It was under a lovely October sun that 22 (at last!!!) fierce BRFC players (along with some proud fans) met by the not so lovely Fort d'Aubervilliers metro station, near some not-lovely-at-all social project buildings in the Aubervilliers/Bobigny area. We were to face the PORC, an old enemy and traditionally a pretty good side, on a pitch that would have avoided Sebastiano's terrible injury had the swine been so kind as not to play in Vincennes last year...

Having arrived early and sucked on every isotonic/red bull thing we could find on the way, we were quite motivated while on the verge of starting this game, and the atmosphere in the changing room resembled the old-school kind of belligerence I was raised in – fantastic moment.
What followed however wasn't nearly as fantastic, despite an excellent first rush and a kicked penalty, as our first 20 minutes lacked a lot of what the rugby game is made of : cohesion, strategy and... most importantly, tackles. Our reaction came later, while we were already nearly 20 points down, but it possibly came too late – even though we managed to come back to 20-13 before half time. Once we started shaking those guys and tackling them properly, the game took a very different side indeed, and I strongly believe we could, had we been more efficient in attack and perhaps a bit fitter (though at times the referee did not help us, as he believed he was refereeing a France/England game), win this. The PORC was in such pain at the end of the game that they – very sportsmanlike indeed – decided to kick their last penalty 20 seconds before the final whistle...

In summary, the final score certainly does not reflect our performance. We probably need to keep on working on the forwards/back lines liaison and possibly have the forwards "work the ball" a little longer before sending it to the backs. Yet, what was remarkable is that we reacted as a team after the initial disastrous minutes. We also did so when our vocal counterparts attempted to turn this game into something more "physical" (nice moves from Sam, Paul and Toniol with that respect….). Finding that many people at the Cricketer's after the game, finally, was a reward per se.
The spirit is there, the results will come – let us keep it up Lads.

Man of the Match: Two Names (though Eudes deserves some praise for scoring the 13 points all by himself)
Special thanks to: Duncan and Robert for their first game with us and excellent performances
Villain of the Match: Cassoti (never was fun anyway...)

Nicolas Dolo