On what would’ve been Chris Scully’s 46th birthday, friends, former team mates and those who’d heard of the legend gathered at Gosford All Black’s Stratfield Brake sports ground to honour Chris in the best way they could think of – a game of rugby followed by a few beers. From the ragtaggle of bodies that rocked up, 26 brought kit and were divided into two teams – the reds in Gosford’s change strip and the blues in Oxford Harlequins IVs kit.

Despite a number of players being on the far side of 50, the game was played at a great pace and a surprising amount of skill (from some players).

After a minute’s silence with both teams interlinked in the middle of the pitch, there was much tooing and froing with the ball with some good ground made by David Hipkiss and Nick Jones in particular for the blues. This gave the field position for Simon Liddicott to show he still has a turn of pace as he cantered past a few tacklers and rounded the cover defence to register the first score, improved upon by Hipkiss (who made the majority of his conversions). (0-7)

Hard running (read high momentum) centre Jones was making good yardage every time he caught the ball (the reds were grateful this wasn’t every time). He did hold on to one pop pass from Hipkiss and as he cannoned through the middle of the red backline produced an outrageous step to wrong foot the fullback and head on over for a try. (0-14)

It was the red’s turn to strike next, the ball squirting loose from a disjointed scrum – kicked clear by Liddicott, the red’s left winger ran in almost unopposed past blue right winger Mark Cartwright and over for the score (7-14)

The next significant play saw Jones again hold on to a pass and after doing the hard yards, simple hands freeing Liddicott for the easiest score he’d have had in years. (7-21)

Shortly after this score, Steve Longthorp was waylaid with cardiac trouble – some assistance from nurse Burny and Dan & Liz Horwell got him to the ambulance where a trip to hospital resulted in a stent and some stern words about rugby at his age. Although looking at some of the ‘athletes’ on display, surprised only the one ambulance was needed.

With Longthorp (S) off the field and the half time changeover completed, the scrums were amended to uncontested, much to Bill Faulkner’s (still playing 80mins most weeks for Quins IVs at 60+) disgust. Hipkiss’s range of kicking presented a lineout opportunity for the blues just short of the line and Jones was not going to be stopped at that range, powering over from the centres when the ball was recycled. (7-28)

Cries of cheat followed as Joey Todd, the youngest player on the park at just over a third of Old Boy Bill’s age, used his youth and pace to create some space and finish in the corner, despite cries of foul as he shouldn’t have really been allowed to run more than 10m with the ball. (12-28)

As the players started to tire, mistakes started to occur more regularly providing much entertainment for the watching throng. Cartwright switched wings for the blues and his competition with Tim Bell on the spectator filled side of the pitch provided much amusement (and a few penalties for high tackles). One such mistake provided a gilt edged chance for Liddicott and he obliged with his hat trick try – although went off soon after clutching what he claimed was his hamstring. He did re-appear briefly later in the game after critisicm from his son that he was being soft. (12-33)

Talking of inspiration from offspring, Matt Todd was next on score sheet chasing down his own kick to score (17-33) before pouncing through an awful blue lineout to register a second and family Todd’s hat trick. (22-33).

Holes were now appearing everywhere, first Hipkiss stepped his way through a few of them to dive over the line (22-40) before Todd Jnr didn’t want to lose the household bragging rights and took off from the halfway line for a well taken score (29-40).

The final say went to the blues when Carl Brooks broke a few tackles off the back of lineout to register the game’s 11th try. Final score reds 29-47 blues.

Special mention to ref who allowed old school rules to apply – some of the rucking would sadly be frowned at these days and the offside line was where it used to be 10 years ago. Vince Scully’s lineout throwing style on the world stage since the onset of professionalism and same could be said of some the jumping too.

A great game to watch and fitting tribute to Chris, as was the amount of beer consumed in the bar after the game watching the Aussies overcome the Argies in the Rugby World Cup Semi-Final.

Get well soon Steve and thanks for arranging this.