
Last Sunday 16 May the Minis took on their big brothers, the Crusaders Colts in the tense rematch of the game earlier in the season, which the Minis narrowly lost 10 – 8. Would vengeance be theirs this time round…..?
The starting line up for the Minis was: Aaron, Anthony, Arthur, Catrin, George, Jane and Captain Max Stephens, with Chris, Katy, Max An, Thomas, Vicky, Nuri , Ama, Surgey and Alex on the bench. The Colts consisted of Goga, Aris, Captain Adrian, Vassili and Jamie.
The game started off at a frantic pace, with the Minis in possession, shifting the ball wide to try to take on their larger opponents on the outside. Unfortunately, a knock-on led to turnover ball, which was quickly exploited by the Colts to lead to a first try. Minis’ heads went down, fearing a rout, but a rallying call from their Captain Max boosted them. The initial exchanges had given Max an idea: we are not as fast as them, but if, when tagged, we go beyond the tagger by taking the allowed 3 steps, fast, close wingman support should breach enemy lines. Well thought out, but would this tactic work in practice though?
From the restart Max rushed straight into the heart of the Colts’ defence.

Upon being tagged, he went the further three steps, turned and popped the ball to the oncoming George on his shoulder. George did the same and soon a stream of Minis were pouring through the centre of the Colts defensive line, leading to the equalising try: 1 -1!
A couple of handling errors from the restart by the Colts gifted ball to the Minicru who again, employing the same tactic, were able to keep the ball alive, passing from hand to hand in a way hardly ever seen in normal training! Particularly strong runs were achieved by principally Aaron, George, Anthony, Jane and Max and the over-stretched and under-manned Colts defence was breached twice more. The half ended 3 – 1 to the Minicru – an upset was on the cards….
At the start of the second half, the Minis’ Coach Giggsy introduced several changes, so all players could have a game. The Colts were now becoming more familiar with the play, being more used to full contact rugby and Goga especially began pinging long spin passes to the devastatingly quick Aris and Jamie who had no trouble running round the forlorn lunges of the Minis. The organised defensive lines of the Colts often forced the Minis into running backwards when they did have the ball, thus when the tag came, the tagged player had no-one to pass to and often gave up possession. By the time most of the starting line-up for the Minis came back on, deep into the second half, the score stood at 7 – 3 to the Colts.
There was a final flourish though by the indefatigable youngsters. Great keeping the ball alive and strong runs from Jane and Katy allowed the Minis one more try, slicing clean through the centre of the tiring Colts’ lines. This seemed a fitting end to a hard-fought contest. Final score: Crusaders Colts 7, Minicru 4. Well played everyone and special thanks to the Colts for coming down!