Millwall Llamas (Second XV) 2008/2009

Fixtures

This weekend saw us travel to Basildon where we came away with a hard fought victory keeping our unbeaten season intact and extending are record to 11 and 0. See below for the match report and thanks go to Nic who it seems was playing a different game (we actually scored 4 tries and won 22-15...)

Millwall llamas 19 – 12 Basildon II

The lead up to the game began with a team talk from Pete Gent, who focused on the predictable clichés of first up tackling, big hits boys and the other usual suspects, sadly omitted from the talk were comments about 110% effort, game of two halfs, and the ever amusing nil-nil boys (normally after we walk a try in, but possibly more amusing in a pre-match team talk). It was then suggested that maybe we shouldn’t let them score first, this proved to be a big moment in the build up… would the llamas deviate from standard practice…. Im sure Shaf and Copper wouldn’t have suggested something so controversial. The chants of we are….. were ably led by Williams.

The game started brightly for millwall, with tiff kicking the ball with no height whatsoever right down the throat of their no.8, who then ran the ball back at us, luckily burrows was hiding behind someone else to let them tackle him before sneaking in and stripping the ball and passing it out to the backs, where some good running from them lead to a try for matt sanders.

However the llamas then proceeded to gallantly gift the opposition a try straight after the restart when the referee (who was suitably dressed like a clown in a similar top to stade francais for the occasion, given some of the shocking decisions given) decided that after a maul went to ground the millwall players that had rucked the Basildon players out the way through the middle were in fact all offside and that it was a penalty for Basildon, we then made it worse by giving the clown some lip, which he didn’t find so amusing, we were marched back 10…. this was taken quickly and lead to a try for Basildon, which wasn’t converted, 7-5. Llamas.

A second score for tiff came as a result of more good work from the forwards and the line out, which had been function well all day (credit to the #4 jumper whose name I cant remember) when burrows knocked down the opposistion throw straight to hooker Luke Sanders, who had a bit of a charge and ran over the Basildon winger who didn’t really fancy it. By now the tough tackling of llamas back row, (and kruger when he made it there) Jamie Smith and mike hall was making a mess of most of Basildons lump it straight up approach until a brief lapse led to Basildon equalising again. Yawn

The second half was always going to be tough with the wind not in our favour, and credit for the back row again for some tough tackling to keep Basildon out as the llamas decided to try out a new extreme rugby sport, camping on our own try line. We spent about 15 minutes sampling the fresh Basildon air between try line and our own 5, before a wonderful attempt at a box kick from Jamie smith went 2 metres forwards and landed back with the opposistion, allowing us to sample new sights of the ground a whole 7 metres away from our line.

Basildon didn’t score however, and this lifted the whole team, which led to a counter attack which narrowly pulled up short of the line. Chris Drake had now moved to scrum half, and reached in to the ruck and seeing the advancing Basildon uglies decided it would be better to let burrows get hit instead and so threw him the ball, burrows then handed off one of the uglies and proceeded to set up a maul which was driven by the back row (and ed Williams at the back looking smug) over the line for a millwall score, which was claimed by Williams, though whether this was to justify his prematch prediction of Im gonna score today is unknown. Millwall then received a kickoff with burrows taking the ball and proceeding to give a penalty away after a Basildon forward dived straight over for hands in the ruck, like I said earlier, dress like a clown, ref like a clown. Burrows was then worried he would have overtaken Smith in the dick of the day nominations instead of for his excellent box kick, however it was not to be, and millwall cleared their lines. A series of scrums on the Basildon 5 then occurred and a massive effort from the Llamas pack kept them there as time was ticking away, their last throw of the dice removed when Mike Hall cleared into touch on the last play of the game.

Omitted from the match report were the backs: tiff, matt sanders, george Jenkins, pete gent, tom still and chris Drake, who played very well and probably did a lot of very useful things that backs tend to do, however as this was written by a forward It was focused on important stuff, like Edds Moobs and the people that doo the hard work.

Special mention to for Ralph bond, who looked very lonely as a winger instead of a flanker and still played very well

Team Still Unbeaten.

For a list of fixtures please refer to the main fixtures page.

Season Stats

League table

Results table for the 08/09 season

This seasons point scorers

Team Llama

Hi, here's a nice photo of Team Llama. That's Copper on the left and Shaf on the right....

Feel free to call or email either of us if you have any questions about the Llamas, Millwall or anything club related. We also offer a handy counselling service for all life related issues. We're currently both single and looking, so feel free to bring any single girlfriends to the games (but let us know first so we can make sure we have room in the Llama Love Bus!!)

Contact the team managers at llamasmanager@millwallrugby.com or on 07866 719688 (Copper) / 07515 419353 (Shaf)