1982 Old Boys rugby club notes in Invercargill.

In perfect conditions at Oreti Park the Senior Reserve team  ran out the winners over Waikiwi 35-0.  The Player who stood out most in the forwards was Peter Gilbertson while John Sapsford is improving with every performance.  Graham Watson (player of the day) and Ian Bellam dont know when to play a bad game.

After having playing seven and winning seven games the players must realise that the tougher fixtures are just coming up. This means that we will have to settle down early in the next games.  
Coach Wayne Robertson ("Fats") and supporters have complained of near heart attacks on the sideline through the tendancy to take so long to settle down.  Congratulations to Steven Cartwright for notiching up his fifty points on Saturday.
Under 23
In a hard bruising game at Oreti park Pirates Gold came out on top 16-10.  Leading 7-0 at half time Old Boys looke dgood but a delayed clearing kick from the kick off saw a charge down by Pirates and fro the resulting scrum a try and conversion to make it 7-6 from then on it
was all go.  Before the biggest crowd I have seen at a junior rugby game for some years both teams turned on a creditable performance. Pirates were far too good in the forwards and gave a fine display of a pack going together.  This was the platform of their win as it deprived good clean ball to the fleet footed Old Boy backs.
Steve Molloy scored his usual try after a tackle on the Pirates centre.  Steve kicked the loose ball through to win the race and force down.  Brent Ballantyne kicked a penalty and we went into the second half at 7-0.  The try to Pirates from the kick off saw them raise their game and soon they were 9-7 with a penalty from out in front of the posts. Play see sawed back and forth with both teams giving it all they had. 
Seven minutes to go Brent Ballantyne got another penalty and all we had to do was hang in there.  Scot Mortimer from  halfway saw Pirates take the lead again with five minutes to go.  The boys tried valiantly but right on time Pirates mauled over in the corner to put the seal on a grand game.  No player of the day as the whole team played their hearts out.  Hard luck fellows and congratulations to Pirates gold.
Under 20
The 12 O'Clock game at Oreti Park against Pirates last Saturday held lots of promise that the supporters of both teams would be in for a fast, free flowing game.  The conditions overhead were ideal, and the ground underfoot could not have been better but the ensuring game is one both teams will try to forget fast.  The record books show Old Boys with five unconverted tries beat Pirates (a try and a penalty) by 20-7.  Why did the game fail as a spectacle.  The answer can be summed up in three words.  Lack of teamwork.  Ball that was taken well in the line out very often failed to cleanly reach the halfback, and hard fought for ball, was to often squandered by inside backs on an epidemic of unnecessary kicking.  To be fair to the five eights the ball usually found touch, but its not touch finders that win games.   From the kick off, it became apparent that Old Boys were going to be too strong, and after a couple of tries, concentration was lost.  The rot set in and slopppy habits and lack of team work prevented teh spectators from witnessing a feast of hard running and good handling.  At half time the score was 17-7 to Old Boys.  The second half belonged to Pirates although Old Boys managed to score one more try.  An unfortunate incident saw the Old Boys flanker in the sin bin.  The flare up by sparked off by sheer frustration of 30 players attempting to do well but sadly failing in team work.  
Senior
Our team played Wyndham at Wyndham last week and things looked very dicey at half time when they were down 13-0.  However, the boys lifted their game in the second half and the final score was Wyndham 13 Old Boys 6.  The Wyndham forwards gave us a hurry up but we managed to hold them late in the game.  Mark Hall and Ken McMillan had good games in the backs and Shayne Harvey and Andy Duncan had sound games in the forwards.