Depending on which ground you go to, the earthquakes can still seem quite real. Sydenham Park is one of those grounds. The remains of the Church still piled high across the street; the staring, vacant sections along Colombo St bring it home that rugby is still very much a release from the stresses of life in this city.

The Saracens, who appear to have gotten younger since last season and also appear to have discovered the use of Grecian 2000, put up a good effort but quite honestly, only just beat us to the finish because of our own errors and dearth of back up for the ball carrier. Much like last week. And that will need some work.

Chief celebrated his 200th game with a full blown 80 minutes and his usual full blown effort. But once again, others pushed themselves to their limit. Col and Baz proved they were real hard men and the New Boys and not so New Boys gave us Old Coves reason not to despair about the future. I do, however, despair for my own mental health. I feel like writing all this shit is no longer the joy it used to be and lots of other shit is making me doubt myself in all aspects of my life.

Brian and Brett put the boots on. Dagan and Andrew put their jumping shorts on. And lots of other people did lots of other stuff blah blah blaah wank.