9.11.05

North Shore 17 Portland 18

This game began pretty evenly with both teams trying to maintain posession in the middle of the field. The hits were hard early on each side, and after a breakdown one of the Portland forwards took the ball weak side and lumbered down the field, outpacing multiple North Shore players but was caught in the end by a hustling Dave Shannon. However, the loose ball that ensued inside the five meter line was scooped up by the visitors and touched down for an early 5-0 lead, not converted.

Keeping most of the early play in our end, Portland again threatened our line after stupid penalties (off-sides and the like) kept us pinned in our own end. On one of these occasions, Copie was caught on the wrong side of the ball (admittedly) but was then cleated by no less than four Portland players. In any case, once the visiting side got their fill of vigilante rugby, one of their players was sin binned for his troubles.

We held them out of the try zone in more than one situation, perhaps factoring into their decision to kick for points on two occasions, grabbing six valuable points in the first half.

Taking advantage of our speed in the backs, fly half Rich DePiero launched a bouncing kick towards the Portland fullback, who saw the ball bouce back over his head directly to the onrushing Jesse Brewer who grabbed it and touched down for a try. The kick was converted by Rich DePiero. They also found the try zone one more time in the corner after multiple ruck/maul phases near our line.

Once the first half came closer to and end, it became apparent that Portland's game plan was to keep the ball in the forwards and maul all day, or give it to the fly half to kick repeatedly. 18-10 was the haftime score after a North Shore penalty was kicked through by DePiero.

In the second half, the ball stayed mostly between the 22 meter lines. Portland continued to maul off set pieces and we managed not to get the ball out to the space on the wing. Breaks were few and far between and one of those times Scott Marcoulier broke free and was poised to score but was held up by the last defender, eventually resulting in a holding-on penalty.

Another break saw Joe Sveda with space down the sideline which was cut off before his pass was deflected and fell to no one. The last real counter attack involved Trevor Maz bursting through the defense line and into space where he's almost impossible to stop. He brushed off a few would-be tackles before touching down for a try under the posts. This was converted for an 18-17 scoreline.

With little time left in the game and North Shore trying to take advantage of the momentum we gained with the last try, we got the ball out to Chad Horn on the wing. His tackler decided to take a rest on top of him, burying the ball. While the NSRFC support tried to ruck him off, it somehow turned into a shoving match right on the sideline. The location and scale of this relatively tame pushing and shoving (really not even a punchup) apparently led the ref to call the game with somewhere under five minutes left.

Needless to say, overall a highly disappointing result. We will look to take the positives from this game into next week, keep our heads and stay away from penalties.

1 - Jeff West
2 - Reade Morrison
3 - Dave Shannon
4 - Andy Carnevale --> Tony Buono
5 - Mark Swan
6 - Copie Copland --> Matt Thibault
7 - Kenny Spinale
8 - Jesse Dole
9 - Scott Addison --> Matt Willey
10 - Rich DePiero
11 - Trevor Maz
12 - Matt Thibault --> Joe Sveda
13 - Joe Sveda --> Rob Moran
14 - Jesse Brewer --> Chad Horn
15 - Scott Marcoulier

The B-game was pretty entertaining, with some of Willey's VT crew, a few of our newer players and a couple new recruits running hard and putting in some hard tackles. Players included Frank Chung, Chris Linder, Gus del Puerto, Neal Toomey, Chris Mroz, Dan Joughin, and a few others in a 14-0 win. Thanks to everyone who came down and played and/or supported.