Hopefully the first of many

Saturday saw a fantastic club day as we held our first annual past, present and future of Aireborough RUFC game at Nunroyd Park and what an amazing event it turned out to be. Returning players and U17s added to a bulging senior squad, and over 50 players took the field in a great afternoon of rugby.

The game itself was a five-try fifty-minute shootout, in which Aire were ahead as time blew. Captains Ollie Catherall and Jonny Mackey lead their sides out after Aire had won the toss and elected to play both up and down the slope.

James Druce scored the opening try of the game, slipping out of tackles as he bundled over from 15m out. Next to score was Hally in his return to cooler climes, taking advantage of a Luke Exley bust and subsequent offload, but still with plenty to do broke through defenders and dived under the sticks leaving an easy conversion - HT was 12-0 to Aire.

The U17s in both sides certainly did not look out of place with tackles flying in (read "friendly"), and many of the older returning contingent will have been glad of the extra helping of mud on the Nunroyd Park pitch that prevented anyone showing a set of clean heels, figuratively or literally.

The "second half" (read last 16 minutes...) started with Aire playing both up and down hill, and a further two tries were scored up the hill (Stu Wilson finding space around the ruck for the first, and an interception and scamper from half way from Ollie Catherall for the second).

The deciding score came from Tom Holdsworth, back in an Aire shirt and playing inside his brother at 10, dotting down behind an dominant Aire forward pack being driven on by second rows Felix and Dan, in turn pushing on Richard Helm at tight-head to make it 19-12.

Great moments included Jim and Mikey Dolan running out for Aire together; four Waughs playing on the same team, and (thankfully) four Exleys relatively equally distributed (if that is indeed possible) amongst the two teams on the day; two pairs one each of Druces and Holdsworths. I'm sure I've missed many.

The presentations afterwards saw the U17 lads involved today receive shirts and ties as they move towards senior rugby.
Club president Chris Clarke commented “[an] outstanding day and a great future for the club. Hopefully it will become an annual event.”

Normal activity resumes next weekend on Saturday and Sunday for senior/junior rugby respectively.