Saturday's Game
PAC As 36 Washington 33
Fine
weather and clear skies greeted Washington rugby for their first pre
season hit out against a strong PAC side who play their first league
game in Super league next Weekend.
PAC
opened the scoring with a well worked blind side move off a scrum on
the Washington 22 meter line that saw the defense caught out badly
as the PAC winger strolled over untouched in the first minute.
The
conversion was pushed wide and the score was 5-0.
PAC
came strongly back onto attack courtesy of several Washington
unforced errors however some great defense from forward leader Mike
Dickle forced the turnover and a great counter attack saw a 50 meter
try under the posts to Josh Warner,LC converted and washington led
7-5.
With the winter rust still evident in the Washington side who were
now struggling in both scrums, line outs and placement of kicks in
general play.
PAC
were able to extend their lead to 24-7 at the break,mainly through
some good tight driving mauls.
Washington appeared to get their second wind after the break and
with the introduction of Dumont,Josh Williamson and Mika in the
tight and Kreg in the loose the forwards started to turn the tables
on their more experienced opposition at scrum time.
Good passages of back play and some nice counter attacking moves saw
Washington close the gap to 24-19 through tries by T/Mac and
Danny,T/Macs try was converted by LC.
With Washington right back in the game and on a roll some poor
option taking and some uneducated kicking essentially handed PAC
back possession,our defensive line couldn't react quickly enough to
complete the first up tackles and PAC were in for two more very soft
tries
To
lead 36-19.
To
their credit,the Washington side stormed back to score 2 more tries
of their own through Kreg and man of the match Anwaar both converted
by LC
Final score 36-33
Although Washington didn't win the game They showed that they have
well and truly turned the corner with some great passages of play
and some fine individual performances.
With work on cutting down the unforced error rate,correct option
taking and winning our own line out ball.I am expecting to see a
major improvement come Friday nights game.
The
second Side,who were pretty much thrown together just before kickoff
Didn't fair quite so well, had managed to hold PAC to 25-19 with 8
minutes to go then as fatigue took its toll a 3 try blitz by PAC saw
the score blow out to 44-19
Highlights of the second game included a cameo 2nd half appearance
from President Kevin Gilligan who loomed up in support to score two
tries with his first two touches of the ball.
(im
sure this story will live on forever,as will the amount of ground
covered to score will increase)
Jajaun (who ate all the pies Hill) crashing over to score from 10
meters out
PJs
sniping runs
Juices sweet dummy before taking the gap and scoring
Chris's hit on the PAC inside center
But
it was Whiteys tireless effort in the loose that stole the show and
won him the man of the match!
Lets make sure everyones at practice on time and i can select the
side for Friday nights match
If
we can get 2 full sides to work on our set pieces things will
improve out of sight.
See
you all Tuesday.
Craig
