Arkansas St 52 UGA 5
Athens, GA
Saturday February 9, 2008
Referee: Gareth Morgan
This Saturday Arkansas St came to Athens. They are a newcomer to Division 1 but have been a power for years in D2, last year losing in the national championship game. We had simple goals this week:
1) Attack them defensively
2) Win clean ball in our set pieces
3) Commit 5 or fewer penalties
We achieved none of these. We were consistently beaten man on man in contact as they were consistently lower than we were, so although we did a reasonable job making contact in their backfield, we rarely put the ball carrier down in their backfield. In the scrums we had good success mixing up the scrum timing to make sure we got clean strikes, but consistently shot ourselves in the foot with handling mistakes at the back of the scrum as we were driven backwards and rarely got clean ball.
To add to that we had 2 players sin-binned (not at the same time), one for repeated infringements by the team and one for a cheap shot in the ruck. Arkansas St had one player sin binned.
Arkansas St took good advantage of our mistakes and had their way with us, winning 52-5. As a team we played hard, just not particularly well. We didn't handle the strong wind very well and, after the first few minutes, didn't do anything offensively in the first half. We got our try early in the second half off a nice period of sustained pressure with the points coming after a penalty play.
Man of the match: Evan Jones. A natural flanker playing prop, he was all over the field defensively, making a couple tackles on their outside center and wing on the corner. He was also thrown into service as our lineout jumper in the absence of Michael Thompson. I've been unable to remember any other props who jumped in our lineout since I've been here...
1. Evan Jones
2. Jared Swanson / Isaac Lee
3. Will McDonald
4. Matt Freimuth
5. Jeff Miller
6. Tyler Leonard
7. Archie Japaridze
8. Andy Flage
9. Nick Burgess
10. Ryan Cooke
11. James Roberson
12. Anthony Tilton
13. Kenny Hall
14. Will Pinkston
15. TJ McGaha
UGA
28 Arkansas St 22
Our B-side outplayed our A-side by a wide margin, winning their 5th straight game 28-22. We opened strongly, playing into the wind, and kept the pressure on Arkansas St all game. Tony Niknejad had another strong game at flyhalf and Warren Mullis scored 2 tries from his second row spot.
First half scoring:
3rd / 3-0 / Tony Niknejad penalty from 28 meters
7th / 8-0 / Warren Mullis try off lineout maul
12th / 15-0 / Tony Niknejad try off a break and chip
17th / 15-5 / ASU try off free kick
26th / 15-12 / ASU try under posts
Second half scoring:
33rd / 15-17 / ASU try from lineout maul
48th / 18-17 / Tony Niknejad penalty
52nd / 23-17 / Warren Mullis 40 meter try
57th / 23-22 / ASU try
62 / 28-22 / Gerald Lindo try on pickup from scrum
Man of the match: Warren Mullis scored 2 tries and had a several big runs
1. Graham Kalish
2. Hyun Chong
3. Michael Swacha
4. Warren Mullis
5. Josh Mullis
6. Jordan Roe
7. Devin Smith / Jamey Green
8. Gerald Lindo
9. Ryan Downey
10. Tony Niknejad
11. Eric Marlowe
12. Landon Guinn
13. Johan Uribe
14. David Jasper / Corey Lyles
15. Chris Etchells
I don't doubt there are a billion errors, feel free to let me know.