Stratford at home

Grimsby Gentlemen 53: Stratford Black Swans 10

Referee: Jeff Dahl

Weather: Nice day for rugby. Warm (23 degrees) and slight wind. Field soft with lots of rain.

Attendance: 500 (a little under the season average due to summer holidays)

Presidents Report: Actually had 15 players at kickoff for a change (it was at home) thanks to the unexpected arrival of Nathan R of Waterloo. And we had a sixteenth with the arrival of Eli R. You could feel the excitement in the air with a full team playing a club even lower in the standings than us. Or maybe it was the expectation of Bob's Mom's homemade tsatziki sauce to go with the souvlaki that was served apres game. Thanks to Martin Wolff for being cook and emergency coach. Stratford played hard with several very young players and actually scored their points in the second half.

Team: Mark Hall, Dylan Kinch, Jon Millington, Jeremy Young, Nathan Rowbottom, Bob
Mavro, Kyle Wilson, Joel Leonard, Jon Jeske, Derrick Weber (C), Alex Millar, Mike Stuart, Andy Breuls, Jamie Scully, Frank Schilte and replacement Eli Raddick at 60 minutes for Jamie.

Replacement Coaches: Martin Wolff and Adam Wilson

Coaches Report: The coach missed the second half, so I am going on the report of my able replacements Martin Wolff and Adam Wilson. I did feel like an active coach again as we had one substitute and I got to replace him (at least my assistants did)We were able to do a number of things better this game albeit with a weak opposition. The scrums were good, we did not get wheeled. We did a little better in the lineouts and scored off a drive. The backs got lots of ball with time. The forwards scored half the tries. The slow ball was better although it was very slow setting up.

Half time score Grimsby 27: Stratford 0

We scored fairly quickly after half but went off the boil for a while and got counter rucked, so ball was not coming out cleanly. Full credit to the young Stratford side for hanging in over a tough season. It got a little rough near the end and we had our first card of the season at the 79 min mark.

Well done by Joel L., playing at eight for the first time this year and Nathan R. at lock. We welcomed Kyle W. back after missing 5 games through injury and welcome to Jamie Scully who played very well in his first game at wing.

Full time score Grimsby 53: Stratford 10

Scoring: Joel Leonard 2T, Mike Stuart 2T, Kyle Wilson 1T, Jon Jeske on fire (first try for Grimsby), Jon Millington 1T, Frank Shilte 1T, Dylan Kinch 1 P, 4 C.


Coaches man of the match Jon Jeske