July 10, 2004

Acton, MA

It was a day of good and bad rugby for NSRFC. Things started poorly against Seacoast with an old problem resurfacing, covering across the pitch on defense. The Seacoast forwards were mobile and overall their game was much more solid. They took advantage of scoring opportunities and generally caught us still asleep from the night before. The final score was 34-0 and it wasn't our finest 20 minutes.

In the following game, Old Gold 1 found our defense to be equally porous as they put 32 points on the board. Their skill and level of play were evident in their use of the open spaces on the field and ball movement. At no point during these first two games did we lie down and die, but we also didn't create very much offense and scored a big donut.

In game 3, some signs of life were seen against the Central Maine Stripers, who always put up a good fight and somehow bring a side down from way up in Maine. We found some space to move the ball and generally had a lot of posession. The final score was 29-0 and if I had to guess I'd say Tony Buonaugurio, Trevor Maz, Martin Mahoney, and Mark Swan got tries. Don't quote me on that. In general though much more fun than the whoopings of earlier in the day.

The next game pitted us against UConn and their shiny new jerseys. Apparently it takes more than new jerseys to win, something to keep in mind when our new set comes in. We put the same number on the Huskies(?) as we had scored the previous game, and again saw a lot of ball and played good enough defense to keep them from scoring. I know Rob Moran scored once on a beauty of a pass from Rich DePiero, Ken Spinale was the beneficiary of a Kareem Abdul Jabbar hookshot pass from Rich for another score, and probably another forward and a fast kid scored. (Hey, it was a long day in the sun and I'm not that smart)

By virtue of winning that game we advanced to face Northeastern in the social semi-finals. We originally thought Old Gold was our next opponent, but as it turned out that made no difference as we managed to blow it anyways. Northeastern ("mad dogs" - not to be confused with huskies) put some crooked number on us and generally overlapped and outran us all game. We actually had a lot of chances to score but knocked, penaltied, and mishandled most of them. It was a spirited game but nothing was really going our way, and at least one lesson was learned (by me) that it's a bad idea to try a grubber at your own 22.

There were so many good and bad plays that it's tough to pick out just a few, but Andy Kerr was in command all day, having his way with the opposing defenses. The forwards crashed and supported as has become their second nature, and the backs had some dangerous runs and unfortunate stone-hands at times. Chad Horn was all over the field defending, Rich was elusive all day with his fakes, etc., and somehow, someway, Mike Magee was lifted off the ground on a tackle.

Plenty of social support from wives, girlfriends, friends, family, and the like. It was a great day despite the pounding sun (happens without fail every year) and hard ground. We go and generally get our asses kicked every year but you can bet we'll be back. Note to team: get shade tents.

I wont attempt to name the social supporters but playing were: Mike, Reade, Teach, T-Bo, Kenny, Tony, Dole, Richie, Martin, Brewer (a few ours out of the hospital - crazy mofo), Chad, Ross, Vudu, Scott ("Mouth"), Andy, Gus, Rob, Swan, Reade, Trevor...who did I forget?