Knoxville’s U23 side, The Colts, showed some really positive play against Tennessee Tech in Cookville today. With the help of a very grizzled and corpulent tight five, the young guys in the back line and loose forwards put on a show of entertaining rugby.

It was obvious when we arrived that we were outsized, especially at the inside backs. Those guys were huge. They didn’t look like any fun to either tackle or be tackled by, so we planned accordingly. Knoxville’s forwards and backs complimented each other really well for the whole day. We kept the pressure on at every opportunity as we knew we’d have a tough time attacking a larger side if we allowed them to organize.

In the first half the forwards provided clean ball on offensive set pieces, and our backs did a tremendous job of using the boot to maintain pressure on Tech’s deep three. Solid play from the backs gave the forwards the opportunity (and motivation) to pursue ball, and everyone did a great job of keeping the ball alive and moving. As a result, even when the ball was taken to the ground, we had enough support to win clean rucks and give our backs the chance to go at it again.

Defensively on set pieces, we were able to put enough pressure on the ball to disturb Tech’s flow from the base. Our back line rewarded this effort by coming up hard and stepping up to the challenge of tackling those big inside backs. Tech had good success picking and driving with their pack players, but we were able to weather the storm for the most part and reorganize.

Halftime score (I think) 24-5, Knoxville.

Tech made some good adjustments at halftime to deal with our kicks. As a result, we were forced to tweak our plan of attack and deal with their return kicks. The fact that they put our young guys in the position to adjust will pay dividends in the long run. Tech did a great job of exposing areas where we can improve in our decision making, and things that we need to work on in practice. Having said that, I’d like to commend our young players on the huge strides they’ve made in the last few weeks. While there were situations in which we could have made better decisions, I can’t recall a situation in which we made a really bad one. The athleticism has been there from day one, and it is great to see our collective rugby I.Q. rising so rapidly.

Final score 39-12 (I think).

7 tries scored, two converted. If you scored a try and it isn’t listed here, please let me know.
Dars, Woods-2 (one a penalty try), Wallace (penalty try)

Scott

Lineup

1. Rise Up!

2. Butters

3. Dars

4. McNabb

5. Adcox

6. Christian Peagler

7. Thomas Riddle

8. Matt Neuhart

9. Raphael Verdzco

10. Rob Wallace

11. Maynard

12. Mike Feliciano

13. Chris Manning

14. Kicker

15. Luke Woods

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