“A new season and a new hope; and the only opportunity to prepare. Real for the long grind ahead. Despite being advised against it, Real challenged former OBBA Cup rivals, Houston Rats… keen to cash in on the Rats large following.

Real sacked their Season One veteran Mummy, Mikel González who had been carrying a niggling injury all last season, attributing to some tough games, in an attempt to reduce the wage bill .

Real’s hope of giving some Zombies some ball handling experience was ruled out by the rain and the job fell to rookie Wight, Gaizka Garitano Agirre. Real made a concerted move to the right flank and was quickly bogged down by side stepping Rats that they couldn’t budge whilst Houston’s clawed players took every opportunity to blitz the delicate Real players, even the 32 game Ghoulish team captain, Karla Larburu who seemed less than impressed with the so-called friendly tackles that were flying his way.

Real changed tact and quickly shifted play to the left flank, using Zombies as shields to guide Gaizka to the end zone to make it 1 – 0.

Second half and Real were down to 10 men, the Claws on the LOS quickly cut this to 9 men as Chris Glutton, previously signed from Sylvannia Villa, was taken off with a smashed hand, an injury that may threaten his short career.

The Rats bombarded the backfield and Real put up a virtual token gesture of defence that couldn’t stop the speed or agility of the Rats from making a relatively easy score.

1 – 1

Real were at the ball again and slowly moved forward. The Rats broke through after another claw blitz on Real’s star Mummy-wannabe Zombie, Fredrik Olsson, and crowded the ball carrying Gaizka.

Real could have sent two players into the crowd but opted not to due to the friendly nature of the game… a leniency few have been awarded in the past.

Real then failed to move all the rats effectively and soon after Gaizka was sacked and Houston took the ball. Karla, who had been hanging back, could be a spectator no more… he darted in, sacked the Gutter Runner and recovered the ball, showing Houston what Real were really made of. The unstoppable Team Captain then made a sterling run from one of the pitch to the other to score the winning TD.

2 – 1

===
A friendly game that wasn’t very competitive at all, really – Azure and I chatted about other things through most of it whilst his wife did a grand job of distracting him.
Despite Azure’s unyielding claw blitzes to my best players :P I managed to curb my bloodlust and not take two easy chain push surfs, or another easy block surf, despite it being in my best interest to do so… I’m too nice. :)

Not quite the score fest I had imagined, 3-3 verses InteRatzionale last season, but 80K winnings, and a +FF at the cost of a Zombie makes it a successful friendly nonetheless.

Thx for the game Azure
”