Backy's boys bring home the bacon

By Tigerstart
March 8 2003

Whether you wanted to see Dean Richards with his socks down on the pitch making a come-back; Easy Jet pilot Tony flying down the wing with Rory or Leicester’s very own favourite Cocky, then you had to be at Neil Back’s Testimonial match.

Kicking off in incessant drizzle on Friday 7th March 2003, Backy gathered together past, present and future Tigers stars that competed against a select Barbarian side managed by former Kiwi Zinzan Brooke.

The present Tigers side mixed with some old hands and bright new young talent managed to score at the death in the second half to edge victory by 9 points over a combative and well orchestrated Baabars side, that had been well educated by Cocky, to win by 21-12 points.

The Barbarians kicked off, playing left-to-right and spent the majority of the half encamped in Leicester’s half. Persistent tackling stopped the onslaught from the Baabars, where the action was too far away for a clear view (plus it was a strain on TT’s back). In the 11th minute, Balding made a darting break from the lineout and made some ground. Kafer became stuck as he tried to fly-hack the ball down the blind side but was marked by the covering defence. Cocky had a small meeting on the pitch with Pezza in the 13th minute. In a move started by the former Leicester hooker, the ball was fed through to centre Norm Berryman who ran in unopposed. Nicky Little struck the conversion and the Barbarians went into the lead 0-7 points. Yet again Balders made another break in the 21st minute. After two unsuccessful attempts to touch the ball down, due to stiff defence under pressure, the Baabars spun the ball wide and winger Diego Albaneso touched down in the right hand corner. Little missed the conversion but at half-time, the Barbarains had opened up a 0-12 point lead.

Tigers kicked off in the second half. There was a small handbags-at-dawn incident between locks Deacon and Brent Cockbain but that was soon settled as Balding was peace maker. Leicester held the majority of possession in the Barbarians half. All evening, winger Boothie had been strutting his stuff on the pitch, weaving in and out and around the Baabars, and finally his mazey-style of running foxed their defence and could not keep up with his electric pace. Booth scored in the 59th minute and Stimpson slotted over the conversion, to narrow the score to 7-12.

A host of changes on both sides was welcomed by the Welford faithful as young guns (who are rising stars in TT’s book), Vesty, Myring, Buckland, Gerry, Cooke and Jones were combined with the former stalwarts of the Underwoods (electric as ever and not aged much either), Wells, Richards (who talked to his public rather than doing any warm-up exercises and was soon out of breathe) and Poole. Strategic changes were made as Myring went to full-back and Stimpson moved onto the wing. Former player Serrvi lined up at fly-half for the Baabars. Buckland faced a stiff challenge in getting to grips for Leota, which he handled well.

Tigers appeared to have more direction and a better game-plan platform, as they had quality possession and put the Barbarians under pressure. Stimpson ran in unmarked under the posts in the 78th minute and converted his own try. The Baabars side thought that the referee was going to whistle for a penalty but Buckland’s agility and a lack of defence saw him storm over in dying seconds of the game. The conversion was no problem for Stimpson as Tigers were victorious 19-12.

Due to poor weather and a high volume of supporters of the terraces, it was not ample reporting conditions. However, the true British spirit prevailed and TT soldiered on through the game. Quote of the day goes to Sam Rossiter-Stead who worked the PA system (Tigers PR man), as he said: “Tigers impact player is… Deano”!

It was an evening for the Tigers faithful and the entry money of £8 was well worth it, not only to pay tribute to the career spanning Leicester, England and Lions of Neil and that the profits were split between Backy’s Testimonial Year and the families of two policemen Andrew Munn and Bryan Moore who were killed on duty last summer; but for the fact that you could reminisce over some past legends at Welford Road in the form of speedy Tony, roaring Rory and the famous gait of Deano with hands on hips commanding the pack.

Whilst it was nice to saw the old timers, it was equally interesting to note the use of several U21 players as replacements. Interestingly, Myring came on as full-back when he does normally play at fly-half, but he had a combative game at NO.15 – engaging in play and seeking every opportunity to run the ball. Buckland was instructive and dynamic as ever – he faced a good test against Leota. Captain for the evening Gelderbloom, an under-rated players, made a telling contribution of hard graft, along with Tierney, who is surely pushing to stat at NO.9 for the first team. Encouraged by the crowd, Raynor seemed to get more confidence in the second half and got his hands on the ball. It will be interesting to see who plays on Monday evening (10th March) when the Extras host Gloucester at Welford Road (k/o 7pm) – more match practice for Tierney and Raynor?

Scoring sequence:

14 mins Try Berryman and con Little 0-7

36 mins Try Albaneso 0-12

58 mins Try Booth and con Stimpson 7-12

78 mins Try Stimpson and con Stimpson 14-12

80 mins Try Buckland and con Stimpson 19-12

Date: Friday 7th March 2003

Time: 7.45pm k/o

Weather: incessant drizzle and cold nippy wind Crowd: 6,890

Referee: didn’t get his name but he was on the one hand a comedy of errors and took the game far too seriously

Man-of-the-match: Adam Balding for his snipping/darting runs and breaks, as well as his peace-making skills

Sinbin: none

Match reporting team: TT Present: Pinky, Pinky’s dad, Raz, Raz Junior, Raz Junior’s mate, Zara, No Worries, No worries friend, loud-one-at-the-back, Tallbird, Tigeress and Gaz (where was Pebbles?)

Spotted: Lewis Moody (arm in sling after shoulder operation)

Tigers Team managed by Neil Back:

15 Tim Stimpson 14 Gareth Raynor 13 Glen “GG” Gelderbloom (CAPTAIN) 12 Rod “Dave” Kafer 11 Steve Booth 10 Craig McMullen 9 Tom Tierney 1 Perry Freshwater 2 George Chuter 3 Ricky “Eastender” Nebbett 4 Peter Short 5 Louis Deacon 6 Will Johnson 7 Luke Abraham 8 Adam Balding

Replacements: 22 James Buckland (60 mins on for 2 Chuter), 25 Darren Garforth (60 mins on for Nebbett), 21 Matt Poole (70 mins on for 4 Short), 26 Ben Gerry (34 mins on for 7 Abraham), Rob Cooke (32 mins on for 5 Deacon), 20 John Wells (70 mins on for 6 Johnson), 24 Dean Richards (70 mins on for 8 Balding), 16 Nathan Jones (70 mins on for 9 Tierney), 27 Sam Vesty (34 mins on for 10 McMullen), 19 Luke Myring (60 mins on for 12 Kafer), 18 Tony Underwood ( 32 mins on for 11 Booth), 17 Rory Underwood (70 mins on for 14 Raynor) and Andy Key (32 mins on for 13 Gelderbloom).

Barbarians Team managed by Zinzan Brook:

15 Tony Delport (Gloucester) 14 Diego Albanese (Leeds) 13 S Bonetti (Beziers) 12 Norm Berryman (Bourgoin) 11 P Bondouy (Mont de Marsan) 10 Nicky Little (Saracens) 9 Morgan Williams (Saracens) 1 Craig Dowd (Wasps) 2 Richard Cockerill (Montferrand) (CAPTAIN) 3 Darren Morris (Swansea) 4 Brent Cockbain (Ponypridd) 5 Troy Jacques (Montferrand) 6 Alex Audebert (Montferrand) 7 Warren Brosnihan (Ulster) 8 Jim Williams (Munster) Replacements: 16 Trevor Leota (53-58 mins on for 2 Cockerill and Cockerill back on 58 mins for 6 Audebert), 18 Ben Wheeler (53 mins on for 8 Williams), 19 (61 mins on for 12 Albanese), 21 (61 mins on for 13 Bonetti), 20 Servei (70 mins on for Little.)