North Carolina 52 UGA 0

Chapel Hill, NC
Saturday February 23, 2008
Referee: Ethridge

This weekend we went up to UNC. We only traveled with 25 players as we were missing quite a few due to injury or other conflicts (19 players on the "can't go" list this week). We've really tested our depth this semester, but never quite so much as this week when we had a different #1, #6, #9, #10, #12, and #14 than we did last week against South Carolina, leaving us extremely thin on the B-side.

North Carolina was the first matrix match this season where we weren't physically beaten. We controlled the first 15 minutes or so of the match and had the ball in UNC's end for most of that time, but were unable to score (we missed a penalty kick in the 12th minute). In the 16th minute UNC's #8 picked up from a scrum and went 80 meters for the try. That started a spurt of 4 tries in 12 minutes as they consistently beat us through the centers.

Jeff Miller did a great job for us, moving from second row to prop, as we simply had no props traveling (we had to play B-side with uncontested scrums). We had consistently clean ball in the scrums for the first time this matrix season. We were unable to get anything going on offense despite having no physical problem in the scrum or lineout. We made multiple mental mistakes, giving away several tries off of our own errors and had timing problems with our backs (no question at least in part due to having moved so many players around and not being able to practice on Thursday).

UNC did an outstanding job hitting gaps at pace and our defense spent too much time waiting for them rather than charging up and taking away UNC's space and time. In the second half we focused on attacking defensively and, when we did, UNC did little offensively.

It was a very disappointing game as we were consistently unable to take advantage of opportunities and were consistently unable to stop UNC from taking advantage of theirs.

Man of the match: Michael Thompson for being a defensive presence and making many tackles behind the gain line.

1. Will McDonald
2. Jared Swanson
3. Jeff Miller
4. Matt Freimuth
5. Tyler Leonard
6. Archie Japaridze
7. Allen Revak
8. Michael Thompson
9. Ryan Downey
10. Tony Niknejad
11. James Roberson
12. Will Pinkston
13. Kenny Hall
14. Chris Etchells
15. TJ McGaha

UGA 22 North Carolina 21

The B-side did better, stepping up again to win their 7th straight game. We took an 8-0 lead into half-time on a Ryan Downey penalty kick and a try by Archie Japaridze. We were disappointed to have the ref call half-time with time still showing on the clock and us having a 5 meter attacking scrum.

In the second half UNC stormed back, scoring 3 converted tries to take a 21-15 lead. With time running out Matt Freimuth scored in the corner (ignoring the backline's pleas for the ball with a 3+ man overload). Ryan Downey cooly made the sideline conversion to go up 22-21. We kept pressure on them the rest of the game and narrowly missed putting in another try or two. All in all a great display by the B-side.

The most notable part of the B-side's win is that the comeback at the end was 100% fueled by attacking defense. We consistently put their ballcarriers down behind the gainline and turned them into turnovers, then turned the turnovers into points. We need to have more success with that in our A-side games as we head into our last 2 games, on the road at Tennessee and at home against Florida.

1. Archie Japaridze
2. Hyun "Cheech" Chong
3. Will McDonald
4. Michael Thompson / Matt Freimuth
5. Josh Mullis
6. Jared Swanson
7. Jordan Roe
8. Gerald Lindo
9. Ryan Downey
10. Doug Porter / Tony Niknejad
11. Corey Lyles / Phillip Mitchum
12. Johan Uribe
13. Phillip Mitchum / Chris Etchells
14. David Jasper
15. Ryan Selensky

 

I don't doubt there are a billion errors, feel free to let me know.