Georgia Tech 17 UGA 15
Central Park (Bedford Pines?), Atlanta,
GA
Saturday January 24, 2004, 2:30 pm
Referee: Ed "Peabody" Ward
All
the Pictures from the day's games
(thanks to Lindsay for taking the pictures)
 Kevin had some big runs... What, all the captions have to be inspired? |
It was a beautiful day for rugby, sunny and warm (for January). The day started off with a match between the Ogres and the Pigs (the Tech and UGA old boys), which Tech won 3 tries to 1 in a stunning display of, well, old guys playing rugby.
After telling our guys not to do anything they just saw in the old boys game, our game was a good one. Tech dominated the set pieces, winning every one of their own scrums and effectively all of ours. We also had some trouble winning our own lineout ball, although we seemed to get that more under control as the game went on.
Blake Richter and Trevor Maliro scored first half unconverted tries. Tech had a try and a penalty and we were tied 10-10 at the half. Second half Marc Petrini scored a try for us and Tech aso put a try across. Tech converted theirs, we didn't, and they won 17-15.
Offensively we had some good line breaks and some great support play by everyone, especially the backs. Our forwards retained the ball reasonably well. In general, when we had the ball were productive, we just didn't have it very much.
Defensively we had some good play (as you can see by Tech only scoring 17 points despite having tons of possession), but got some help from Tech's backline's handling mistakes. We also committed the penalties you'd expect of such a young team playing their first game of the season which gave Tech good field position. They scored their two tries off of our lineout mistakes deep in our own end.
 We've still got to work on stripping the ball... |
Overall it was a very encouraging game. We played very hard and positively and if we continue to work hard at practice things look good for the rest of the season.
We had many candidates for man of the match, including most of the backline, but in the end our man of the match was Charles Luke.
1 Bryan Flaherty (Neil Beers - 40th)
2 Manreet (Brian Lake - 50th)
3 Chris Snare
4 Charles Luke
5 Drew Thompson (Eric Stephenson - 40th)
6 Josh Burkhalter (Dave Collins - 40th)
7 Eric Stephenson (Matt Bergen - 40th)
8 Dave "Old Man River" Collins (Bryan Flaherty - 40th)
9 Brian Sanders
10 Marc Petrini
11 Alex Mitchell
12 Trevor Maliro (Charles Campbell - 40th)
13 Blake Richter
14 Charles Campbell (Marc Thomas - 40th)
15 Kevin Wilson
 This penalty on Blake was one of the stranger calls of the game. Can you find the ruck that had formed? Neither could we. |
Georgia Tech 31 UGA 21
The second game a full 80 minute match that was a rougher-around-the-edges, higher scoring affair than the first. Both teams had plenty of breaks and plenty of mistakes.
 Matt along for the ride. |
We put a young team out on the field and they played very well. We were solid in the scrums and stole some of Tech's lineouts. This was a full 80 minute game with some nice play by both sides. Tech scored 5 tries to our 3, all converted wit drop kicks by Marc Thomas. You'd think I'd know who scored the tries, but my addled brain hasn't a clue, other than the rumor that Arse scored one.
We ended the game very well when John scored a try as time ran out after several minutes of sustained pressure.
All in all it was a promising game with some new players making good showings.
1 John Perry
2 Marc Malone
3 Chris Stradtman
4 Andrew Morrison
5 Will Baldwin
6 Josh Burkhalter (Brian Lake - 40th)
7 Matt Bergen
8 Dustin Karr
9 Gavin Salmenson
10 Marc Thomas
11 David Holt
12 Trevor Maliro
13 Alex Mitchell
14 Arslaan Shahid
15 Mark Shepard
(Sorry about the lack of last names...)
I don't doubt there are a billion errors, feel free to let me know.
 The brain trust... Matt has his thinking cap on. |