“Thought I'd better put it here too. Good game - and thanks for being so gracious when facing terrible dice!

The Rush have quietly made it to the furthest point in their long career in the OWCC, bettering their only other Cup appearance by getting through the first round...

Equipped with a wizard and a ball and chain, the Rush remained the underdog in terms of pure size. The reputation of the Pirates precedes them everywhere they go, and incredibly the two teams had never met before, despite both being 5 season veterans. Needless to say, the Rush game plan was to stay away from Siemon, and to attempt to run rings around the rest of the team.

The first half started well for BCR, with a quick redeployment of their defence allowing them to protect Vermyn, one of their key assets, who had foolishly been put in harms way. Things continued to go their way, as players left the field from both sides in roughly equal numbers. The rat wizard struck early in the half, sending a lightning bolt straight at Tomas Bot, who managed to dump the ball off to a well protected player.

At that point, the rats thought the wizard had been a waste of money, but the bolt forced a rethink from the Pirates, and the Rush were eventually able to get the ball loose. Cue an end-to-end scramble for the ball, involving unlikely Pirate passing plays and a rat riding the ball and chain to get in to range for a last ditch blitz on the Pirate ball-carrier quickly bearing down on the BCR endzone.

Both teams had good chances, but neither could score, and the first half ended 0-0. The light was fading, and both teams agreed to postpone the second half until later in the week.

This gave the Rush coaching team more time than they really wanted to think about their position: the Rush were receiving in the second half, and were still even in numbers. Do they score quickly, try to force a quick equaliser or (even better) knock the ball loose while they still had the personnel on the field, and then go for another quick TD to make it 2-1? Or do they risk losing players, and draw out the score?

In the end, Nuffle answered the questions for us, as the apparently brutal Pirate blockers completely failed to do any real damage to the rats, while several players were removed from their side by a well placed, extra sharp, horn. Their two big guys stood around staring at the sky, while the Rush moved the ball around the field, setting up the stall. The Pirates failed at everything they tried to do, but still managed to force the score with two turns to go - plenty of time to equalise and take it to over-time!

But the fans weren't having any of it. Their touchdown celebrations quickly turned into a riot, and by the time it was back under control, hardly any time was left on the clock.

Bring on the semi-finals!”