Toti O35 old boys beat Crusaders
Crusaders fought back to reduce the deficit and were rewarded with a well deserved goal after putting Toti under tremendous pressure.
TOTI hosted Crusaders at the rugby club on Monday night in what was a hailed as the bottom feeders’ battle for valuable league points – and the ballies did not disappoint.
After the bone-crushing, limb-stretching semi final win last week over Stella, it was a chance to give the old bullets and fringe players in the squad a run – most of whom do not even have a fringe anymore.
With most of the youthful and first choice players all resting, the old school backline selection was enough to make any manager grimace with Shane O’Brien, Deon Dunbar, Janos Molnar and Ian Bender all making up a combined age of 209 years, although fingers were pointed at IB for upping the ante on the average – it was a bit like having John Allen, Ollie Le Roux and Os Durant back in the Springbok front row for the 2015 World Cup.
Michael ‘Chappie’ Chapman was back in the number one jersey while veterans Mark Bingham, Colin Dunnet and Gary ‘Robben’ Hutchison made up the midfield with one of the youthful stars and speedster, Shaun Holmes, who is immune to resting.
The game was played in the true spirit of the over 35s of decades gone by, when this league was more social and not as competitive as it has now become and despite being scrappy in a dull, goal-less first half, the match really came alive after the break. Craig ‘Shaka Zulu’ came on after the interval and looped a diagonal ball just onto the edge of the big box for Mathew ‘the tyre dude’ Powell to pull the trigger and execute a magnificent first time volley into the top corner of the goals.
Crusaders played an expansive game and let the ball do all the hard work and at times had the rusty Toti backline creaking and groaning with desperate tackles and hard running. After eating dirt Shane ‘Vinnie Jones’ O’ Brien bounced back with a one-two pass down the left wing with Avelino Lourenco, back from a bout of the dreaded flu.
Shane suddenly found himself with oodles of space deep in midfield and after setting his sights with a tap dance of sorts, lined up and delivered a pin-point cross deep into the danger area for Dean ‘the recoiling cobra’ Carson to slot home with a well-taken header and increase the lead by two goals. Crusaders fought back to reduce the deficit and were rewarded with a well-deserved goal after putting Toti under tremendous pressure.
The final score was 2-1 to Toti and well played to all the senior players for garnering a valuable three points to keep Toti out of the relegation zone, most of whom will not feature in the cup final, such is the depth of this huge over 35 squad. Man of the match went to Alan ‘the racing snake’ Rowe for refereeing the game under short notice and missing out on the opportunity of getting a run.
There are only two games left in the league with the last home match on Wednesday, 27 August against Roseglen and then the last league game of the season away to Yellowwood Park on 3 September. Then there is a week off to prepare for the big one against Juventus, the cup final at Crusaders in Durban North on Friday, 12 September.
