? Romberg was striding over for what seemed like the opener for the Lads. The ref had other ideas and shat all over Stu Mac (who turns 24 on Sat) for getting involved. A thousand apologies later the half time whistle blew with the Nadoes down still. But the coals were just getting ready for cooking.

The Nadoes came out the gates like Smarty Jones hit the straight in the Preakness Stakes last week, the ball being flung around and as we know you can’t tackle the ball. A sweet passage of play swung down the left flank with another brilliant chip and play from Dan on the wing. A lot of debate about whether this was a try but being right up in support it was fairly tough to see, the Nadoes were awarded a five metre scrum which we opted to go blind on, more spoiling from the Vamoos resulted in repeated penalties which we kept running or opting for a scrum. The play was generally fairly scrappy but the Nadoes refused to drink beer when fine red wine is normally served to our patrons. Just ten minutes into the half and we broke from our ten ran it up the right hand side and recyled the ball in their ten. The ball was moved through the hands of various Nadoes to Jason nearing the outside, having had some early brakes this is all the thoroughbred from the Elley stables needed, and with one to beat clearly made the Old Kingswood and Rondebosch old boy seem a bit like a cart horse. He touched down under the poles, game on 7-all.

From here there was only going to be one winner, The Nadoes, with the spirit of the Vamoos clearly broken, launched an assortment of attacks from aerial bombardments to sniping inside hits aimed at keeping the ball in our hands and marching back upfield. Once again I must stress how frustrating Wednesdays game was, little knock on’s here and there added to the Vamoos general spoiling game we never seemed able to get a flowing game going for any amount of time. A highlight of the secong half was our defence and picking up the Big Lick on debut Dallen “Paki? Stanford cancelled out some poor centres hopes of reaching the advantage line let alone the end of the game. The second try came from the “Lady in Pink? Schalk Burger, who picked up from a ruck five metres out and managed to spin, dance and dive backwards after the forwards had taken it through about six phases of classic pick and go stuff. The conversion was missed but the boys had other ideas and set about plundering more from previously confident unit. Unfortunately things did’nt work out that way but with the ref calling last scrum the Vamoos swithched inside and James “Control Alt and truly Deleted? any hopes of an upset with a bearhug tackle which ended the game.

One has the feeling that somehow our paths will cross again later in the tournament, for those who missed this game and watched a true squad stand up and be counted it was rousing stuff. The changeroom had 85 litres of cold Mitchells which the lads knocked back in a mammoth fines meeting. Talk after the game turned to touring, the lads fancied a Return to Plett…any takers please contact us, Old Nadoes included. Matt Ibbotson plans to finish those tries he left behind two years ago and Stix wont be playing flyhalf either.
Ucha cha