Pointless? Not these streetwise stars

OLD Streetonians in London’s east end profess to having ‘a story like no other rugby club’, one formed by ‘artists and vagabonds’ in Shoreditch during the early Nineties.

Their other claim to fame (‘We Play Rugby Like No Other’) takes some justifying. They lived up to it on Hackney Marshes last weekend, at home to London Welsh a long way down from the Premiership in London’s third division, NorthWestern section.

In foul conditions, Old Streetonians fought their corner against a club fallen on hard times since the early Seventies when they could parade more current Lions than any other British or Irish team. The match ended 0-0, the first of its kind that anyone could remember anywhere since Scotland and New Zealand at Murrayfield in 1964.

Some of a Red Dragon persuasion dismissed the result with sniffy condescension, as damning evidence of how far London Welsh has fallen.

I prefer to think of it as a mighty boost for the pride of Shoreditch, a club that boasts of putting out three teams every Saturday.

Never can a club have been entitled to gain so much from a draw that proved anything but pointless. As of Friday night, Old Streetonians stood on top of their League, ahead of London Welsh.

Had he been there, the late Mervyn Davies would have been the first to buy the East Enders a congratulatory round.