"Tis the season to be jolly". During the yuletide season, one is often reminded that it is better to give than to receive. Well, on Saturday, 22nd December, both Baillou and Cuckoos truly expressed the spirit of this yuletide season in a rugby matc hat the Winton Rugby Centre. Baillou giving and Cuckoos gladly receiving.


The match started out looking promising for Cuckoos, as they pressured Baillou with exciting scrummaging and good rucking, but were simply unable to cross the try line, thanks to pretty good tackling from Baillou and the iron hands of Cuckoos, who dropped several critical passes.


Twenty minutes into the match, Baillou caught Cuckoos walking through a “Winter Wonder Land” as Patrick Smith and Timmy Thompson took a quick line out ball and raced forty five metres for a try to take a 5-0 lead due to a missed conversion. Nevertheless, Cuckoos fought gallantly back, as Terrio gathered an up-and-under ball kicked by Jon Isaacs, ran almost forty metres, but nearing contact, did not disappoint or surprise anyone, as he simply threw the ball away turning a beautiful play into a sour one. Moment later, Baillou extended their lead to 12-0 on a Bodie long try and a Salabie conversion. Once again, Cuckoos fought back with good rucking and running most noticeably from Marcus Cheetham. Cheetham, however, failed to use the uniqueness of his physical stature and his pretty good running ability by simply not squaring up to punish tacklers but chose instead to side-step tacklers, making life easy for them.

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Nevertheless, the Baillou Boys showed signs of cracking to the Cuckoos pressure by committing errors that gave the Cuckoos an excellent opportunity to hit the score board fifteen metres from the line via a Baillou infringement. But once again, the iron hands of Cuckoos’ Andrew Love let them down, as he dropped a wide open pass.


Minutes later, Baillou again displayed signs of cracking to the Cuckoos pressure finding themselves offside, twenty metres out, almost in front of the post. But once again, they squandered away their excellent opportunity by knocking on the ball, a ball that they should not have run in the first instance. Common sense should have dictated that the Cuckoos should have gone for the 3 points, as the first half came to an end.


Feeling good about their chances to begin the second half, the Cuckoos, led by Mario ‘Soldier’ Rolle ran hard at the teeth of Baillou, who proved hard to handle. John Gates putting some good licks on people that resulted in Andrew Kemp hearing the early chimes of Christmas Bells. But something was just not right, as Brian Simms and Justin were not on the same page in loose play.


Fourteen minutes into the half, Charles Smith intercepted a pass from Timmy Thompson and laboured over the try line, thirty metres out to cut the Baillou lead to 12-7, lifting the spirits of the Cuckoos players. But as the game progressed, one could see a woople in the once powerful Cuckoos scrum. Twenty minutes into the half, however, Cuckoos were awarded a scrum on the Baillou ten metre line. The Cuckoos regained their powerful form and simply man-handled the Baillou scrum, reeling them back like a runaway train. But once again on the failure of just pressuring the ball down seeing that it was already over the try line proved to be the beginning of the end, something just wasn’t right on the day.


Brian Simms’ scrums simply don’t let opponents packs off the hook, scrums that have been the signature play of Cuckoos, sending cold messages that ‘we are your betters’/ Baillou in turn fed the Cuckoos a steady diet of Bodie, who simply gave the turtle soup-eating backs of the Cuckoos the tissick, making the final score ‘Plenty to 12’.


But surprisingly, there were some highlights. The value of Aaron Bethel, the effective ‘smash-mouth’ running of Mario Rolle, the toughness of Marvin Dames, the twinkle in the eye of young CR Walker student Kevin, when expressing the displeasure of his game, eager to practice to improve his skills, the firmness of vice-captain Rico, although he felt he did not get full support from the side-line, particularly from one always Scrooge looking Cuckoo during matches. But believe it or not, as for me, I did and will continue to support anyone that displays fairness.


The Cuckoos ‘Man of the Match’ must be Aaron Bethel, who absent from the pitch in the second half, highlighted his true value and must be treated accordingly in the future. Receiving an honourable mention is Andrew Bain for his all around hustle, and Jon Isaacs who displayed true rugby courage by coming back onto the pitch and playing after getting his head bust wide open.


‘Big Mac’ Kenneth McCartney is chairman of Cuckoos Rugby Club.