Sunday, July 27, 2014

St. Catharines Away ... er... Home

Grimsby Gentlemen 46: St. Catharines Tigers 19

Venue:  It was to be played in St. Catharines but some city official was there to tell them they could not play because of insurance problems.  Since this was their first backup field we moved to their second backup field in Grimsby. This included including their women's team who were playing Hamilton. The women played at 1:20 and the men went on about 2:35.  The women's team included some Beamsville graduates and narrowly defeated the Hamilton team.

Referee:  Dave Moffatt from London ** (we were not used to a lot of his calls in the rucks  like binding  to a player on the ground) but the rest of the games seemed well done.

Weather:  Nice day for rugby a bit of a wind. Rain came just after the final whistle (great for spectators and coaches)

Attendance:  I think the supporters bus (with Paul Rohner) went to St. Catharines and didn't get the message.

Team:: 1. Nick Lord, 2. Brendan Sculland(60 min) 3. Ross Matheson(C) (60 min),  4.Jeremy Young (40 min), 5. Martin Van Den Hurk 6. Adam Meehan (65 min) , 7. Bob Mavro, 8. Mark Woodward, 9. Nick Lemieux (50 min), 10. Martin Colyn, 11. Will George (Sassy), 12. Vic Blaney, 13. Dillon Trimble , 14. Jamie Farrell, 15. Jake D'Achille (60 min) , 16. Jon Millington (40 min) 17. James Vienneau (30 min), 18. Colin Comfort (40 min), 19. Dirk Reichow (15 min), 20. Derick Weber (20 min)

Injured Alex Easton and Kyle Wilson
Unavailable Chris Fothergill and T.J. 
(Call home): Alex Millar, Pat Brown and Sam Berg

Coaches comments:  St. Catharines men are having a horrendous season and this complication did not help them morale wise.  I was actually thinking we might get an away win for the first time since 2012 when we beat Waterloo in Brantford (they had to loan us two players) but it kind of turned out to be a home win.  We started slow and St. Catharines pressed us to our line and probably should have scored a try but it was called back by the referee for being held up. We survived that and perhaps a bit of dirty play on their part led to us getting riled up (or at least Bob). A longish stretch of us moving the ball into the backs then recycling for several phases resulted in a try at about 10 minutes (I think Vic had his hands on the ball three times in the drive before he scored.).  Conversion by Dillon.  However St. Catharines, using the wind, got the ball into our end and managed to disorganize us enough to score at about twenty minutes.  At thirty minutes from a scrum, our number eight Mark, quickly picked the ball and was not to be denied as he ran twenty-five meters to score in the corner.  Dillon dropped the conversion as coolly as anything. However the last play of the half led to St. Catharines  roaring back to score and tie the game up (it was the best time for them to score). We were playing well with a good scrum against a always strong Tigers scrum and very competitive in lineouts and running well with the ball so the team was still fairly confident.

Half time score: Grimsby Gentlemen 14: St. Carharines Tigers 14

We got the upper hand at the start of the second half and after a good driving lineout, Mark broke and fed to Nick Lemieux who scored near the posts with an added conversion by Dillon at about 45 minutes.  Dillon then slotted a penalty to put us up by 10.  However,  here come the Tigers who, at about 50 minutes, score and with a missed conversion.  These are points by the Tigers while  Grimsby keeps going.
A few minutes later, Dillon, who has moved to scrum half, takes a feed from the #8 (Mark again) and scores for his ninth try in only 6 games and he also adds the conversion. And a couple of minutes after that Vic takes the ball for a 50 meter jaunt, knocks over a few would be tacklers, and kindly offloads to Sassy (Will) for his first try of the season.  Dillon does not hit the conversion but at 60 minutes kicks another  penalty to make up for the miss. We change tactics and start to kick more often but do not do as well as when we have ball in hand. The final try, at seventy-five minutes,  is a heads up play by Bob and is converted by Dillon.

Final Score: Grimsby Gentlemen 46: St. Catharines Tigers 19

Dillon Trimble 1 T, 5 C, 2 P  (21 pts)
Vic Blaney  1 T (5 pts)
Mark Woodward 1 T (5 pts)
Nick Lemieux  1 T (5 pts)
Will George 1 T (5 pts)
Bob Mavro 1 T (5 pts)

Well done Gentlemen, most players took the change in venue well although we did not know how to warm up when a women's game is being played ahead of our game.
This is us trying to figure out how to warm up  

Fine series of recycles led to the first try by Vic
Scoring after a great run.

It was a day when Kiwi number eights were just on fire (leading to a try by Dillon) 

Actually Dillon's 9th try in only six games


Although you cannot see him,. Sassy has just scored. he is somewhere beside Vic
Thanks to Jamie Farrell, Tim Millar, Paul Rohner, Dillon Trimble and Alex Easton to puting up the fence for the Happening at the Forty for the Jazz and Wine event Friday afternoon.  And to Ross Matheson, Dillon Trimble, Paul Rohner, Billy Stabler and Martin Colyn for taking it down.  It was worth $500 to the club (minus some thank you beers).

There has been one hit from New Zealand on the blog today so Hi Dean.  There have also been sixteen from China this week (I apologize if you are trying to learn English from this blog)

Next Game Aug 9th in Wilmot.


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