Was good to see Jack out of hospital and on the way to recovery. Hopefully nothing as serious happens to anyone else.
Reasonable numbers in the sheds before the game. Although a few more will be required before the season gets too much older. Thank you to everyone who has dragged along unwitting friends or strangers they met at Cruz. Every able body helps.

Alex made the fatal mistake of confusing apparent age with skill, or the lack of it, in the pregame pep talk after casually glancing at the Belfast squad. He was looking for anyone with homicidal tendencies though, so the confusion is understandable. Experience told me that the Munchers are never to be viewed as easy and that every precaution, on and off the field should be taken. Those new to the team learnt that from the first few minutes after Belfast ran through us with seeming impunity. Dan, Rosco and Flannel did their best to stop them, but sometimes rugby players running fast can slip through a tackle. Something to work on over the Easter break.

The backs were denied any sort of cohesive balance. Not, I suspect due to lack of ability, but because it was just one of those days and not everyone can read what their team mate is up to intuitively just yet. It will come.
The forwards had the Belfast scrum in a mess and could teach the Crusaders a lot about mauling. We wont talk about the lineouts though. Always a touchy subject no matter who is throwing in or jumping or lifting or supposedly catching the ball.

It seemed like the start of a good strong team is forming. A bit of time together on the field and a few dedicated training sessions followed by some team bonding of the special variety we are known for will see the team gel and come together nicely. No game next week because some five day wake for a long dead Gallilean interrupts the football calendar, but training is still on. Get there.

Officially, as last week's game was abandoned, all of today's scorers scored on debut. Hopefully they were reminded of their duties back at the clubrooms. I'm sorry that my health prevented me from returning their after the game to oversee the delight the non scorers had in their free beer. I hope that was the case anyway.

Four years since we last traveled out to Lyttlelton when they only narrowly beat us. We were hoping to turn that around and give them as taste of Keith medicine. However, numbers were not good to give ourselves a buffer we would have liked to have had in case of injury or unavailability.
From what I saw pregame wise, we were keen, fit and up to the task. Lyttelton appeared a bit old and tired, much like their surroundings.
Dirk rose from the dead. Sarah told Percy he could play and New Boys abounded. It'll take a couple of weeks for me to get used to all the new faces, but it'll be ok on the night.

Percy kicked off for the first time for 2019 and we took it too them hard. A few getting to know you moments, but balls skills and shit came together nice. Pressure up front kept Lyttelton on the back foot and several attempts to cross the line were only narrowly avoided by some good Lyttelton defense.
Johno eventually probed their weakness with enough force to get across and score. Nick didn't quite measure up to his reputation as accuracy king, so we remained at 5-0.

Rosco and Shane out the back had some good runs after getting good ball from the midfielders, with Jack doing the same on his side of the field. Until 21 minutes in and a fair tackled ended up in tragedy.
A very nasty Tibia / Fibia compound fracture of his left leg. His sock was the only thing holding everything together at one point. It was like a train wreck, couldn't look away, but equally horrified by it.

Jack, being the former Royal Marine he is, was calm and stoic throughout the entire ordeal right up until they moved him from the ground to the stretcher and into the ambulance. An entirely deserved scream of pain echoed around the hills. Ketamine helps in those situations I believe.

So as you can expect, the game was abandoned and declared a draw and I am going to be charitable and assume the shock of the event kept everyone away from the clubrooms afterwards. 7 Keiths on opening night is not the start to the season I would have expected.

Keith of course, wish Jack a successful operation and recovery and offer our help in any way we can to make getting back on his feet as quick and painless as possible.