Who Cares Who Wins? (boyxboy)

Chapter 17. Cup Game - Part Two.

Clifton.

Clifton's POV.

I knew we had to abandon Dickie's game plan and switch the play to the left side and so I lined our backline to the left instead of the right to use River Brock-Chapman out on the left wing.

Fabian ignored my commands to distribute the ball to me, instead he used Kasper who threw a really long ball out wide towards Trevor on the right wing touchline.

One of their forwards easily intercepted the pass, and with our right side exposed, ran for a touchdown right between the posts.

I rounded on Fabian for ignoring my commands and was immediately backed up by Leo and Bradley. Kasper and Trevor aligned themselves with Fabian, of course, but it didn't alter the fact that a try had been scored from an elementary error. The opposition had then converted the subsequent kick adding, in total, another 7 points to their total.

As the game progressed they scored six more points from penalties, leaving their score standing at 26 points to our miserable 3 points with the game approaching halftime.

At our next scrum down, Fabian was less than decisive in passing the ball out to me and although I did catch it and managed to pass it on positively to Franklyn, he made a complete hash of his catch by spilling the ball and allowing the opposing forward to gather it up and head for a touchdown.

Zane floored the attacker in the nick of time but the position it left us in meant that we were now in real trouble. As the opposition pressed forward to attempt a touchdown on the left hand side, River intercepted a pass and broke into a charge upfield and well into their half.

Zane, Leo and I reacted quickly and followed on in support. River released the ball to me as the Danescroft's full back attempted to tackle him and I passed on to Zane who went on to score our first try.

The cheers from our supporters as I lined up to take the conversion kick was almost deafening but as I stood silently to position myself the noise abated and there was a deathly hush around the pitch.

It was not a good position for me. It was on the left hand side of the pitch and the angle was very tight. I lined up my kick and took four steps back and one to the side as my brother had always done.

A swift few strides forward and a firm kick saw the ball soaring towards the nearside goalpost. I thought it was going to miss but it hit the inside of the post and went over.

I was so relieved to see the red flag being raised by the linesman behind the goal, indicating I had scored 2 more valuable points.

At half time, with the score now standing at 10 points to us and 26 points to Danescroft, Dickie surprised us all by replacing Fabian with Chalky and Franklyn with Dexter Bailey, one of the 1st XV usual reserves.

He then hauled Kasper off to one side and, with a series of firm, angry pokes with his finger to Kasper's chest, berated him for his mistake. He then signalled to Logan to strip off and get ready to replace Kasper.

Trevor didn't escape Dickie's wrath either and was threatened with being replaced by Niko Dela Cruz if he didn't follow my back line calls. That didn't sit well with him, as his subsequent scowl in my direction indicated.

For all Dickie's faults and alleged favouritism he was clearly showing everyone that wasn't past ditching anyone to achieve the win he demanded.

We maintained the momentum we had at the end of the first half into the second with River scoring a try. I scored with the conversion, and then scored with another penalty kick shortly after, gaining us valuable points to bring our total up to a more respectable 19 points. Another try and conversion, without them scoring, would see us draw level.