Burlington III Away: Week Ten

Grimsby Gentlemen 19: Burlington Centaurs 41

(picture taken at the end of the game when everyone was there)

Venue:  Sherwood Forest Park

Referee:  Not sure - did not catch the name

Weather:  Very nice day - 26 degrees, probably a little hot for playing - slight wind

Attendance: Hoards of supporters were prevented from attending due to parking issues but Adam and Ben, Marie, Wally and his son, Nick managed to get there on time (even though players did not).

President's Report:  Due to all sorts of things we were short at kickoff and managed to get a couple of NOB players (Niagara Old Boys) who had just played to help out.  We still only had 13 and despite a lot of effort we were down 12 to 0 by the time we got two players on.  We were down 15 to 0 by the time we got all our players on the field and sorted out into the selected positions. Not a good start, but we had a good ending to the first half. with 10 minutes to go Andy sent a probing kick into their corner, good coverage by Chris and Vic allowed us to get the ball back and send Martin C into the corner of the end zone.  Chris made an amazing conversion in which the ball flew all over the place before splitting the uprights. A few minutes later, we put together a string of passes including Nathan, Vic, Kyle  and a few others to send Chris to score his first try under the posts, which he also converted.

Half time score:  Grimsby Gentlemen 14: Burlington Centaurs 15

Unfortunately that was a close as we would get.  Burlington who had bulked up for the game had the advantage in the scrums and managed to get a lot more ball which allowed them to score often.  They picked on our mistakes and came up with points.  Near the end Vic made one of his runs and could not be brought down until he hit the try line.

Final Score:  Grimsby Gentlemen 19: Burlington Centaurs 41

Team:  1. Nathan Rowbottom (eventually), 2. Brendan Sculland, 3. Jon Millington, 4. Jeremy Young, 5. Bob Mavro, 6. Philip Sullivan (40 min - first game this year), 7. Kyle Wilson, 8. Vic Blaney 9. Nick Limeaux (had to run from the Go station), 10. Derrick Spencer, 11. Trevor Trotman (eventually), 12. Martin Colyn, 13. Andy Breuls, 14. Chris Short (eventually), 15. Alex Millar.  16. Martin Van Den Herk (40 min)
and two NOBs.(thank you) Pabelo is soon moving to Grimsby.

Scoring:

Martin Colyn 1 T  (makes 4 tries this year)
Vic Blaney 1T (Third game in a row)
Chris Short 1 T, 2 C (27 points in his last three games - remember the team only scored 3 points in its first three games)

Martin's Try

Chris's Try

Vic's Try

Coaches' Report:  We had an outside chance to move up the table into a playoff position but Burlington had other ideas and put some weight and some quickness into their team.  It did not help that were were down players for 20 minutes at the start.  The score jumped up near the end as they got some bounces, were less tired and more into the game.  Anyway at the start we played hard with the usual great games from Webs and Vic.  We had some good support for a while.  Alex who attended his first whole practice this week had a good game fielding the ball and counter attacking.  Coaches man of the match went to Chris Short for scoring his first try and hitting two conversions.  There was no pick of man of the match by the other team as we left fairly early and I don't think they did it for the other games.

This is the crew who put up the fence in Grimsby ( missing Philip Sullivan)

We even got a mention in The West Niagara News by  D.I.A. Manager, Leigh Jamkiv, who stated "Special thanks to the Grimsby Gentlemen's (sic: I have always wanted to do that) Rugby Club for their help in the setup and cleanup of the park for this event."  We put it up in a record 1 hour and took it down in 15 minutes. 

A traditional Greek - Dutch welcome or a demonstration of a Greek wrestling move only they are not naked.

An important group at the Canada game. 

Another important pair at the game.