OSB continues his journey along the optics at the Members Bar, bumping into players as he goes. (should have gone to Specsavers Richard) Today he has second chance to chat with Mark Easter, and to discover if his taste in twice cooked comestibles has changed since their last encounter
Tales from the Members' Bar
No.16 Mark Easter
(Part II)
As we sat down to
renew our acquaintance, Mark Easter was surprised to learn that his piece had
been the subject of the biggest post-bag of this series. I think it was a bit
of an anticlimax for him when I recounted the arguments in the Jaffa: Cake or Biscuit debate. I put him on
warning that, this time, he had to choose something unequivocally softer when
stale than fresh. More of that later.
Chatting about
National League One, Mark thinks we have acquitted ourselves well. There is
plenty of nous in our forwards (he was not so unkind as to use the words: old
heads) - especially the front row - to take on the big feisty packs and provide
the platform for the attacking rugby we have seen throughout the season. There
is the usual amount of analysis of the opposition - it would be folly to go
into a game unaware of how the opponents play when there is so much video
record around - but the main focus of training is to concentrate on our own
game. It is important to the team and the coaches to be able to impose our own
patterns of play on the game.
Undoubtedly there is
some talent in the league and he would not be surprised to see some of those we
have come up against featuring in Guinness Premiership sides in the near future.
He is looking forward
to another tussle against Bedford
and the chance to come up against Nic Strauss - a formidable opponent and a
right royal pain in the backside - with whom he played a bit of 7-a-side during
his early years. Mind you, Saturday might be taken a little more seriously than
a tournament in the sun-drenched tax haven of the Cayman
Islands.
A win on this weekend
will put us one step closer to a Twickenham final. This is something Mark has
already experienced. On the day that Saints played Gloucester, Mark was on duty for Old
Alleynians in the Powergen Junior Vase. Unlike Saints, he came away a winner.
Mark was a student at the time and had done a fair bit of travelling up and
down from Nottingham to earn a place in the
side for the final. He arrived at headquarters straight from a geography field
trip...in Majorca, Mark? Are you sure?
Looking to the future
with the seemingly weekly announcements of new players arriving and existing
players re-signing, it seems as though the squad will be considerably stronger
if and when the challenge of the Premiership comes round. With two seasoned
back-rowers from Ulster
joining the squad there will be tremendous competition for the starting places.
With the arrival of Wilson
and Best we really will be able to see if Hopley and Easter are up to the mark.
When it comes to
topping up the coffers of the VAT man, Mark has chosen chocolate caramel
digestives - something else that he and Hoppers have in common.
I'm not sure that the individidualy wrapped caramel wafer (the staple of the Scottish diet) can be considered as a biscuit in the strict confines of the 'Jaffa Cake Edict 2008'
Anyway Rugby Times have been reading this site again and especially OSB's interviews. They report today we are chasing Italian prop Gari Baldi.
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