Brevard Old Red Eye Rugby Football Club

Brevard at West Palm

On a sunny, dry, afternoon with little wind, 28 Red Eye players and their guests traveled to Dyer Park in West Palm and won the A and B games; both refereed by Paul Higgs. The field was a converted soccer pitch laid out in a basin between the “hills” with short, uphill try zones and soccer goals as the platforms for the posts. Afterwards, we were treated to Bar-B-Q and refreshments at O’Sheas Irish Pub on Clematis St and quite a few of our players decided to stay for the night.

In the A-game, West Palm struck first, converting a try off a blocked clearing kick for a 7-0 lead just minutes into the match. After an exchange of penalty kicks, the opportunistic home team broke through our inside defense off their lineout to take a 15-6 lead at the midway point of the half. Brevard chipped away at their lead, drawing to within 15-12 before Palm Beach struck again using their strong running 8-man and effective kicking game to take a 20-12 lead. Brevard, while dominating lineout play and after exposing weakness in the opponents defense wide, responded with a cross country, ‘8 men touching the ball’ type effort which resulted in a beautiful try. The match, well played to that point, then regressed to sloppy and somewhat confused effort by both sides and the score at half was 20-17 West Palm.

In the 2nd half, the Red Eyes entered the land of missed opportunities as we could not finish multiple breakaway chances. With frustration levels increasing, we began to vocalize our opinions on the pitch and the referee properly responded by penalizing us repeatedly. West Palm used these penalties to pin us deep and we would work our way out the hole only to be penalized again - a somewhat insanely typical period for us which we luckily escaped with only a 26-17 deficit. The Red Eyes, finally regaining composure, drove deep into the opponents territory and punched in a well earned try after 8 phases in front of their posts; cutting the deficit to 26-24. The effort was a thing of beauty. With 8 minutes left, we converted our final penalty kick to take the first lead of the day, 27-26. West Palm responded with a quick kickoff over a complacent Brevard team, deep into the corner which they subsequently hammered in for a converted try, taking a 33-27 lead with about 5 to go. But the Red Eyes still had some gas left, and quite a bit of heart as well, as they punched in a converted try and retook the lead at 34-33 with just a couple minutes left. The subsequent series resulted in a lineout to Palm Beach 30 meters out, and the drop kick by their fly half sailed just left of the posts as the whistle blew.

Chris Vandetti and Aaron “Bubba” Zrimsek got their first A-side starts, both at lock, Colin Scott got his first A-side start at scrum half and all three responded with solid efforts. Virgil scored a try and Chandler Wilson scored two trys, went 5/7 on penalty kicks and 2/3 on conversions was unanimously awarded Man-Of-The-Match.

The B-side game, featuring the father / son team of John and Colin Scott, was played with two full sides over 20 minute halves and refereed by Paul Higgs. The first half, dominated by the Red Eye forwards and played mostly at the Palm Beach end, resulted in a 0-0 draw. There were multiple chances to score but these were nullified by knock-ons in goal and others on the final pass. The second half opened with a lineout 60 meters out and three quick bangers later the visitors had a 7-0 lead. The forwards, lead by Big and Little Joe, and a miraculously healthy Cheese, got a good taste of the ball, began to ruck and run, hammering the opponents into submission. The few balls left for the backs were spun wide where Jimmy Webster, in his first full game, nearly broke free from wing on multiple occasions. The second side played very good, fundamental, rugby as a score of 26-0 accurately reflects.

Danny Dugan, Little Joe and Cheese all scored trys and Trouper Green kicked 3 of 4 conversions to lead the scoring. The best all round game was played by rookie tight head, Joe Pearce, who won the Man-Of-The-Match honors.

Posted by Pedro at January 25, 2004 09:15 AM