All Hail the Victors! Because Christchurch won it, and we lost it; fair and square. But hey, let's be honest, we didn't give it away, we fought the good fight with all our might, but they fought better. Luckily, we get another crack at them for the Trophy later on in the season.

Sam asked me after the game what it looked like from the sideline, and I told him it looked awful. In places. But upon reflection, I may have been somewhat harsh. The forwards certainly lost their set game plan from the kickoff (literally) allowing Christchurch to score within 30 seconds of the whistle blowing. That's never a good start, and sometimes such a shock to the system helps rev things up. Alas, revs never got above my Grandmother's record of 1733rpm in her old Austin A30. Yes, some forwards as we expect, played to the standard we've come to expect such as Sammy, Kev etc. Others also played to the standard we expect and therefore need to work on improving. Which is what I'd say if I was Trouty.

Backs didn't progress much better than the forwards, except as a response to what Christchurch did. Never an independent attack of our own. Vinny, who was MVP, played well, but made some handling errors, Dick seemed not quiet as involved as usual, possibly due to hardly ever getting the ball, Bravo kept on getting shot down before he could make any moves and Muzz seemed to be the only one to progress forward from his position in the backs.

I would very much not take this all the wrong way if I were you, gentle reader, as the boys were bitch slapped from the first seconds of the game and were in a state of shock and dare I say it, panic from then on. Individual players stepped up and tried to rally the team, but I think as a collective, we just went "Woah! What the fuck just happened" and couldn't get out of the mindset.

However, there is a new game next week against the Bus Drivers and a new result to write about. Don't let a simple stumble define our whole season to come as we still have 12 more games to go.

I love a good trip to the seaside. If we lose, we get a good view of the Pacific and a lovely tang in the air wafting across from South New Brighton and if we win we get to say we beat the Sharks in their own pen. Which we did. Only by the fortunes of fate.

A couple of nice surprises today in the team. Scotty has returned full time after some guest appearances in the last few years, Alan, whom you may know as George, has said he's here for the season after watching Dick play for three years, Psycho and Goober have sort of semi-committed to playing a full(ish)season but the real surprise was the return of Unit, who gave us his best 15 minutes at the end much to the consternation of his missus and the standyby orthopaedic surgeon. Oh, and Kev is back from Vietnam.

Sharks/Keiths matches are traditionally a hard one to call as to which way they will go, and today was another we're up, we're down it's too fucking close to call oh my god i'm gonna have a fucking heart attack (again) kind of game. Webby started his season off fully rearing to go after a two week period of him getting used to the new playing strip (oh wait, we haven't got any yet). Whatever the real reason, he's playing on all cylinders now and scored a rather nice try. Check the video if you don't believe me. Scotty dotted (fell) down over the line which Tom got his only conversion for the day after. He also managed to get the first penalty of the season as well, so things may get tricky in the points ladder later on if he keeps kicking okish. As expected though, Sumner came back hard as at half's end, were only behind by 2 points.

Changes at half time bought some new speed into the players but we stagnated in the points dept for a while, letting the Sharks get ahead of us for most of the 2nd half. Tom and A.J. got into the game fully with tries and some hair pulling, but the main talking point for the next court session will be how Spook was more interested in the view out to sea than if the conversion went over or not (which it did) but because he didn't raise his flag, the referee didn't award it. Up by only 2 and 10 minutes on the clock and a rough and determined Shark attack had us all on the side sideline (even Uli) asking a non existent deity for help. Luckily, defence, defence defence and the ref's whistle kept us ahead.

Three in a row. Who would have thought.

Our good friends from Linwood couldn't quite hear us in our praise for the condition of the Number 1 field at Linfield, but that's only because they stacked the team with half the NZ Deaf squad. Handy little players, and their skills only improved with the mediocrity of the referee.

Good to see the return to Keith after last weekend boozing up instead of playing of Dick, Dirk, Breen, Mark, Toad and Trouty. Although really, only one of them was of a great deal of use. Dirk didn't even bring enough hamburgers for everyone, but Breen managed to bring a cuddly dog, so that was nice.

We started with a hiss and a roar with Dick dotting down under the posts, but we then took our heads out of the game and Linwood scored straight back at us. The Dick scored again then Bravo. Our minds started to wander once more and Linwood popped two more under the posts to even us up at 19 apiece. Vinny then ended the half with a quick and sneaky try putting us in front. Just.

Trouty put the boot in and told us we were giving away tries like they were his daughters virginity (I may be paraphrasing here) and that we had this game in the bag and up by 30 points if we simply kept our heads and played to the strengths we abundantly have. Naturally no one listened and just kept on doing their own thing and getting penalised and making the ref forget the rules and Currie (and Hughes) getting all explosive. Which ended up for the first time in a very long time having a scoreless second half. Was quite the nerve wracking experience I can tell you.

Luckily, time eventually ran out on us and we had a few free beers and some deep fried chilli things at Linwood before I went home and other wandered into some seedy joint where beer flows and women surround Toad like he's still freshly divorced.

Keith, as a full and cohesive team, still need to pull finger and listen if these two wins in a row are to mean anything.

Contrary to popular belief, I am in fact, not dead. Also contrary to popular belief, Muncher did a good job being coach, captain, manager and host. Or maybe it was simply because his father in law was watching. Who can say.

With an awful lot of Keiths not at rugby because their female bosses decided they'd rather be out in the cold and damp or North Hagley Park drinking beer, we started with a surprisingly strong and committed team of 19 (Piez was neither strong nor committed so I didn't count him in that number) which was bolsted by our Fijian friends arriving very late and Goober also arriving very late. No matter, they did their 20 minutes at the end.

But it was good to see some old faces return, fully stocked up of Keithliness. Big Daz, Goober (as mentioned earlier) Tito (also as mentioned earlier), Col and AJ. Good men doing good things on the field.

We had several New Boys today, Tom, Vinny, Sean and Savenaga with violaters of Article 1.4.2.1 & 1.4.2.2 of the Charter, Murray & Daz also coming back into the fold. Good to see your beers on the table.

We started the match with a doubtful referee situation but he eventually turned up just in time for a late start. He was fair and balanced and did a not too un-ok job. For a guy who thinks a punch to the face is the same as a moving body colliding with a stationary hand (from last year's Christchurch game).

Scrums we had the Munchers beat quite well, tackling we had them beat quite well, kicking with the wind we had them on equal par but with mid-fielders bursting through and scattering green and gold players to the wind, we had them downright smashed 'em bro. Poacher and Muzz we repeatedly going after the gaps even if there wasn't one there, followed in kind by AJ. Was a lovely sight to behold.

Bravo seemed to know what he was doing at half-back without getting any tips at all from Webby so that's a good thing to know and to have tucked away for future reference.

Ross decided to rest his still healing busted arm, and it was probably a good idea to keep his body fresh for our next outing. One never knows when old age will creep up on us and say sorry, you can't play this week.
Can we say we didn't miss Breen and Dirk at all today?