The Magic Number 23

Warriors vs Gloucester Did Not Disappoint 

Friday night [overly bright] lights and we witnessed a pretty spectacular game – for all the right reasons but sadly for a few of the wrong ones.

This is why I love rugby.  A massive shout out to my colleague, fellow Evertonian and all round top bloke Andy Price.  The man is a die hard Gloucester fan, wears Cherry & White glasses and loves Kingsholm but in the spirit of our sport he was painted up for the night.

Well done Andy!

Lets just get it out there – I didn’t at the time, I didn’t when I was having to watch the replay on my phone because the big screen broke and having seen it again – I still do not think that was a red card.

My only other comment on this is:

Same game different outcome! [The elbow hitting Lamb's head]

The screen and Elenex light display were way too bright and then broke.  The queues for beer were terrible.  I gave up twice and missed the first 15 minutes of the game trying to get a beer in the East stand.  The 2^nd time I gave up was because I actually witnessed the only three bar staff, with a queue of say 50 people ALL trying to pick up a pasty from the oven, at the same time – meaning not one person was pouring drinks for a good couple of minutes!

Right, that’s the bad bit out of the way.

I love the new cups and yes I fell for it and have kept a few, adding to the club funds by £10, though 4 of those were found left behind after the game.

Magic 23

Perry Humphreys, 23^rd Man – what a star performance?!

I am certain I am not the only Warrior fan who was less than impressed when realising that T’eo had been replaced at half time, but what a 40 minutes this lad had.

After the game I had a great experience, talking to a lovely lady at the bar when my daughter [5 year old] came to the bar to remind me that SHE is playing rugby Sunday, to this I explained to said lady that I was very proud of my daughter taking up rugby at such a young age – to which to turned to me with a pint in her hand saying “imagine how proud you will be when you get to buy your 21 year old son a pint after playing in the Premiership” – It is fair to say Perry’s family are of the same opinion as me, he had a blinding game!

Gloucester, scored 23 – Against 14 men

I can’t really fault Gloucester, they played well and didn’t leave any points on the pitch.

Worcester, scored 23 – 50% kick rate is killing us already!

The Performance - It really does make me feel vindicated.  

Following the Sarries defeat it was pretty hard to be a positive voice in the cloud of despair.  I was of the opinion that we had played well enough and showed signs of a well organised side - just that we were playing against the best club side in the Northern Hemisphere, if not the world!

Another player deserving a mention is DOC 

It was reported before the game that Donncha had a point to prove, having been left out of the team to face Sarries and my god did he prove it.

If it wasn't for the performance put in by Perry then Donncha would have got my man of the match.

That Result - Before the game I would have taken a draw.  Following our first half I still can't help but feel cheated.  When asked, Daisy declared Worcester would win 18-0, so that is where the money went.  Yet another example of head being over ruled by the heart.

That was by far our best performance in a long time and if not for a few key things going against us then we would have got the win.

The table after our first two games shows us not to be bottom, but we do have the worst points difference by a long way.  The beating we took from Sarries is going to take long time for us to recover.

23 is a pretty special number.  It is; A prime number, subject of multiple films, thought by the Chinese to be a symbol of sexuality, A holy number for Discordianists and has been used as a lucky shirt number for sports stars like Jordan & Beckam - well now it is My Magic Number, thanks to Perry Humphreys and the rest of the 23 man squad from last night.