Stratford at home

Grimsby Gentlemen 24: Stratford Blackswans 30

Venue: Alway Field

Weather : Mid twenties,lower humidity,clear skies,high uv.

Referee: Ian Stewart

Atterndance:  a poor guess would be in the hundreds (mainly made up of old presidents of the club (5 in fact) I am the present president but I count because I am old. The presidents are (in order)  Bob Hepburn,( the clubs first president in 1977)  Scott Nicolson, Alex Easton (who played in the game) , Andy Breuls and Bill Stuart.
I would normally have pictures of them all but I forgot to bring that thingee that fits in the camera that holds the pictures. But Jennifer, our staff photographer and salad maker, took some and I will attach them when I get them. Keep checking.

Team: 1. Nick Lord, 2. Ross Matheson, 3. Jon Millington, 4.Jeremy Young, 5. Adam Meehan (40 min), 6. Brendan Sculland(60 min), 7. Mark Woodgate, 8. Alex Easton, 9. Dillon Trimble, 10. Derick Weber (C)(10 min), 11. Will George, 12. Vic Blaney, 13. Martin Colyn, 14. Jake D'Achille, 15. Jamie Farrell, 16. James Vienneau (20 min), 17. Martin Van Den Hurk, 18. Dirk Reichow, 18 T.J. (40 min) This is Tafari Cole's first league game with Grmsby although he played an exhibition against Buffalo this season and against Philadelphia last season.  T.J. has been playing rugby league all spring, (yellow card) 20. Chris Fothergill (70 min) This is Chris's first game with Grimsby and he has played with Redeemer College in the past.

Game:  We are playing the number one team in the league with four wins and one loss and have scored 224 points vs 96 against in those games. We are near the bottom with two wins (one by default)  and have scored 86 points and have 125 scored against in four games.  So you would expect Stratford to be fairly confident even though last year they came to Grimsby and we tied them to spoil their perfect season. However they were not expecting Dillion.  We kept the ball in the Stratford end for much of the first part of the game and were rewarded at about 10 minutes Dillon grabbed a loose ball and scored the first try. Unfortunately we lost our Derrick on the play with a suspected broken toe so Martin moved to 10 with Chris playing outside center. We kept control of the game and at 19 minutes Dillon scrambled again to score and completed the conversion. Unfortunately Stratford started to work the ball and hit a penalty at about 30 min and scored a converted try just at the end of the half. We were doing very well in the lineouts both getting our own and spoiling theirs. Except for the last 10 minutes it was the best first half this year.

Half time score: Dillon Trimble 12: Stratford Blackswans 10.

At the start of the half, the Swans controlled the ball and a penalty quickly put them up by one point.  However a driving maul from a lineout resulted in an unconverted try by Alex Easton  at about 50 minutes to give us the lead.  Not sure about the exact time as they kept having water breaks (not in my day). Then Stratford scored by a good run in the backs at 60 minutes to put us down by 3.  But we (Dillon) were not done and we scored at about 70 minutes with Dillon again converting.  We needed to control the ball for the  last 10 minutes but could not and several high tackles led to a yellow card. Stratford eventually scored a converted try near the end and on then they kicked a penalty to end the game.

Final:  Grimsby Gentlemen 24: Stratford Blackswans 30

Ross tracking a Blackswan (picture of the week for ORU)

The obvious choice of man of the match by the other team should have been Dillon with 19 of our points but they chose Alex Easton who stole a lot of their lineout ball. Dillon probably was relieved as even though he plays like a big man he does not guzzle beer like one.  Dillion has scored seven tries in four games.

Vic did a great job with the food and Jennifer with the salads.  Thanks to Elizabeth who worked behind the bar.

Coaches Remarks:
Stratford suggested they did not play well and they might not have but we played better than we have in the last few games.We came out strong in the first twenty minutes which we do not usually do and we took them in the lineouts and attacked well from the base of the rucks. Ultimately our tackling was not accurate and aggressive enough and could not pin them back in their end nor stop them when we needed to. It was a good game with six lead changes in the second half. We did get 2 bonus points (one for scoring 4 tries and one for coming within 7 points) which is the most you can get for a loss. Good practices last week and lets take this particular show on the road against the Redcoats away in Guelph.

I am going camping with the family so I do not know when pictures will be added to the blog.

.