“Scavengers in the semi-finals! In our Third season, this is a dream come true! And then, who else do we meet than our icons, the Expats! The crew is walking on air. To think that we will be able to play the Expats! Only thing is, Our older teammates simply can't bear the thought of actually hitting one of the Expats... Winning chances? Bah... the Expats are way too good for us. If we were outclassed by the Pirates, that is as nothing against the Expats. They have strong saurii, skilled saurii, skinks with excellent agility, lots more experience, a better coach and have been in the play-offs many times before. We are rookies, and feel like it, and are even Down one saurii. They have so much more experience that we are allowed inducements for hundreds of thousands of crowns. The wizard for sure... something to use on any skink trying to break free on an offensive drive. Afer some hard Choices, we go with two bribes and Mr. Wulf. Not that the Wulf did well against the pirates... out in the first round, as I recall. But anyway... And the bribes allow us to really kick their fat asses when they are down. We are looking forward to this! And who knows, maybe we can pull off a surprise?

For once we are the receiving team, even though the crowd is obviously in favor of the wrong lizards... They probably haven't seen too much of the Scavengers yet. Expats start with a right-slanted formation where Gladiator, War-Criminal and Pirate are on the LOS. We meet them with everything we have, and hope to avoid a slip-up in the first round... Their kick was out of bounds (behind the end zone, actually), and we can give the ball to team Captain Fraternizer on the LOS. After the obligatory pushing and shoving on the LOS, the Expats are pushed backwards, and Mr Wulf earns his money by putting his saw to work on the Gladiator. Second later, there is blood and tiny bits of lizard shells all over the place, and the mighty Gladiator must leave the pitch. From what we later heard, the good ole' Warrior was sacked after this sorry performance...

The Expats aren't giving up easily, though (wouldn't be my heroes if they did, of course...), and the Pirate pushes Lightning away, giving the Dishonoured Officer a chance at blitzing Mr. Wulf. Down Wulf goes, and on top of a running chainsaw... Mr. Wulf crawls off the field a bit later with his left ankle attached only by threads to his leg. The Troublemaker and the Braggart sets up to prevent an easy score, but with two serious injuries in the very first minute of the match, this is getting ugly... Team Captain Fraternizer decides that the line of attack needs to be changed, and all the saurii shifts to the right, surrounding the Dishonoured officer. Fraternizer himself blitzes the Fatalst who goes Down, but when Water Winner tries to foul, he is spotted by the referee, and despite 200.000 in bribes, the ref delights in sending poor Winner off. Suddenly Fraternizer is within Reach of the Expats! Eager for a quick turnover, the Expats move the War Criminal and the Braggart to tie down Scavenger players, but the Dishonoured Officer fails to get Fraternizer down, as the Team Captain steps back and clings to the ball. The Bounty Hunter knocks himself over when trying to topple Lightning, and the Scavengers regain the initiative.

Protector stuns the Dishonoured officer who was in an exposed position in the Scavenger rear, and that frees up Fraternizer, who can run the ball forward and all the way to the extreme right sideline. Wiggler and Warrior flansks him, but when Lightning is about to blitz the Warrior-Philosopher, he headbutts the skinks horn Crest and stuns himself. This gives the Expats an extra chance, and skinks blocks the way forward as first the Bounty Hunter slips the coverage and marks Down Fraternizer, and then the Dragon Isles Pirate does likewise and blitzes Fraternizer, and wrestles him to the ground, popping the ball free. Wiggler grabs for it as it comes loose, but misses. The Braggart tries to Dodge away from Swimmer to get at the ball, but is divetackled to the ground by Swimmer. The ball is loose, however, and Booser and Protector runs to the scene to help out. Wiggler tries to free up some Space by blocking the Fatalist, but that only allows him to sidestep neatly to cover the ball. Fraternizer, however, is luckier and blitzes the Bounty Hunter, and pushes him away. This frees up a hole for Jungle Warrior, who grabs the ball in the tacklezone of the Fatalist, and Dodges away and out through the hole made by Fraternizer, and sprints the ball over the goal line. 1-0 Scavengers, but we are down one man to 10, and there is still enough time for the Expats to score in this half.

We go with a 3-player LOS with Claws, Brewer and Lightning and then form up behind them, and the Expats go with a 4-player left-slanted LOS and Three skinks on the right flank. We kick a short kick to their left, and hope for the best. The Expats shifts their whole formation to their left side and have their six saurii well placed to cover their front, and then the skinks as a second layer just in front of the Toady, who fails to pick up the ball. We position ourselves on our right to oppose the Expats, with only Claws and Wiggler to guard the left side. This quickly proves to be a tactical blunder, since the Expats plow through the middle when the Dragon Isles Pirate grabs Lightning and pulls him away from the LOS and the Dishonoured officer blitzes Claws away. Suddenly a wast hole guarded by Expats saurii opens, and all Our saurii are blindsided. the Toady manages to pick up the ball and hands it over to the Fatalist, who runs like crazy for the goal line. Extreme measures are needed, and we call on our last trick of the night, the wizard. He points his finger at the Fatalist and zaps him off the Field. unlike the bribes, the wizard proved to be well invested money. However, we are not in the free yet. Since Wiggler is tied Down by the divetackling Warrior/Philosopher, we need to make way for our other skinks. Thus, Booster and Fraternizer makes way for the skinks, and breaker Dodges through to cover the ball. Unfortunately, as Warrior tries to Dodge the same hole on his way to pick up the ball, he is tripped by the Braggart and knocks himself out in the fall. Damnation! Now it is easy for the Dishonoured officer to send Breaker off the field for the match With a well-placed kick, and the ball is unprotected and easily picked up by the Rebel, who runs it all the way down to the goal line. He stalls there, hoping for the Expat saurii to create more havoc. Desperate, the Scavengers create a daring plan. Wiggler Dodges the divetackling opponent and helps Lightning to blitz the Dragon Isles Pirate. The blitz was only a pushback, but that is enough, as the following push and shove on the LOS helps Swimmer to get within range of the Rebel. Claws beraks free of his opponents too, and both the Dargon Isles Pirate and the Bounty Hunter is toppled by the hardworking Scavenger sauriis.

Suddenly, the sure score may be foiled, as Swimmer has both divetackling and sidestep and thus is hard to get rid of. The Expats sends help to the beleaguered Rebel, and Toady, Warrior/Philosopher and the War Criminal all runs toward teh endzone, while the Dishonoured officer blitzes Swimmer. Swimmer cunningly dodges, however, and sidesteps away, making sure to keep the Rebel in his sights. However, With six Expats coming for him, Swimmer needs to try something desperate, so he dodges out, builds up some speed and runs right into the Rebel, tackling him to the ground. the Rebel looses the ball, but unfortunately, Swimmer can't get back on his feet and it's easy for the toady to pick up the ball and run in the TD just as the ref signals the end of the half. 1-1 at halftime, and we are now 9 players against 10, but the Expats start With the ball, and can keep it well, covered while whittling away using their numerical (and skills) advantage. Gah... if only Warrior had managed the dodge and the pick up...

The formationsa are similar to last time, and again, we og for a short kick, but this time it was too high, and so the Expats had time to see where it landed and place the Rebel there to Catch it neatly. The Dishonoured officer knocks Brewer out of the game, and Claws and Lightning are also bowled over, and the Rebel is kept safe at the midline. No Expats in a scoring position yet. We need to be daring before any more players are lost, so we confront their formation and sends Swimmer in to mark down the Rebel. Unfortunately, the Martialist manages to pull him to the ground and stun him, and the Rebel shifts to the Expats left, covred by only two skinks, the Toady and the Braggart. We may have another chance, and Fraternizer blitzes the Toady and bowls him over, while Wiggler and Warrior surrounds the Rebel. We have local superiority, but the Expats are on our tails... Lightning tries desperately to hold up Three Expats saurii, but is beaten almost to death by the War Criminal, and sent off the Field. The apothecary thought he was actually dead, but closer examination showed that he only had a smashed ankle. Anyway, he won't be playing more in this match, and we are 7 to 10. The Troublemaker is now free to blitz Fraternizer away, thus freeing up the Rebel. The Expats want to stall, however, and the Rebel retreats to the right side behind a screen of saurii. Warrior trips up and stuns the Braggart, who was on his way to give coverage to the Rebel, and runs to cover the Rebel himself instead. Fraternizer stuns the Toady in a blitz, and suddenly there is no skink coverage left for the Expats. Instead, Wiggler can give support to Warrior, and the Rebel is suddenly marked down by two scavenger skinks! Claws gets on the side of the saurii screen, and can help Booster and Protector to push the screen backwards. The Expats saurii struggle to push back, and the Dishonoured officer's Block of Swimmer only allows him to move closer to the Rebel, and then, as the Dragon Isles Pirate attempts to break the tackles on him, he is tripped by the Booster and the Scavenger sees their chance! Booster pushes the Bounty Hunter away, freeing up Claws to move in a position to mark the Rebel and help Protector at the same time. Fraternizer takes away the Warrior/philosopher, and then its time for Wiggler to Block the Rebel. The attack sends the Rebel off the field with a deep gash in his side, and the ball is loose! However, the Bounce takes it across the Group of fighting saurii, and blindsides the scavenger skinks. Sigh... Protector bowls the Martialist over and out of the way to free the ball. This allows the Swimmer to fire up himself and the crowds, who are screaming like crazy as he dodges the War Criminal, dances around the Dishonoured Officer, picks up the ball and runs around the Pirate and the Martialist who are prone on the ground to make the handover to Warrior... who fails to Catch the ball! One easy ball, and he was within scoring range, too... Double damnation! THe Expat skinks are now back in action and surrounds the ball as the Troublemaker blitzes Warrior. Warrior sidesteps away from the first hit, but the frenzied Troublemaker finally catches him, and sends him off th field hurt. The ball is free and easily picked up by the Toady. Fraternizer pushed the Warrior/Philosopher away to allow Wiggler a chance to dodge free, but he is tripped by the Martialist. Desperate measures are once again needed, and Fraternizer blitzes the divetackling Warrior/philosopher and sends him hobbling off the field. This frees up our two remaining skinks to run for the ball. Expats must send the Martialist and the Dishonoured Officer to help the skinks, and Toady can move closer to the goal line. However, as Braggart moves to support him, Swimmer divetackles him, gets up and tries to dodge the Martialist to get at the Toady as well, but is tripped, and the Toady can score the winning TD. With Warrior out we have no chance of equalising the game to allow extra time, and it likely wouldn't have helped much anyway, as we are now only 6 players against the Expats 8. We use the final play to attempt a completion by Swimmer, but he fails, and the ref calls time.

A bitter loss. We had the chance in the middle of the second half With the phantastic play by Swimmer, if only Warrior had caught the ball. Anyway, it was a good game, and we are proud of over boys. Best of luck to our worthy opponent, and hopefully they will go on to win the tournament!







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