A Great Day Out!

By Elliott Josypenko
April 18 2005

Fortunately I managed to sleep on the coach and by the time we were there (8.30) I was ready for anything. Well...

After having walked round the stadium about 3 times looking for food I settled for a pork bap and by the time it was all finished, the big kick off was fast approaching.

So we all took to our seats in the West stand. In total there were about 3000, many decked out in gold and white or claret and gold. A great atmosphere with the Sheffield fans singing their team along. Admittedly we struggled a little. It's hard to find a tune to sing that works with three syllables!

Anyway- I can't remember much of the match but for the first half Solihull really looked on top, and probably shouldn't have gifted their opponents the two opening tries.

In reality, over the 80 minutes, Sheffield were the better side, but Solihull definitely had a chance of winning and the lack of experience and the sheer awe of playing at Twickers probably worked against them.

Congratulations to Largey who scored a great try from hooker. It clearly meant a lot to him to score on the hallowed turf and he continued to have a great game in difficult conditions.

Next up on the Twickenham turf was Bedford -v- Plymouth. As a regular to the Powergen Cup Final I always enjoy this game especially as a neutral. This encounter was a great game, easily the best of the day and I felt a little sorry for Albion. The Bedford fans all massed on the East stand and made huge amounts of noise. The Albion fans appeared to stick to their seats (as they were meant to) and so were in small pockets of little noise. In the match itself, Albion were ahead for most of the time and had a perfectly good try chalked off. Bedford kept plugging away and managed to sneak ahead in the 76th minute. All credit to Albion who carried on throwing the ball about determined to get close for a penalty.

The main game was another huge step up and the sheer power and speed of the Premiership showed. Some huge hits from Leeds kept them ahead. Admittedly in the second half they had virtually no possesion in the second half (12% according to Dad watching the telly), they still put the massive tackles in and stopped the Bath players from advancing.

Well played the Yorkshire men!

By this time I was struggling to stay awake (no offence to the game) and on the way back to the coach we were collared by the Solihull Elite and the Rolls Royce! I was tortured and forced to eat lots of nice food. The chocolate things were very nice. I didn't manage to thank whoever sorted all of the food, so thank you very much!

On the coach I had a nice sleep.

A great day was had by all, although probably a little long.