Walking Rugby Success in Devon

A Walking Rugby squad braved Devon over the weekend of the 2nd April and found time to play Withycombe RFC.

The majority of our squad of 11 caught the 1st XV's fine win over Yeovil before carrying onto Exemouth, our base for the eve of match festivities. 

Sunday came round very quickly and some may say far too brightly, but a brisk walk along the Esplanade blew out the cobwebs for the short trip to Withycombe, a Club with whom we have some deep links. Their Director of Rugby, Rick Libbey, coached SRFC minis for several years back in the '90s along with a stint as 1st XV Coach. Additionally, he remembers a certain PTI at Sandhurst who set-up Salisbury's Walking Rugby section and helped establish the first set of rules in England: our very own Pat Clash.

Withycombe have been running a similar length of time to most of the current Salisbury squad, and they impressed with their handling but a little like the 1st XV on the previous day, Salisbury were sharper ball in hand and Withycombe were impressed by the support play that provided the line breaks and tries. With a sound defence helped by much better communication amongst the line, this was perhaps our best performance to date. And although we believe Salisbury were victors in all the 4 playing periods, our proven inability to keep the score means we can't prove it !

The whole squad contributed but special mention to Karen Pickering on scoring her first try, Nicky Stockley for her captaincy and our referees on the day Graham Hillier and Bob Carr. We will save Chairman Jugg's Ealing Comedy moment for another time, perhaps when he parades the special shorts at our own Festival on the 30th April.

If anyone is keen to watch and/or try, please pop along to the Club at 6.00pm on a Thursday evening.