Match Report
Ramblers vs. Royals
Saturday February 28th, 2009 01:00 PM
On a bitterly cold, but dry, Saturday afternoon, the Rambler’s squad assembled for its first full rugby match of the season against the St Louis Royals. Despite the biting weather, both teams showed up with very healthy squads allowing both times to field an almost complete A and B-side.
Once the crumbling and whining was over, the game began in freezing gusty winds, but at least Forest park was soft. It was decided to play 2 40 minutes with rolling subs. Captain Colin Heath stuck with tradition and lost the toss and was rewarded with receiving the kick off.
The Rambler’s came out strong and organized, using good movement within our forward pods to advance the ball and combining with some strong running and tactical kicking to move into the Royals half. The combination of forwards and backs led to a break by Fly half Justin Vogt, who linked up with #8 Eric Livingston for a storming run into the Royals 22. Eric off loaded to Flanker Pat “Nasty” Conaty, who rather than staying wide to score in the corning cut inside and took on two defenders to score nearer the posts. The conversion was missed.
After the score the Royals came back strong and saw some tough battles at the breakdowns with neither side giving way and advance were only made due to teams over committing at the breakdown. Although both teams wanted to capitalize on their back lines the gusty winds and frozen hands often saw chances going to waste with knock ons and poor passes. With the Royals coming close a couple of times only to loose the ball at the try line due to some strong last ditch tackling.
The first half ended with a lead of 5-0 and saw a slightly frustrated Rambler team as their basic structure had been disrupted by some strong Royals forward play.
The second half started poorly with a break away by the Royals in the 10th minute. A last minute attempt to corral their winging by his neck by rookie Alex Vogt resulted in a penalty try and a chance for Alex to put some warm clothes on for 10 minutes! Pat “Nasty” Conaty, still on a high from his first half score, charged down the conversion to keep the game tied a 5-5.
The Ramblers again struggled to find some form, especially in the scrums. The Royals took full advantage of the rolling subs with what seemed like a new front row at every scrum! The lack of form and rising frustrations resulted in a Royals penalty for 3 points.
The Ramblers began to wake up or warm up and began seeing some cohesiveness in their team structure and some tactical kicking and great pressure from the back line saw the Ramblers go deep into the Royals half. The inevitable scrabble at the try line saw several forwards try and punch in a try, which with screams of “I got it down!” saw second row Chris Wiggins awarded the try. Unfortunately the resulting conversion was unsuccessful by Leo Polson..
Around the 20 minute mark substitutions were made that saw Leo Polson replaced by Rookie Doug Uthoff and Colin Heath replaced by Patrick Keevan.
The Ramblers continued to apply pressure to the tiring Royals and kept them in their own half that resulted in a penalty from Justin Vogt and a late try by Center and man of the Match Ryan Lane, that was converted by Justin Vogt.
A strong mention should go to the superb running by centers Tony Moore and Ryan Lane, as well as their impressive tackling.
All in all a good run out for the Ramblers, who won 20-8.
Ramblers squad: Chris Hrdina, Doug Reckamp, Nicholas Iffrig, Chris Wiggins, Colin Heath(c), Pat Conaty, Brian Haley, Eric Livingston, Joe Rothermich, Justin Vogt, Kamron Ahmad, Tony Moore, Ryan Lane, Alex Vogt, Leo Polson/ Doug Uthoff .
Man of the match: Ryan Lane
Referee: Mike Rothermich
More promising for the Ramblers was the B side Game, which saw a complete team fielded with only the use of four A-side starters. Great news for the clubs future. The B-side game saw fresh blood to the rugby world with Lance Ennis at prop and Matt Conway at wing. Both rookies had outstanding, committed games and saw Lance pick up the Man of the Match award. An award well deserved as the 30 minute game seemed to consist of the first 15 minutes being all scrums!!!!
The scoring in the games was dominated by Justin Vogt with a try and a drop goal, but he did miss his own conversion. Patrick Keevan came close with a wonderful lumbering run.
Final: Ramblers 8 Royals 0
Ramblers squad: Lance Ennis, Jeff O’Donnel, Todd Lunow, Patrick Keevan, Jeff Bosaw, Colin Heath/ Patrick Conaty, Charles Bock, Eric Livingston (C), Joe Rothermich, Justin Vogt, Jerin Van Wyk, Patrick Flavin, Cameron Gilmore/ Chad “Mac” McDermott, Matt Conway, Doug Uthoff.
Man of the match: Lance Ennis