Game Report: Sept 08, 2007

Senior Men's First Team
Week 12: Balmy Beach RFC 24 - Aurora Barbarians RFC (ABRFC) 17

What a great day for high quality rugby, an excellent field and an almost perfect day with the first feel of fall and a game that, at times, reached near McCormick Cup intensity.

Unfortunately, it was also the first defeat for the Aurora Barbarians in the 2007 Marshall Division - not a great display of consistent rugby by the Aurora Barbarians, on a day that they could have tied up the 2007 League title. The Barbs were beaten by a Beach team that came to play a full 80 minutes of hard, uncompromising rugby, and clearly wanted the win to split the league fixtures, and get a win to off-set their loss to the Barbs in week 2 of the 2007 season. In the balance of games since June 2nd, the Beach have won 8 games and lost only one other fixture, against the Irish, (also a much improved team) – it was clear on Saturday that the Beach have improved considerably over the 2007 season.

In contrast the Barbs played poorly for long periods of time and only played at their normal level for the final 20 minutes. The point being that while this may be sufficient to win many games in the weakened Marshall Division, Saturday’s display proved that when the Aurora Barbarians play against the other top teams in the Marshall they still need to play consistent and hard rugby for the full 80 minutes.

This Balmy Beach R.F.C. is a very good team, and, on this day, were good value for a seven point win over the Barbs. The difference was that the Beach played flat out for 80 minutes of hard rugby – in contrast, the Barbs were down 21 – 3 after 60 minutes, and finally started to play at full pace for the last 15 minutes, scoring two good tries to pull within four, before giving up a penalty right in front of the posts for the final result, ABRFC 17 Balmy Beach R.F.C. 24 – for this effort, Beach scored 4 points and Barbs collected 1 point for loosing by seven or fewer points, so in real terms the Beach closed the gap at the top of the Marshall Premier Division to 12 points, with the Barbs having 2 games to play and the Beach with an additional fixture remaining – more of this later, but as of today, Aurora are still not declared as Division Champions for 2007.

The game showed the problems associated with an unbeaten and high scoring season against the teams in the Marshall – in simple terms, the season finally caught up with the Barbs when they came up against a well coached and experienced team that clearly wanted a win and came out flying. It was not that the Barbs were blown-out, and certainly the last 15 minutes were exciting, but the game showed that the Barbs will have to step-up the quality and intensity of their game over the next two months as the Marshall concludes and the McCormick Cup gets underway.

In many ways it is a “good thing” that the albatross of an unbeaten season has flown away!! Nobody remembers the uniqueness of an unbeaten League season, (an undeniably great achievement), but there is still a lot of top quality rugby to be played, and the additional pressure of remaining unbeaten is huge!! Put simply, great run, now onto the next game – this does not take away from a good win by the Beach, (long time rivals and a great Ontario rugby club), for 65 out of 80 minutes they were the better team. At times Aurora looked to be somewhat disorganized as they adjusted to several positional changes in the backs, changes resulting from injury and “return to school”, and overall the team played with a surprising lack of intensity, evidenced by several missed tackles. In contrast, the Beach had covered the changes resulting from their players going back to school, (with the veteran Glenn Miller covering at #9 for Mark Tarver, and some re-adjustment in the back row to cover for Mark McSween).

This was a game of the highest quality right from the opening kick-off and the first 25 minutes where almost like a cup tie in Mid October, end to end play and high intensity forward play from the Beach. The Beach forwards played well, with Scott Dunham having an excellent game and leading his pack into clear advantage in the loose – for long periods of time the Beach out played the Barbs and yet somehow the Barbs kept the score at 0 – 0. In fact, the Barbs had a couple of good chances to break open the game, but could not finish, although in fairness, the Beach also failed to capitalize on an early scoring opportunity. There were two specific events that were pivotal, just as the Barbs seemed to be building momentum, a penalty drove the home team back into their own end (this bad discipline has to stop!!). The second was a wonderful Rob Ashwood clearing kick to relieve Beach pressure to drive the Barbs deep into the Beach 22, and at 37 minutes his brother and Barbs #10 Dave Ashwood opened the scoring with a well struck penalty, ABRFC 3 Balmy Beach 0.

Within seconds, however, the Beach drove down into the Barbs 22 and the excellent Jesse Henkenhaf made a score out of nothing!! – Jesse is one of the most under-rated players in the Marshall, and although he was selected to play on the wing, he showed his skill with this well taken try. His “replacement” at #15, (the equally impressive Simon Rodgers), showed what an excellent place kicker he is, by landing the conversion from the touchline. And so, right on the half-time point Balmy Beach 7 ABRFC 3. And to think that Jesse played his Colts and Junior rugby with the Barbs!!!

The second half was almost a mirror of the first, good hard rugby and the type of game that the Marshal Division needs week in and week out – this was an entertaining game full of hard work and intensity. And yet, Aurora never really got into the game until the 65 minute. The Beach scored a wonderfully executed try where the backs moved the ball well and Simon Rodgers came into the line and scored in the corner, and repeated his touchline conversion, Beach 14 – Barbs 3. Some will say that the Barbs had several “close opportunities” to score, but he team failed to turn these chances into points. At 50 minutes, the Beach scored their third try, when weak Barbs tackling let the Beach winger, (the other winger) jink and dance inside the 22, and link with the hard working Drew Vaughan dive over for a try, again converted by Simon Rodgers, Beach 21 Barbs 3.

Over the last four seasons in the Marshall, the Aurora Barbarians have learned to build momentum and to claw their way back into the game and after this last Beach score the Barbs finally started to play with purpose and with direction. #10 Dave Ashwood set-up a couple of key movements, and only the well organized Beach drift defense kept the Barbs from closing the score. Eventually, however, this improved Barbs play was rewarded with a great try by Robbie Carter who crashed over in the corner, but referee Dan Gana judged that the Beach had attempted to remove Rob’s head and awarded a penalty try, and Dave Ashwood added the 2 points, Beach 21 Barbs 10.Was a comeback the cards?

Three minutes later Marco Di Girolamo scored the second try with a well taken opportunity from a 25 meter run after a good mid-field break by #10, Dave Ashwood, and Dave hit the conversion to bring the score within 4 points, Beach 21 ABRFC 17. Using darts parlance it was “Game on”. The Barbs were finally playing with commitment and with rhythm and it really did appear that the team could pull this one out of the fire. – but Beach #10 Alisdair Piercy continued to kick for position, (as he had done well all day), and drove the Barbs back into their own 22 The Barbs were penalised for not releasing and Simon Rodgers kicked the penalty for the final score of Balmy Beach R.F.C 24 Aurora Barbarians R.F.C 17, with Simon recording a personal tally of 14 points.

So, let’s recap. The “albatross” of an unbeaten season has gone, and the Aurora Barbs need four points from their final two games to secure the 2007 Marshall Premier Division. It also seems likely that the Beach will finish in second place, although they have three games remaining. All in all this was an important game for the Barbs, a close loss and some important lessons to take to heart.

First, this is a very good Beach team, a team that we should respect and not take lightly. They play hard and attractive rugby and have depth and discipline, and they are well coached in the basics of the game. Their defense was excellent and well organized and they take the ball at speed. They play “positional” rugby and set-up field position well and they have excellent goal kicking!!

Second, before we even think about the Beach again, there is a lot of hard rugby to play in the final two weeks of the league and in the early rounds of the cup. The Barbs have two tough games to play against Stoney Creek and the Cru in the last two weeks and need four points to re-capture the Marshall Premier Division Championship – all celebrations after the game today were totally premature and let’s just wait and win the league by hard work next week and on the 22nd of September.

Third, the Barbs need games like today to re-learn how to play hard for the whole 80 minutes – if the Barbs had played like they did for the final 20 minutes, the result would have been interesting. In many ways, today the Barbs were the victims of their own season and were “ripe for the taking” – but a couple of hard practices and focus and discipline on game day will help to turn this around.

In summary, this season is far from over. It is all very well to play with confidence and with flair, but as the Beach showed today, there are some very good teams out there and the Barbs cannot relax for another eight weeks – certainly, no team is going to hand over either the League or the McCormick Cup without a hard struggle in these final weeks of the season – the easy games are over for the 2007 season - the prospect is for tough, hard rugby for the remainder of the season and it is time for the Barbs to step up the pace, passion and determination for 80 plus minutes per game.