This past weekend we traveled to Montgomery to play Battleship and Montgomery. the first match ended up being against a combined Battleship and Ft. Rucker side, as both had traveled light.
Jimmy and New Matt made their début at front row with our own President in Exile, Tool, at hooker. Our pack dominated set piece and also did very well in lineouts. About midway through the first half New Matt delivered a punishing blow to the elbow of a Battleship player with his eye. Four interior, 6 exterior stitches, and a nifty eye patch later he was back at the pitch to lend support from the sideline. Butter filled in admirably in his absence.
Cheese, Boukater, Tyler all had solid games and have shown we can have great depth and flexibility at Lock. Kurt had his usual solid game at eight, running well off the base and coordinating with new I may be a Forward now but I'm still good looking Ronnie. Tommy laid some good hits and made some great individual runs, powering through the heart of the Battleship defense.
The backs overcame some initial first game miscues- dropped passes and the occasional one pass too many- to gel and tear apart the opposing back line. Our backs have done a great job of coming together as a unit and will only get stronger as the season progresses.
Coming off the bench, Butter, TIMM-AY! Will, Lee, Gregg Read, Todd provided good play with little loss of continuity. We are starting to develop the quality depth that we will need when the Spring matrix season arrives. I hope we can continue to recruit and develop players this fall.
Man of the Match goes to Kevin Hix for his 70 meter breakaway run that set up a try from the one meter line in second phase. Obviously his training outside of practice is paying off. He accelerated away from pursuit and undoubtedly would have scored until, reaching about the ten meter line, he unselfishly slowed and looked for someone to give a try to (at least that's his story and he's sticking to it). His support has a little late and he was collared a meter shy of the try line, but we put it over in second phase.
Honorable mention for the first match is also given to Benji at scrum half for out rucking our entire pack.
Final Score HC 31 Battleship 7
I had to Ref a match at the same time as our second game and missed seeing it. From all reports the consensus Man of the Match was Benji who scored 5 tries. Kudos to Will who scored 2. Final 41-5.
Overall it was a good start. We still need to work hard on fitness, but it's getting there. Thanks to everyone who made the trip!
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