Stratford away (VllI of X) rescheduled

Grimsby Gentlemen 15: Stratford Blackswans 18

Venue:  At Stratford Northwestern High School in Stratford,. We were unable to come up with enough players originally in July so the game was rescheduled by Stratrord for Friday under lights starting at 8:30.

Referee:  ***I missed his name but he does a lot of better club and university games around Waterloo.  He knows a lot and shows it.

Weather: A nice clear summer evening but it did not cool very much.  Probably about twenty five degrees with no wind. A quarter moon waxing.

Attendance:  There was quite a crowd but I guess there is not much to do in Stratford on a Friday night unless you are doing a Shakespeare tour.

I heard a rumour that much of the crowd came out because there was a Justin Bieiber sighting but it was only our Milli. who, from behind, I mistake for Justin all the time.

Team: We had enough players in theory but in practice but Bob came back from Vegas several dollars lighter and with some disease and  the plumbers got lost somewhere around Brantford and never did make it. But some St. Catharines players helped us out including another Nick.

1.  Nick Lord, 2. Brandon Pytschyl  3. Jon Millington, 4. Jeremy Young, 5. Ryan Coens, 6. Jamie Scully, 7. Dean Crozier 8. Kyle Wilson, 9. Nick Lemieux 10. Derrick Weber,  11. Colin Comfort (40 min), 12. Vic Blaney, 13. Martin Colyn, 14. Alex Millar (40 min),15. Pat Brown, 17 Zack Allan (40 min), 19. Nick ?(40 min)

Coach's Report

Stratford came out strong and controlled things at the start with their left winger scoring at 10 min.  They had most of the territory and a lot of the posession but we did get the ball once into their half at about 25 min and were rewarded with a penalty kick by Webs from the 22.    At about 28 min, the same winger scored with a strong run for Stratford.  Then later in the half, we were out flanked and Stratford scored again.

Half time score Grimsby Gentlemen 3: Stratford Blackswans 15

The second half was turn around, we kept much more possession, had more territory and ran at them.  About 15 min in, Jamie took the ball from a drive play in the lineout and ran around the maul for about 10 m and scored (see below) for the second time in two games.  Webs made the conversion.

With 10 minutes to go an attack from a scrum by the 9 (new Nick), to Webs, to Vic who with a looping pass got the ball into Martin's hands who scored to tie the game at 15 each.  The kick was missed so the tie stood until with a couple of minutes to go the Stratford 10, who had missed all conversions and a penalty in front actually made a drop goal to win the game.

It was a good game and as Kyle says we do not lose our first draft choice next year by beating the second from bottom team.  We did get a bonus point.

President's Report: 

Stratford did us a favour by rearranging the game  and it turned into a good,  fun evening and different from the rest of the season to be playing on a Friday at night.  Afterward Stratford took us back to The Poor House and treated us very well.  Even Scully was full.  Thanks to those players who came up from the farm team. It was a good season with us introducing a number of new players to the team.  It would have been nice to win a few more but generally we played well.  It shows we need more than 22 on the roster.  Thanks to all those who made an effort to make all the games and practices.  Out of the ten games we only held the other team to less that 5 tries twice, so we need more work in the defence department. Our under 14 flag team came second in their tournament last weekend, congratulations and hurry to grow up.

Man of the match:  Derrick Weber who kept us from going farther behind in the first half by his tackling and played an important link in the second half.  He also had just stepped off the plane at 4:00 that afternoon.

The following are pictures of Martin's decorated car that will be smashed in the Smithville Fair Demo Derby Labour Day Weekend.

Our shirts are finally going as Webs (10) got ripped during the game.

We have nothing much organized for the fall but hopefully the Steamwhistle brewery  tour happens on Sept 8th and we can at least get to the Waterloo Oktoberfest Tens at Thanksgiving.

I will be coaching the Mohawk Men's team and you can check them out at Mohawk College Rugby.

This blog has 89 entries since started in December of 2008 and  right now has 9,739 hits and will hit at least 10,000 before the 4 year anniversary. The most hits was Wilmot on Sept 12 2010 with 251 and Waterloo Renegades on July 26 2011 with 182.

Knaves away (in Brantford) Week X of X

Grimsby Gentlemen 36: Waterloo Knaves 34

(Two in a row and the last time we did that was June 11 and June 19 of last year against Niagara and Burlington and the game against Burlington was the last time we scored 6 tries)

Venue: Grorge Jones Park in Brantford because Waterloo's first and seconds were playing there and the thirds and fourths were having and end of season party in Paris so Waterloo wanted to play in Brantford.  (Or something like that)

Referee: Eric Cizar *** actually one of their coaches but kept the game going long enough for us to win in the last minute or two.

Weather:  Nice day at about twenty five degrees with no wind but a high UV index. So it turns out we can also win in sunny weather.

Attendance: These were the supporters on one side of the field and many more in the shade on the north side (I think). 

 I don't think the kid is actually one of ours.












Team:  We were short players for the first time this year. So The Knaves graciously lent us a couple of theirs.  These players did not seem to be slugs and played well. 

1.  Nick Lord, 2. Brandon Pytschyl (came back again with black socks), 3. Jon Millington, 4. Dan Wolfrath, 5. Jeremy Young, 6. Dean Crozier, 7. Jamie Scully 8. Kyle Wilson, 9. Derrick Weber, 10. Martin Colyn, 11. A. Nother, 12. Vic Blaney, 13. Colin Comfort, 14. Also A. Nother ,15. Pat Brown

We had two injured, two working and three on holidays and the game's afoot for Alex. 

Coach's Report:

The coach was in Niagara On the Lake in the morning with the flag kids and was passing through St. Catharines on the QEW when the kick off took place.  So I only got to the game with about twenty minutes to go and it is a good thing because my heart might not have taken it.  I saw 6 tries altogether in the final 20 min with the lead changing four times and us coming out ahead with a last minute try.  The following were the try scorers in the game with four scoring their first try for Grimsby. (It's a good thing we banned Zulus because we would have used up all their toilet paper).

Colin, Pat, Nick, Jamie, Dan with Martin on the ground. were the try scorers
You can't take a picture anywhere without getting Vic in it half naked.

Colin, Dan and Nick scored before I got there but as I arrived the oppositiojn scored to tie it, then scored again to go ahead and again to go aheader (up 10).  However Jamie ran under a weakly kicked penalty that did not find touch and out jumped the opposition in goal  and fell on the ball.  Then Martin on the burst slipped a tackle, went around the fullback with a side step and managed to get the ball down on the line while being tackled.  Webs converted to put us up by 2.  However A bad lineout on our 22 gave the ball to their 8 who scored in the corner to put them 3 up with 4 minutes to go (injury and water break time).  

The winning try should go down in history (or as long as we can remember) because it was a classic All Black like series of plays that lasted 56 sec and had 10 players handle the ball, with Webs touching the ball 4 times, Dean twice, and Martin twice.  Even one of the players  loaned to us took the ball into a ruck and set it up.  Also during this series Jamie made a dummy run allowing Kyle to get the ball and Milli took on three of their tacklers.  At the start, the ball was thrown to the same place in the lineout that was disastrous  the last time when Waterloo scored off the bad throw in.  Dean was lifted well by Jeremy and Nick and the ball was then given back to the thrower, Brendan, who took on the eight and got it to Webs (we practiced this on Thursday).  Most of the team was involved in the five rucks that took place until finally Pat picked up and ran 10 m to score and put us ahead for good.  The only person not involved was the right winger (a player loaned to use from Waterloo). 

We still have defensive problems, and it should not have come down to a last minute try like that.  We have let the other team score at least 5 tries in every game this year but one.  Better tackling and keeping our shape in defence is required to make sure we win. 

President's Report

Well done Gentlemen,  it is unfortunate we had to borrow players and it was the first time in a couple of years we did not have a full team.  Thanks to Brendan who hooked again this week for us. Thanks to Waterloo for lending us a few, they could have played with us down two until the score was run up or they could have given us players who did not try.  It shows we need more numbers on the roster, even if some people get less playing time. Waterloo also took care of us with a beer and food so thanks to them.  Waterloo lost the Marshall game 29 to 28 and now the Creek are on the bottom since they lost.  However Creek have the easier schedule in September and should manage to stay up with either Brantford or Waterloo (who just came up this year) being relegated (or Markam Irish).  

Man of the Match

I did not see much of the game but Pat scored the winning try and played very well in the full back position.  Vic's imitation of a soccer player gets an honourable mention. 

Here is a picture of Webs in action.

This is a picture of Waterloo in action, showing a great lift in the lineout. 

Looking at the picture below, I was just wondering what regular young men do on a Saturday afternoon. 

Here are our young men, who just earned a bonus point. 

One more league game left. Friday night in Stratford. 

Burlington away (Week lX of X)

Grimsby Gentlemen 12: Burlington Centaurs III 7
 (Jamie says: "There goes our perfect season")

Vemue:  Sherwood Forest Park

Referee:  Gareth R. Holloway**** very good game, handled all the nonsense very well. He actually said he liked refereeing  third division NRU games (but he might have been making fun of us).

Sorry Ref, here`s a better picture. 

Weather:  The weather has been so hot and dry this year that you could have sex in the middle of our field and not leave a  wet spot.

See, no wet spot

However, today the weather was wet and rainy and a bit cool.  Perfect (at least it is now).

Attendance:  The rain kept the fans low.

Team:
1. Jeremy Young. 2. Brandon Pytschyl (first game), 3. Jon Millington, 4. Dan Wolfrath, 5. Bob Mavro, 6. Dean Crozier, 7. Jamie Scully(40 min), 8. Kyle Wilson, 9. Nick Lemieux, 10. Derrick Weber, 11. Colin Comfort, 12. Vic Blaney, 13. Martin Colyn, 14. Alex Millar (40 min), 15. Pat Brown, 16. Dirk Reichow (40 min), 17. James Vinneau (40 min)

We missed three expected players and got Brandon in for his first game with Grimsby (and as hooker).   Thanks to Dirk and James for driving quickly from Niagara Falls after coaching the flag players.

Coach`s Report:

Three weeks off and not a lot of training done during that time, but we did come up big in the first minute or two with Dean scoring a try (Burlington complaining that their scrum half and captain was taking a dump and not on the field, I missed it all (the dump and the try)).  Webs converted.  We seemed to play harder with better flat line defense although we still ball watch.  Burlington played well and probably had the edge in territory and possession.  A nice feed by Webs, a great run by Vic led to him scoring with about 5 minutes to go in the half.  Here is Vic`s run.

Half time: Grimsby Gentlemen 12: Burlington Centaurs 0

Things continued in the same vain in the second half except Burlington scored at about the 65 min mark and converted to make the final minutes exciting.  However we did hold on with some determined tackling for our first win this season.

Full time: Grimsby Gentlemen 12: Burlington Centaurs 7

President`s Report:

It is always nice to beat Burlington and it was more of a struggle that it should have been. The score was too close considering most of our players would be playing for the firsts or seconds if they played in Burlington.
The flat line was better and we were more aggressive putting more pressure on them.  Our body position going into offensive and defensive rucks was poor and we lost control when we go into contact with the ball too often.  Lineouts were spotty and scrums were good at the start but deteriorated in the second half. However they are second in the league and were challenging for first, so it was a good win.  Man of the match went to Dean Crozier seen here with the offside centaur,  ref.  Honourable mention to Webs.

Thanks to all who voted us Best Senior Rugby Club in Grimsby!!