Paphos Tigers vs. Nicosia Barbarians

Paphos Tigers vs. Nicosia Barbarians
25th October 2008
by Barrie Hattam

Paphos Tigers 63 Nicosia Barbarians 0

This year the Nicosia Barbarians comprised the usual civilian stalwarts and members of the British TA (Territorial Army) and some Argentinean Solders all based in Nicosia with the United Nations, the guys have not been on the Island long and had their first training session together on Wednesday. They came up against a Tigers team who had obviously done their homework after their performance against Limassol last week, the forwards worked as a unit both in the set piece and the loose, the backs passed quickly, ran incisively and above all gave each other that magic ingredient in rugby, support.

Right from Marcus Holden’s kick off the forwards were on the ball, taking the attack just short of the Barbarians line, where they camped for the next six minutes until Tony Thoma went over under the posts for the Tigers first try, Marcus kicked the conversion as he did for all of the eight Tigers tries that followed. The Tigers forward domination was such that they were able to push the Barbarians off their own ball in the scum and move the ball upfield to give the backs a good platform to work from, the next five tries all being scored by the backs, Kyle Oleofse, Adam Moffit, Marcus Holden, George Agathocleous and Tony Crassas all scoring. Open side flanker Chris Thoma having provided great support throughout the half to both forwards and backs finished the first half scoring with a try under the posts.

After the break the Tigers carried on where they had left off and soon Man of the Match, outside centre Tony Crassas, expertly picked up a loose ball weaving his way through the Barbarians defence and offloading neatly to full back Matt Lowe nicely placed in support for another try under the posts. The restart saw the Tigers drive their way into the Barbarians half and it wasn’t long before the defence were forced into a mistake and number eight Deano pounced on a loose ball to barge his way over for a try in the corner.

Unfortunately the Barbarians had been picking up injuries throughout the game and when front row forward “Sapper” White went down with a knee injury all Barbarian subs had been used, after a consultation with the Captains, Referee Doug Mc Allister called an end to the game at 65 minutes, the result standing at a win for the Tigers 63-0.

Sapper White and Marcus Holden both had injuries that required a hospital visit but thankfully both were found fit enough to be sent to the Keg and Barrel to join the fun and partake of some of the Kegs fine food and ale.........you should try it !

The Tigers next game is 15th November away to Ayios Nikolaos Stags.

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