X-Men pay for 1st half notturningupidness

The x men travelled to Richmond on Saturday to meet a quality opposition who were not willing to cry off at 3.30 on Friday (LS)

The fixture was also overlapping with a Japenese Uni team in the same set of changing rooms playing a London Scottish(you didnt cry off this one) select.

What was odd was loads of small blokes in boxer shorts going for showers before the game?..any way enough of Christian Weald ..

the warm up was good and the X men knew that their first half non appearance of the Barnes match would not work with this opposition..they all talked the talk but were a complete shambles in the first half,,,yet again..

Tackles missed, aimless kicking putting us under pressure,taking the ball into contact like 11 year olds and wondering why they ripped it off us...sounds familiar???!!!!

It comes to a point when the players themselves have to simply man up.... there were too many players in the first half..hoping someone else would galvanise the team and most were quite content waiting for this to occur. notable exceptions were Candlish who seems to play better dependant on the hangover (but everyone that has ever played with or watched Candlish would know this), his awkward daddy long legs impression seemed to confuse the opposition, the back row of Smith, Moon and Taff who deserved better for their efforts and Chatters who attempted to restore some level of order in a back line who were good at the drift but the tackle bit went a bit west.

To be fair we decided to make a game of it after their 3rd try by a decent effort but then let them back in immediatly at the restart by letting the ball bounce, playing that great x men game of miming the call "my ball" and then doing the classic bull fighter stance letting the incredulous Richmond players through holes even they thought were never there...plus points for the first half...it was sunny, Neil hadn't called anyone a spineless twat or recieved a referee's warning, and our shirts were not really that dirty.

Half time 31-15

Little chat by the coach at half time and a slight change of emphasis from the players...."right boys weve given them the x men head start shall we turn up and see if we can catch them"...yet again the second half was the complete opposite great display from the front five line outs which worked, calls from the backs which were more than "sh..t and no" and decent ball allowing the centers of Payne and Chatters to wreak a bit of havoc unleashing Charlie and Louis to produce front foot rugby and points on the board...

This was again an excellent 40 mins of rugby with great physicality at the contact zone from both teams releasing backs and back row forwards into decent space to score...great entertainment and too be fair the result could have gone either way but with the Richmond boys edging it and deserving their victory.

I would note the efforts and sheer toughness of the back row with Louis coming off the wing to join this club..and these boys were superb, indeed Moon, Smith and Taff had excellent games.

Payne is beginning to show how good he could be in flashes and Loyden had his best game this season.

Phil "the dinner man" Rogers found one shirt he could not force his ample girth into when he attempted to swap it with a touring prop from Japan size medium??? .

Full Time 43-34

Onto next Friday night Blackheath under lights..we are having a different warm up...if you thought Armegedon was a strange one wait till you see what wev'e got for you...7pm away changing rooms...I will film it