 Click to join fredrugby |
| Home | Guestbook | Contacts | Message Board | Things To Do | Events | Links |
Oh, well where to begin??? We knew we were going up to play USUHS with some missing key players, but we didn't think we would only have 14!! When you look at it, we were missing 12 guys all who would have made a difference. But it is not like they were all at the Colonial Beach High School football game on Saturday. We had 4 guys down to injury, 2 who had college alumni affiliated activities, 3 who had work problems, 2 with family issues and 1 with a wedding. It isn't like they were sitting on the couch in a pair of boxer shorts watching football, they mostly had legit reasons for missing the game. Anyway, on to the match....
Like previously stated we traveled light for the trip. We knew USUHS was at the bottom of the barrel this year, with a record of 0-8. We knew that they had forfeited at least two games this fall. We also knew that when we got there, we had 13 players, 2 that had never, ever played rugby. Luckily for us there was a willing guy on the sideline who was a friend of Rob Monastra and was convinced to don a pair of boots and a pair of shorts and have a run. So, when you take a closer look at it we had 11 guys that had played, 3 who had never played.
The match started off and the pack seemed a little out of it. USUHS did a good job at the rucks with pick & gos and recycling the ball. Our forwards seemed to do a good job of making the tackle and then watching. Eventually USUHS would spin the ball to the backs and our backs would make the tackle but it didn't take too long for them to get an advantage and score. Then our green prop, "Fat" Matt went down with a strained calf. Great, that gives us 13 players. Tony DiMaio stepped in for the first scrum down at prop and, well it didn't work out, we only had 6 guys pushing. Stan Fissel then relinquished his coveted scrumhalf job and stepped in at prop and things settled down. The rest of the first half played out with USUHS pretty much camped in our half. They got one more try to bring the score at halftime to 10-0.
The second half was a different story. I wouldn't say we came out fired up, but we were much more determined. I can't recall all the action but we were probably in their half for about 30 minutes or so. Cisco kicked two penalties to draw the score to 10-6. We spent what seemed like 10 minutes inside their 22 meter line but lost a ruck and they were able to break through our line. Cisco was there to make a nice tackle on the ballcarrier but they had someone in support and we didn't. They were able to score another try to bring the score to 17-6. We promptly took a ruck or a lineout and spent another 5 minutes inside their 5 meter line. Danny "King George" O'Hara was able to score a nifty try to draw the score to 17-13. The clock eventually ran out on us and USUHS gets their first win.
Positives: Mike Bovan, playing in his first match ever and playing at inside center after practicing once at hooker, played well. He ran hard and made tackles. Cisco continued to make nice counters and made all of his kicks. Danny ran hard all day with little or no support. The forwards were able to hold their own for the majority of scrums even with 1 man down. Shaw even made a few tackles.
Negatives: Well there is not much we can do when a lot of outside events and injuries take away 12 players. The real downside is that we had an outstanding chance to complete our season with a winning record and we missed it.
Bonus: Congratulations to our Man of the match, Danny O'Hara
|
Click to join fredrugby |