Game Report: August 5, 2009

Aurora Barbarians – Under 18 Boys
Aurora Barbarians RFC (ABRFC) 13 - Markham RFC 36

Last night the ABRFC u18 had suffered their second loss of the season at the hands of Markham, 36-13. It was a tough physical encounter that provided Aurora with a lesson in what to expect next week in the first round of the play-offs.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Markham are a top team, but we didn't come to play tonight", said Coach Townsend. "We were walking from the opening kick-off and never really exerted ourselves. It seemed as if we left everything on the practice field."

The u18s had been mentally preparing for this match since losing their the opening game of the season to their local rivals six weeks ago and looked tense as the teams took to the field. A botched opening kick-off led to a Markham try as their fly-half ghosted through a porous ABRFC defence to score from 40 meters out in the opening 60 seconds. It looked like it would be a long night, but the u18s regained their composure and turned things around.

A smart kick by fly-half Eric Selvaggi put the ball behind the Markham defence and the chase was on. Outside centre Jesse Walker was the first to touch down and the game was tied. That lifted the Aurora side and they kept the ball in their opponents end for the next 20 minutes. However, they lacked the ability to convert that territorial advantage into any points. A series of mental and physical mistakes meant that Markham were able to clear their line and relieve the pressure. This inability to execute under pressure would haunt the u18s all night.

Markham struck back with a try late in the half but a penalty kick by Leo Dubinski on the last play of the half closed the deficit to four, 12-8 for the home side. "I was disappointed in the effort of many of the starting fifteen in the first half, but rather than give them a chance to show what they could do, I chose to begin playing everyone else in the second half," said Townsend in response to a question about his bench strategy. "The strength of this club and this team has always been a total team effort and the development of all players. I am not going to change that".

An early second half try and convert by Markham moved the score to 19-8 and the floodgates in the u18 defence began to open as players forgot to tackle, communicate or play with any energy. The home side would pour in another 17 second half points before flanker Zach Watson touched down just over the line at the final whistle to give Aurora the final points of the night.

In his closing comments Townsend said," Yes, I'm disappointed to lose, always am, but hopefully we can all learn from what happened tonight. We are not that far away from Markham. We didn't bring our best game tonight and they did. I hope that next time we meet the situation will be reversed."

ABRFC u18s finished second in the North Division and qualified for the Cup play-offs. Their next game is Wednesday August 12th but as we went to press the opponent had yet to be determined.