Game Report: June 8, 2006

Senior Men's First Team
Aurora Barbarians RFC (ABRFC) 44 - Toronto Nomads RFC 13

Last Thursday night, in the rescheduled game from week 1 of the season, we saw the result of a club, traditionally a major club in Ontario rugby with an excellent Junior development program, focusing on its fight to stay up in an unbalanced league and get the experience it will need to eventually win at this level.

The mid-week games that was a frustrating accommodation in a fixtures schedule that has become "cluttered" with representative games in May and June such that there are no "free dates" on weekends to allow for proper game day preparation for a Saturday fixture.

Aurora Barbs won their third game in three starts, and their third bonus point. For a period of 15 minutes in the final quarter Aurora played their flowing expansive style that uses skills, speed and fitness. For long periods of time, however, the Barbs "played down" failing to impose their higher skill level and fitness to impose a higher score and a more comprehensive style of rugby.

There were a number of good performances by the Aurora players.

Dave Poettker at Fly Half had another excellent game showing both a feel for the tactical dimension of the game and for field position. He scored 19 points on the night on 4 conversion, 2 penalties, and a well constructed individual try, to take his season tally to 48 points in three games.

Individual tries were scored by Robbie Carter, Rob Ashwood, Steve Shortly and Steve Bowie, in his 2006 debut. The "two Robs", (Carter and Ashwwood) had good games and got through a lot of work- Carter, building on two previous excellent games in the loose, kept driving forward and made up for his one extremely generous and excellent scoring pass to the Nomads winger!! His line-out throwing was good and he covered miles of territory on the evening. Ashwood played a strong game with slow ball resulting from the Nomads spoiling tactics - he is strong and absorbs a great deal of pressure and hits, while tackling and covering huge amounts of ground. It is worth zeroing in and following Ashwood during the game, he works very hard at his game and controls the territory well with a mix of service to his backs and excellent positional kicking.

Steve Bowie and Simon McEachren have agreed to accept Bowie as the scorer of an excellent "follow-up" and hard work in the last 5 minutes, demonstrating how hard Bowie worked in his return to first team rugby - let's hope that Steve can stay fit and healthy for a sustained period this season.

This was not an attractive or satisfactory game of rugby - put simply, too much negative play from a team struggling to adjust to the Marshall Division. We expect that the Nomads will grow and settle into a positive approach, and establish a base to build for their future in the Marshall.

Aurora Barbs will enjoy better nights when their game approach stays at a high level, games where they control the pace and style of the game - there is nothing wrong with tough, hard rugby, that is what this game is all about, but modern "winning   rugby" rugby is about skill, speed and expansive play, a style that Aurora Barbs are building towards. But certainly, while the effort in this mid-week game was outstanding from all 17 players who played, (including an entrance for Paddy Gourlay and a debut for Paul Greenaway),   there will inevitably be a level of frustration and disappointment in the style of the game.

Although Aurora Barbarians RFC are top of the Marshall after three games, there remains a lot tough games over the next three months and a lot of work to do to cement the great progress shown this season.

The next game for Aurora Barbarians 1 st team in the Marshall Division is on Saturday June 17 against Brampton RFC at Brampton home ground at 3:00 p.m. Brampton are a much improved club and, having seen them twice this season, they will prove to be excellent opposition in a game "not to be missed" - the continuation of a good rivalry in the Marshall.   Brampton have said that they intend to move up in the league standing and that anything less than a semi-final game in the cup will be unacceptable, and their play to date shows clear signs of progress on the field to match their progress off the field.