Knoxville Rugby Football Club

Knoxville over Augusta 17-7

March 15, 2008

Knoxville handed Augusta its first loss of the 2008 USA Rugby South matrix competition at Possum Park.

On an afternoon of bad weather interspersed with even worse weather, the boys from Knoxville showed their true colors yesterday with a hard fought win over a previously unbeaten Augusta side 17 - 7.

Knoxville opened up the scoring with a penalty kick from Jallo, and followed up later in the half with a nice open field try when Garret J burst through a hole up the middle and found Ingle in support out wide. Adam showed some rugby smarts and managed to get around close to the posts before he dotted it down, and made Jallo’s job easy for the conversion. Unfortunately we put ourselves under pressure soon after the restart with a knock-on while attempting a quick tap from a penalty in our 22 (when will we ever learn??), and Augusta capitalized by muscling over a converted try to bring it back to 10 -7 to end the half.

At halftime we talked about how cold we were and then swam back out onto the field for the even soggier second half. There were handling errors galore on both sides, understandably, but Luke’s boot and the pack helped keep the pressure on Augusta early on. Eventually the pressure told and Shanks bravely intercepted a clearing kick with his noggin and KA was able to dive on it over the line. Another laser-guided kick by Jallo put us ahead 17 -7. From that point on Augusta were pretty much camped out inside our 22, but thanks to some spirited defence we managed to hold on for the win, even after playing the last ten minutes a man down as Reggie cooled his heels in the sin bin.

As coach, I couldn’t be much happier with how you guys played yesterday, in pitiful conditions against a top-notch side. You tackled well, you (mostly) took good options, the pack won five tight heads, our looseys were all over the place, the inside backs made the gain line, the deep 3 had each others backs … it all seemed to click. What made the victory even sweeter was the guys who filled in from the bench where needed and did all that was asked of them and more. Reggie, Garret, Mike F, Heath, Tanner … hats off to you!! Yesterday’s victory was a team effort in every sense of the word, and that’s what I’m most proud of … and you guys should be to. Like I said pre-game; 30 guys at practice allows us to practice effectively and gives us enough depth to field a strong 22 every week. If you’re a regular a-sider and you haven’t stopped to thank any of the guys that wear 16-22 each week … now’s your chance! Without them, that mud in your mouthguard wouldn’t have tasted half as sweet when Dave blew his whistle at fulltime

We’re not done yet boys! One more big game to go, and then we’ll see what happens. Uncle Possum needs YOU at practice, so be there or we’ll send Jallo and his “elbow of fury” to find you! See you Tuesday night.

Yours in soggy socks,

Pete