Baba’s lose to Washington Renegades
by Andrew Haines
match secretary
9.13.08
On a cloudy and rainy day, the Baba’s hosted the vastly improved Renegades of Washington in a Potomac Rugby Union Matrix Match. The “Gades” started off the match with a penalty kick about 10 minutes in, off an infringement by the active Bob Ricketts. The Gades worked in the Baba’s half for about 5 minutes with a some bone crunching tackles in defense by Baba’s Gorgeous George and Henry Nguyen- the Gades were unsuccessful as finally Deerhunter cleared the ball back into the Gades half. Play continued back and forth with many dropped balls and knock on’s due to the weather. 25 minutes into the half, Deerhunter broke through the Renegades defense, off loaded to Ethan Ray who raced in from 20 meters for the first try of the day. Babas 5- Gades 3. Unfortunately the Gades worked their way down the field and scored under the post, and converted to take the lead 10-5. About 25 minutes, in two Babas at opposite times were sent off to the sin bin for offenses- so the Baba’s ended up playing about 10 minutes with 13 players, and 5 minutes with 14 players.
At halftime, some subs were made by the Baba’s, with Brandon Zlupko and Barney Grimes hobbling off the field and Justin (I call everyone Sir) coming in for Jeff Brytczuk, and Jack Latta and Andy Haines coming in for Brandon and Barney - which was a good substitution as Jack balanced off Andy’s age. The Baba’s took the half with a vengeance and worked some good phase ball to tie the game with a long try by Deerhunter (Andrew Norton). Conversion was missed. The Gades though retook the lead at 20 minutes winning a scrum and passing out to their winger who broke two tackles and find a wide open space to score. The conversion was good, now 17-10 Renegades.
The last 20 minutes, the Baba’s dominated play with numerous trips into the Gades half, nearly scoring three times but tough defense by the Gades prevented any scoring. With about 5 minutes to go, Deerhunter broke open and appeared to score a try to tie the game, but in his efforts to reach the middle of the try zone for an easy conversion, he was knocked out of bounds and it was deemed “no try”. However, the referee gave the Baba’s a penalty on the 20 meter line for an offside’s by the Gades and we were back in the hunt. Repeated attacks and penalty’s from the Gades (who really liked lying on the ball for that time) went to naught and we ended up not scoring- though we had numerous efforts to tie the game. The whistle blew and the visitors had won 17-10.
B game featured many new players, like Archie Ray, Chris Applegate, Chris Don’t know last name, Brandon Don’t know last name appearing in their first or 2nd game as Baba’s and it was a good match, as Muscle Tim, Ces and Jack Latta (and then I realized he was the greatest man in the world) scored. We won 15-0
Both games showed our youth, inexperience and a great need to increase our communication at breakdowns. As noted after the game we had at least 7 new players to the team playing A side- with some playing in their 2nd or 3rd game ever on a rugby field. We blew a lot of opportunity as we all kind of panicked at different situations- a good phasing of some “Dawgs”, rolling mauls and coordinated loose play would have had the A game won. Alas, things we need to work on at practice and move on…
TIDBITS- Best wishes go out to Josh Cesarvice (Ces) who is being deployed to Iraq. Our prayers are with you. Good work by many on Saturday, especially Barney, George, Hank and Ricketts who were around the ball all day. Flude played in his full game since the early 80’s with Schweppe and Jeremy filling in well at the centers for Pinball and Meatball. Ethan Ray shined at winger and it is good to see him out again. Thanks to Brett B for serving as a referee for the B game and hosting the post game social. We missed Judson Wickersham Millar as he had to bow out from playing with some back pain.
Practice this Tuesday and Thursday at 6 pm at West. No game on Saturday. Next game is at West Potomac on 9/27.