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Better late than never.
The Banshees traveled to Thunder Bay, ON for their first league match in DIII. The team was a little nervous as no one had ever played Lakehead before and we had no idea what to expect. The Banshees started strong stringing together several attacking phases and were rewarded with an attempt at post when Lakehead was called for a hands in infraction. Joe C gave a strong offering kick but missed just wide right. Lakehead regained possession off the 22 drop and charged back at us, after several phases including a couple of long runs from their hooker they were rewarded with their own penalty attempt which their fullback slotted to give them a 3-0 lead. Following the penalty we finally settled down and got back to the original game plan of spinning the ball out wide. The back three of Pinky, Joe C and Disco Jon along with Choir from the outside center position were able to exploit Lakehead's inexperience on the wing for several long runs and the Banshees went into the break up 14-3 on two tries from Choirboy and conversions from Joe.
The second half saw a strong start from Lakehead as they came out hard from the kickoff and put us on the back foot pushing hard to get back into the contest. Lakehead got in the try zone when their flanker capitalized on a ball that squirted out of the scrum and offloaded to their hard running inside center who put it down for the try, they missed the conversion but were back in the game 14-8. As often happens when the Banshees need a try we leaned on the timeless John "Woody" Woodyard to make a play and he didn't let us down. Making his signature cut through the middle of Lakehead's backline he put it down under the post and Joe converted giving the Minnesotans a 21-8 lead. By this time the reserves were chomping at the bit to get in and Joe C gave us an insurance try and the bonus point when he finished a chip and chase try and Woody converted making the lead 28-8. Lakehead was able to tally another try after the restart taking advantage of some miscommunications in our defense as we brought on everyone that made the trip but we settled down again and kept the pressure on defensively. Stapes picked off an errant pass between Lakeheads 8 man and scrum half and rumbled 30 meters for one last try as time expired.
Great team effort by all 21 Banshees that made the trip and a very strong performance by our backline especially the back three. Oh yeah, and Lakehead threw a good party. Those that didn't make the trip missed out
Positives for the week:
- Another week of very strong backline play
- Good defense, lots of talking on defense
- we didn't over commit to rucks and mauls
Things to work on:
- Forwards need to recognize when to pick and go and when to pick and drive better to take the pressure off the backline
- Getting a babysitter for Francois
Long Hot Day.
First game was an 8:30 kickoff against Metropolis B/Old Boys. The Banshees came out with a lack of fire and mental acuity characteristic of the early start time and first game rust. Defensive misses and handling errors resulted in a 7-0 halftime deficit. The second half saw improvement in tackling but still too many missed opportunities and handling errors on offense and the full time score remained 7-0 Metropolis B.
In the downtime between matches we did some much needed work on lineouts and backline plays then took the field against a college barbarian side from Eau Claire, UW River Falls and the U of M. It was a hard hitting affair between the two packs but the Banshee backs were able to get enough ball out wide to exploit college kids' lack of cohesiveness and get away with a win.
After the college kids, Banshee I had a 4 hour lag between matches before taking on their final opponent for the day the St Cloud Bottom Feeders. In typical Banshee-Feeder fashion this was a chippy affair as the long day in the heat brought out a certain surliness in both sides. The final game saw more improvement from the Banshees and our fitness level (while still not where it should be) was enough to keep the Feeders at bay. The Feeders backline was not able to keep up with Pinky, Choir, Joe C. and Josh on the outside and Woody and Caldwell were more than up to the challenge provided by their opposing midfield. Three tries plus two nice penalties by Joe gave us a nice 25-5 win to end the day.
I apologize for lack of scores but Banshee II lost two tough matches on the day the first against St John and the second was a batter with the Bottom Feeders. Both matches showed a lot intensity especially for young guys making their first jump to men's club rugby and I can honestly say that even though the scores may not have reflected it, St Johns and St Cloud were given all they wanted and more by Banshees.
All in all a good day to see where we are and and what we need to work on as we jump to league play next week.
Positives for the day:
Joe C's boot
The backline showed good pace when they got the ball out wide and it is obvious we need to get it out there more
Great start for the Southside players making their men's debut. It is great to see the young guys step up and get right in the face of "veterans" and not back down
Kyle Miller for absolutely crushing a guy more than twice his size
Things we need to work on:
Fitness
Tackling
Ballhandling
Communication |
