2nd XV end pre-season friendlies on a high

Up against a weakened RBS 2nd XV (at least a handful had just played 80 mins for their 1s), without an official ref (another RBS 1s player stood in) and with the sun going down (the aforementioned game bumped the second fixture to a 4.30 kick-off), Streatham-Croydon 2s managed a comfortable victory down in occasionally-sunny Beckenham to end their spate of pre-season friendlies on a high.

Officially, the score was 59-0, though the combined mathematical brains of Joe Yates and Josh Smith claim it to be more around the 71-0 mark instead. Either way, it was a free-scoring match, with Yates and Smith both running in a brace each and Shawn Odeniyi scoring his first for the club and narrowly missing a second, while the forwards got in on the act too, with Opie, Max and Nathan among the myriad try scorers on the day (I’m sure there were more, please feel free to berate me for forgetting you if I have).

Despite the circumstances, RBS still managed to give us a hard time on occasion, particularly in the scrum, but fitness, discipline and structure won through in the end to give us a convincing victory that sets us up nicely for our first league game this coming weekend, as we “welcome” Merton to Fortress Frant Road.

Unfortunately, not everyone was there to enjoy the victory - Laurence "Lost in Beckenham" Robben earned himself Dick of the Day by default for not being able to make it on time, despite the late kick-off and the fact that he was only about half a mile away from the club, wandering aimlessly round south east London. Nice one, bru.