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Saturday morning rolled around and we had 15.5 (the .5 being Cooter) players available due to injury, work commitments, and no shows. Among those 15 were Matt "Kool Aid" Denny earning his first cap with the club and fellow rookies Greg "Junior" Hartman, Chris "Kid Chris" Schultz and Larry "?" Stevens. That left us with 11 guys who have played more than one season; not exactly what you want when you play a team that made the playoffs last spring. Furthermore, they weren't happy about our "smack talk" on our schedule page (http://www.dcrugby.org/, midway down the page) It seemed we were giving them every advantage we could, except the most crucial when it comes to D-III rugby: Home Field Advantage. As the match started it should be mentioned that they were missing some of their bigger and key players. It turns out they got lost and ended up in Richmond. Anyway, the match started out with West Pot dominating in open play, winning rucks and mauls with their superior size. But our back line was stout in defense once again, making all their tackles. After about 15 minutes in our half, an opportunity presented itself and the backs took one of West Pot's miscues and scored a try. Then, on the ensuing kickoff we took it back again for another try. This gave us the lead, 12-0. Shortly after, West Pot nailed a drop kick to narrow the gap, 12-3. The RRC forwards won a few rucks and got the ball out to the backs and bam! another try, 17-3. Around 30 minutes into the half, West Pot brought in a sub or two and were recharged, scoring a try to make it a one score game, 17-10. Not to be outdone, the Rappahannock backs put in another try before the half ended to make the score 22-10, Rappahannock.
The second half started off like the first with West Pot rucking and mauling the ball down the field. But the heat of the day wore on them quicker than it did us, and they started to lose the rucks. That fact along with our backline's tackling ability (special mention to Jeff "Cooter" Frankston who had no business being on the field, let alone playing wing, making a one on one open field tackle against his opposite number probably saving a try in the process) lead to us putting in two more tries for a final score of 34-20.
A solid victory over a quality opponent. I didn't keep track of who scored when, but I do know that Cisco, Bucket and Danny O'Hara scored two tries each. From the score, we only made two of our six conversion kicks.
Upsides:Good play all around. The backs played well together and were especially tough on defense. The forwards were outsized, played hard and outlasted their larger counterparts.
Downsides:Numbers. Only having 15 or 16 guys for a home match is a tragedy! Fitness. Despite the fact that we outlasted our opponents, we were starting to wear down in the second half.
Bonus: Congratulations to our Man of the Match, Danny O'Hara!
Next Match
We play at Happy Valley which is in State College, PA this Saturday. We need everyone who can play to make this trip. Happy Valley won the MARFU
DIII championship this past spring, so they're going to be tough. We know we can beat playoff teams, but we need everyone to show up. If you are
going let us know ASAP.
The Free Lance Star did a newspaper article and took some pictures from this match. You can find it here:
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2005/102005/10172005/137159
Black and White Photos courtesy of Rob "White Stallion" Monastra's woman, Hilary. (Sorry, I don't remember your last name.)
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