Flag Rugby Championship Day August 17

August 17 was the final tournament for the Niagara Flag Rugby Club which was held in Grimsby. 

 Our juniors (jk to grade 2) improved continually over the season.

getting started

flag checking

 

waiting

I think black is sliming.

 The intermediate team won the bronze.


checking to make sure it isn't chocolate

 The senior team won silver.

these are real also.

 

 

plotting with coach Dirk

Scoring one of many tries

 

Our president relaxing at the finish of another successful season.

Week IX (actually have no idea what week it is): Stratford at home

Sponsor:  Pro-Fast, JJ Cores and Steamwhistle for your fastner, auto parts and beer needs

Venue: Alway

Referee : Richard Cooke (last game for us was in Norfolk) *** (has a bunch of the new laws in his head)

Weather: About 24 degrees (a really nice afternoon for rugby)   Played at 3:00 which also was nice as they had a shortage of refs this week.

Attendance: Not an accurate count but estimate of 4 - 5 hundred.

Team:   1. Nick Lord , 2. Brendan Sculland , 3. Jon Millington , 4. Martin Van Der Hurk 5. Adam Amirault  6. James Vinneau (first time at flanker - more running than he thought), 7.  Dean Crozier, 8. Bob Mavro,  9. Derrick Weber (C) 10. Martin Colyn , 11. Brandon Nytschyk, 12. Vic Blaney, 13.  Pat Brown, 14. Alex Millar, 15. Jamie Farrell 

Only fifteen players again although I put a couple of extras on the game sheet hoping the might show up. Stratford has 19 players but they showed up later than us, which is unusual. We probably expected a bit more from Stratford as they have done very well this year having won all their games  and the fewest number of points scored for in any of their games  was 29. So we thought they would dominate somewhere but really they didn't.  In fact except for a long run by the scrum half at about the six minute mark we controlled most of the territory and possession in the first half.  In fact we had three or  four times when we took the ball over their line but could not get it down until Milli finally barged through with ten minutes to go in the half.  Stratford came back strong but Pat, using his head, managed to change their concentration and got a yellow for his efforts as did the other guy (his opposite number) 

"For he to-day that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother;" (and get 10 minutes in the sin bin) as Henry V once mused.

 I try to butcher Shakespeare as much as possible when we play Stratford.

Thus endth thy halffe.

           Grimsby Gentlemen 5: Stratford Blackswans 5

We were probably as suprised as Straford was the score being low and tied or we just might have been admiring our new shirts.  

Second half was more of the same except Stratford came out a little stronger and scored with a converted after ten minutes of play.  We also shared yellow cards in this half with Martin V taking ours (not sure what for).  We pressed near the end of the game (and had an attempt at a penalty kick which went wide) but it looked like we might come out short and I was hoping for a stoppage so I could send in an inspiring quote I was saving:

 Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them". - Twelfth Night (Act II, Scene V).

Or I would have if Webs had not seized greatness by scoring a try in injury time.  Martin took the ball to the five meter line and with the help of the pack attracted 11 of their players to a ruck. When the ruck cleared up Martin managed to get the ball to Webs to touched it down about 10 meters from the sideline.  Then taking the ball and waving off others he set up for the conversion.

                                   Somewhere clubs are winning
                                   And making outrageous boasts.
                                   But there is no joy in Bieberville,
                                   Mighty Webs, he split the po   sts

    (save your cards and letters, I know it isn't Shakespeare - but it should be.)

Final Score: Grimsby Gentlemen 12: Stratford Blackswans 12

 

Milli barging over for the first half try 

Webs taking them on in injury time

and scoring

and adding the convert.

The new strip did well

Vic was chosen as man of the match by Stratford

After the end of the game a vulture cam looking for dead bodies and instead bellied up to the bar. (but he had no credit)

New Strip

Above is our first picture with our new shirts and shorts.  The last strip lasted about six years and was just about done although we owed it nothing.  The new strip was made possible by two new sponsors Profast and JJ Cores.  Profast of Hamilton is owned by John Millington and will provide you with all your fastner needs and JJ Cores of Stoney Creek deals in auto parts and is represented by Brandon Nytschyk..

Thanks to our sponsors.

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Profast in Hamilton on King Street

JJ Cores in Stoney Creek on Commerce Court

Also we would like to thank Rickochez, a new pub in Grimsby where the old Depot pub was,  for donating an used cooler to replace the tiring Pepsi cooler from Happy One Stop that we got about the same time as the last set of shirts. It is ironic (I think) that we have the cooler from the pub that we have been banned from (Greorge would be spinning in his grave, if he were dead).

This is goodbye to the old cooler which served us so well.(untill near the end). Although I once thought the cooler and the shirts would last longer than me. 

Flag Tournament July 20 Niagara Falls

 I didn't get a lot of pictures as I was either coaching or it was raining fairly hard.

Week VI: Stoney Creek Camels away

Grimsby Gentlemen 45: Stoney Creek Camels III 58

Sponsor:  Pro-Fast amd JJ Cores for your fastner and auto parts needs

Venue: Saltfleed High School

Referee : Dale Hall did well ** (only 19 years old - I have t-shirts that are older than he is)

Weather: About 26 with real feel of 33.  But it was positively cool compared to the last week.  Lots of water on the field from a big rainstorm the night before.

Attendance: A whole bunch of girls from the game before but they left to drink after 5 minutes.

Team:   1. Nick Lord , 2. Brendan Sculland , 3. Jon Millington , 4. Colin Comfort 5. Adam Amirault  6. Bob Mavro, 7.  Dean Crozier, 8. Kyle Wilson (C),  9. Nick Lemieux 10. Martin Colyn , 11. Brad Vorstenbosch, 12. Vic Blaney, 13.  Brandon Nytschyk, 14. James Vinneau, 15. Adam Godfrey 

Unfortunately we had one expected player (Jake) get mono and another wing (Jamie) get his appendix out on Thursday, so with no subs (the other team also had no subs) we had a hooker on the wing and a #8 at fullback to start.  Then Kyle got injured on the first play (but stayed on for the rest of the game as a wing) Our regular captain Derrick Weber was working fixing the hydro lines from the storm the night before. A few other players did not show (not sure why). 

We have not played the Creek in a number of years in league play and their firsts are doing really well in the Marshall (first place), so we did not quite know what to expect.  We were trying to avoid our traditional slow start but circumstances led a lot of people playing out of position we reverted to our traditional slow start, perhaps to catch Creek off guard.  However it backfired as Creek started quickly scored 4 tries in the first 17 minutes.  It turns out our scrum was better than theirs but we had no chance to show that until we were down a lot.  We had trouble stopping them as they ran hard  and offloaded well.

We eventually got the ball down into their end and a good push on their 5 meter scrum led to a turnover caused by Dean who dropped on the ball in the end zone.  Vic converted.  Five minutes picking up a loose ball Vic barged over to make it seem like we were on one of our patented come backs and had worn out the Creek by make them run so much.  However they brought the score back to 4 tries ahead by scoring twice in the last five minutes of the half.

Half time score: Grimsby Gentlemen 14: Stoney Creek Camels 34

Insightful coaching comments led to a bit of a come back and a little tightening of the anal sphincter on Creeks behalf as it looked like we were rallying.  First though Creek scored again before Bob managed to drive a ball in to the end zone.   Now things are looking up as they are not running as well and we are pushing their scrum and getting some ball, scoring some tries and making more conversions. However a lineout in our end led to a blocked kick (second of the game) and they are up 5 tries again. Now things get confusing and I know prop Nick Lord picks up a ball and runs like a back for about 60 meters pulling away from the chasers.  Also scrum half Nick Lemieux makes a nifty darting run that they cannot stop.  I know Vic scores two more tries and makes two conversions but I do not know the order.  Also somewhere in their we let Creek run around the end and score two more tries.  We did score the last two tries of the game. The third game in a row we have won the second half.

Final Score:  Grimsby Gentlemen 45 (7 tries): and Stoney Creek Camels 58 (10 tries)

The 103 points scored is the highest total point accumulation in a Grimsby game since records have been kept (5 years ago)  It was an exciting encounter for the 5 or 10 in the audience. Our new resolution is to try harder in the first half.

This is Dean's try that started the attempted comeback.

Bob adding some points

Nick's nifty, nimble run

 Scoring:

Vic 3 T, 5 C for 25 points
Dean 1 T
Bob 1 T
Nick Lord 1 T
Nick Limeaux 1 T

Week V: Guelph Redcoats away

Grimsby Gentlemen 27: Guelph Redcoats 36

Venue:

Home of the Tim-Bit Tiger-Cats

We played on a turf field (new to most of us) at 9:00 at night (also rare) against a team established only this year (but made up of a lot of university players).  The only thing that was familiar was we lost.

Referee: Brian Bell (also a new{to us} ref who usually refs a grade or two above our level). *** Definitely did not have to kill and decapitate him. 

Weather:  Nice night, low twenties.  Brought out the skunks.  I could probably make an analogy with the presence of skunks and how we played in the first half but I can't think of one. Or maybe its ironic  (but I can never remember what irony is).

It liked getting its picture taken

For those looking at the moon, it was waxing sliver slice.

Attendance:  Maybe more than the attendance for the Tiger-Cats the next day (the reason we were playing on a Friday night), but probably not.

A few of the fans that came a long way.

A budding rugby player who came to see her dad play.

Our biggest fan  and has our logo tattooed on his leg. We have a warm up move named for him. 

Team: 1. Nick Lord ( 60 min), 2. Brendan Sculland (40 min), 3. Jon Millington (40 min), 4. Martin Van Den Hurk, 5. Adam Amirault (40 min), 6. Brandon Nytschyk (injury: 40 min), 7. Kyle Wilson, 8. Adam Godfrey, 9. Nick Limeaux 10. Derrick Weber (C)  , 11. Jamie Farrell, 12. Vic Blaney, 13.  Martin Colyn 14. James Vinneau (40 min injury) 15. Alex Millar, 16. Brad Vorstenboch (hook: 40 min)  17:  Colin Comfort (lock: 40 min) 18. Drew Rebec (flank: 15 min) We also had some last minute call ups from the farm team 19. Ryan Coens (prop: 40 min), 20. Dan Miles (prop: 25 min), 21 Stefan Johnson (wing: 40 min)

Game Report: A tale of two halves.  We came out slow for the second week and did well offensively in the second half but as as Webs said ran out of time.  We juggled three of our backs and were missing a few regulars and actually put pressure on Guelph in the first half but made a few mistakes and let them make long runs for tries.  We actually kept the ball in their end at the start and were rewarded with a penalty by Derrick at about 4 min.  Then Guelph started to score with an unconverted try at 10 min, a penalty at 15 min, and then 4 converted tries at 20 min, 25 min, 30 min and 35 min. Once we turned over the ball in play the Redcoats took advantage in most cases and made their long runs. Slow start, mistakes, turnovers, poor defence led to a half time score of Grimsby Gentlemen 3: Guelph Redcoats 36

Second half was different with the scrum bolstered with some bigger bodies we started to dominate in the forwards.  We ended up with more ball and had fewer turnovers and the backs play was more organized.  Derrick quickly scored and converted his try near the posts.  With the momentum turning a strong push from the  scrum led to a push over try by Adam.  Derrick scored and converted his second try with a nice run around the end set up by Adam. Vic than managed a hard run to score  which Derick converted.  Grimsby finished their scoring with a hard run by Vic at about 40 min of the second half.  

Final Score:  Grimsby Gentlemen 27: Guelph Redcoats   36

The man of the match selected by the Redcoats was outside center Martin Colyn.  

Overall we were happy with the way we played in the second half to make a game of it but lamented the slow start.  Most people liked the night game but not the turf.  

A nice pre game hug

Martin had to step up to being lifted and played great. Spoiled a lot ot their ball.

Webs scoring the first try of the attempted comeback

Suddenly a hockey game almost broke out. 

Vic making sure a couple have to bring him down and admire his lumberjack underwear.

Man of the match Martin avoiding a tackle.

Great game by Adam setting up Webs on his second try. (That's a center and a wing he is taking on)

It was a late night but a few went to the Fat Duck in Guelph for some great beer and stayed til late.
Jamie and Drew had to listen to Welsh choir music on the way home. Maybe that's why they have been avoiding me. 

Thanks to Jennifer for the photos as mine did not work under the lights. 

Fort Erie Flag Tournament

A good showing at the Fort Erie Tournament with a water park and ice cream. All the teams played well (we did not have many in the intermediate team present) on a warm day. A few pictures.

A bit of coaching strategy

What rugby?

With Ray Barkwill from Rugby Canada

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