Charles River Rugby Men vs North Shore Rugby

Charles River Rugby Men vs North Shore Rugby

October 26, 2013, 11:00 AM

Joe Moakley Park, Boston, MA

Match Details: There was a different vibe to the Charles River Rats approach to their match against North Shore RFC, instead of thinking that they might win; the Rats knew they would emerge victorious, provided they did not play sloppy. Hoping to avoid the confusion that plagued the Rats in the previous game, Head Coach Paul Clemens extensively reviewed the lineout positions for his forwards and the defensive assignments for all his players.

October 26, 2013, 11:00 AM

Joe Moakley Park, Boston, MA

Rats Match

 

Position Rats Starter Substitute
#1 Prop Mike “Terror” Tura Phil Adams
#2 Hooker Alec “Ox” Tolivaisa  
#3 Prop Brendan Wönn  
#4 Lock Mark “The Kid” Cassidy  
#5 Lock Wes “Mantooth” Page[1] Chris “Spaulding” Theile
#6 Flanker Jeff “Swiss Army” Garner  
#7 Flanker Grant “007” McAuslan  
#8 8-Man Tommy Conley  
#9 Scrum-Half Zack “For Sale” Cox  
#10 Fly-Half Ricky Friberg ©  
#11 Wing Charlie Punches “Keyless” Jerry Calixte
#12 Inside Center Karim El-Sayed Dan “Hamburglar” Lewis[2]
#13 Outside Center Corey “A or B” Lang  
#14 Wing “Wee” Pat Cavallario  
#15 Fullback “Prince” Philip Balas Dave McVey[3]

 

Match Details: There was a different vibe to the Charles River Rats approach to their match against North Shore RFC, instead of thinking that they might win; the Rats knew they would emerge victorious, provided they did not play sloppy. Hoping to avoid the confusion that plagued the Rats in the previous game, Head Coach Paul Clemens extensively reviewed the lineout positions for his forwards and the defensive assignments for all his players.

Both North Shore and Charles River were looking to claim their first victory of the 2013 season. A minute before kick-off Fly-Half and Captain Ricky Friberg told his teammates that this was the biggest match in his 5-year Charles River career since a loss would all but guarantee a last-place finish in Division II and a demotion to Division III. Every Rat knew the stakes that their captain was implying and was anxious to stop North Shore from celebrating on their field. However, the Rats’ anxiety was not a positive for their cause, at least during the opening minutes of the match.

Five minutes into the match, the Rats conceded a try due to not adjusting to an overload. The Rats were making their tackles, however they would not force turnovers which allowed North Shore to march down the field and score in the corner of the try zone. The conversion kick failed to reach the uprights; however North Shore seized the lead, 5-0.

Weather was a major influence in the match, as both teams had to deal with windy conditions. Due to the wind, line-outs were a difficult proposition for both teams. With the wind at their backs, North Shore often kicked, forcing both forward packs to constantly run back in support. Thankfully for the Rats, Fullback (and former team MVP) Philip Balas made his long-awaited return to the starting lineup. Balas provided spectacular counter-attacks, forcing North Shore to place their kicks towards the touch lines.

With 20 minutes left in the half, North Shore scored again, extending their lead, 12-0. Usually, this is the part where the Rats get discouraged, lose confidence and give up tries; this time the Rats remained confident, got angry and cleaned up their mistakes.  The schematic problems for the Rats were in scrums, lineouts and counter-attack support. In scrums, North Shore’s front row played an outstanding game, often getting lower than the Rats’ front row, which caused such problems as driving the pack into Scrum-Half Zack Cox while he was passing to Friberg, stealing a hook or wheeling the scrum. In line-outs, both teams had to deal with a strong wind, and the Rats had trouble accounting for it during the 1st half. For counter-attacks, Balas made some great runs, however he was either running unsupported or with players could not make the opposing wing miss the tackle.

With 15 minutes left in the half, the Rats received a penalty and started their own march to the try zone. The Rats’ progress to the try zone was a huge credit to the hard running by Prop Brendan Wönn, 8-Man Tommy Conley and Inside Center Karim El-Sayed. Despite not practicing with the backline for the entire season, El-Sayed was selected to wear the #12 jersey because Coach Clemens needed to fill a hole in the backline with a hard runner. El-Sayed rewarded his coach’s faith by rucking over defenders when Friberg fed him the ball on crash plays.

After taking a week to adjust to a new scheme, Wönn contributed mightily to Rats’ cause by arriving at the perfect position to receive passes from Cox. Later in the game, the Rats decided to run a penalty play and all forwards agreed that Wönn should be the first ball carrier to power the Rats to the try zone (more on this play later).

Five minutes later, North Shore gained possession of the ball five meters from the try zone and kicked the ball away. Balas caught the ball and raced toward the left touchline where Wing Pat Cavallario was in a perfect support position. Balas and Cavallario had “two-on-one” situation where Balas drew the defender and popped the ball to Cavallario at the last possible moment. Cavallario caught the pop and beat the defensive pursuit, giving the Rats their first score of the game, cutting the deficit 12-5.

During halftime, Coach Clemens made his substitutions and told his players that they need to stop committing penalties and hold their ground in the scrums in order to win. Coach Clemens was also impressed with the forwards shutting down the “fringe” area around rucks, forcing North Shore to swing the ball to the backs.

Going into the 2nd half the Rats had the ball, the wind and some much needed fresh legs. Wing Jerry Calixte played a great half, making tough tackles and breaking off some nice runs. The forward pack started to hold their ground in scrums and consistently win their line-outs. As the forward pack improved during the second half, the backline was wearing down as both El-Sayed and Balas were battling nagging injuries sapping them of their stamina. During this time, Friberg and Outside Center Corey Lang showed why they are considered the leaders of the Rats by running hard and making huge tackles.

With 25 minutes left in the match, the Rats scored another try, thanks to a beautiful sequence of plays, giving Lang his second try of the season. The play started at North Shore’s 22-meter line, when Friberg threw a skip pass to Lang, who gained 10 meters. Conley took a crash ball with perfect forward support to set a quick ruck platform, giving Cox the chance to pass to Friberg while the defensive was re-organizing. Lang recovered from the tackle and inserted himself in the backline, along with Balas and El-Sayed. After two passes, Lang broke the defense and placed the ball just outside the uprights. The conversion kick was unsuccessful, which preserved the North Shore lead, 12-10.

After the kick, Coach Clemens bought another former team MVP, Dan Lewis, on to the field. Instantly, Lewis showed that he has not lost a step, making highlight-worthy tackles and performing bulldozing carries. The Rats felt that the game was theirs, figuring that North Shore did not have the talent to stop them. Unfortunately, North Shore had one more trick up their sleeve.

With 12 minutes left in the match, North Shore received a scrum forty meters from the Rats’ try zone. During the engagement, a couple of North Shore’s backs stealthy switched sides and caused an overload that the Rats failed to recognized. When the ball was won by North Shore, it was quickly swung to the wing, where Cavallario[4] had to defend three players by himself. North Shore scored 10 meters from the touch line, giving their kicker a tough angle. Every Rat hoped the wind would provide enough resistance to stop the kick from splitting the uprights. North Shore’s kicker unleashed a powerful kick that the wind could not influence much. As the ball got closer and it seemed it would hook away from the outside of the right upright, however the ball cross directly over the upright. After a moment of confusion[5], the conversion was deemed successful, giving North Shore a 19-10 lead, the Rats were furious.

Before the kickoff, Coach Clemens had to get creative with his lineup as Balas[6] could not continue the game. He decided to put Calixte at Fullback, a position he never played before and Cassidy at Wing, a position he only played during Orange Whip matches. The moves paid off as both players locked on the task at hand, staging an epic comeback that would save the season for the Rats. The rest of the Rats knew that there was no room for doubt, fatigue, or tentativeness; it was time for all of them to give their best rugby performance ever.

The Rats kicked off and forced North Shore’s offense to march backwards. Fearing a counter-attack, North Shore kept the ball amongst their forwards, hoping to drain the clock to zero. The Rats tied the ball up in a maul and were awarded a huge scrum. The Rats worked the ball down the field and were awarded a penalty just outside of the 22-meter line. Having confidence in his forwards, Friberg elected to kick for touch and unleashed picture perfect punt that crossed the touch line five meters away from the try line. From the ensuing lineout, the Rats tried to drive the ball into the try zone, using a maul. Even though it did not directly result in a try, the maul drew enough defenders to give the backs some space to work with. Inside Center Jeff Garner got the Rats within two meters from the try zone, Lock Dave McVey received the ball from Cox seemed to score a try, but the referee made two calls:

  1. North Shore managed to place their hands underneath the ball while McVey attempted to touch the ball down. Forcing the referee nullify an apparent try.
  2. During the ruck, North Shore was guilty of not rolling away from the tackle, giving the Rats a much needed penalty.

Friberg noticed that North Shore was gingerly making their way back to the try line, so he quick-tapped the ball, forcing a North Shore player to swat Friberg’s ensuing pass to the backline. The action forced the referee to issue a yellow card to North Shore’s captain. During the card conference, the forward pack organized themselves into pods and was ready to bang the ball into the try zone. The forwards were confident that Wönn would be the person to take them to the promise land. After the conference, Cox toed the ball and performed a “miss” pass that was just outside of Wönn’s reach and into the hands of Friberg who was met by two defenders. Friberg was determined not to go down, he kept his legs moving and propelled himself to the try zone, touching the ball down right underneath the uprights. Lang nailed the easy conversion kick with four minutes remaining, making the score 19-17.

Before the Rats received the ensuing kickoff, a forward suggested to Friberg that he should try a drop goal if the chance presented itself. The Rats received the kickoff and zigzagged down the field hoping to exhaust any ounce of energy their opponents had. With under a minute to go, the Rats were caught in a maul, and could not work the ball out of the engagement, forcing the referee to award North Shore a scrum with less than 30 seconds left in the match. The forward pack, tired of being dominated in scrums for two seasons, knew they needed to do something magical to give the team one last chance at a miracle comeback and they delivered by wheeling the scrum!

Before the put-in the backs were instructed that this would be the last play of the game. Conley and Cox managed to get the ball out of the scrum before North Shore could perform their own wheel. Cox kept calling for forward crashes, hoping to draw the defense away from the backs. Friberg also kept the offense simply by calling forward crashing, hoping to lessen the chances of a game-ending knock-on. The simple crash offense allowed the Rats to get close to the 22-meter line and opened up space for the backs. Friberg tossed the ball out, the forwards had finished a ruck, and suddenly they all heard a surprising “Boom!”

One of the Rats’ backs decided to chip the ball over North Shore’s line because he noticed there was no-one behind the defensive line, or so he thought. As the ball came down, North Shore’s wing was in perfect positioned to receive the kick. Once the wing caught the ball, he booted the ball to touch, kicked away the Rats’ last chance of winning the match.

After the game Coach Clemens was told his players that he proud of the effort they displayed for the entire game. “You walk with your heads held high…” instructed Coach Clemens. Friberg later said “It seemed that we were nervous during the first twenty minutes [of the 2nd half] because we weren’t used to playing a close game…that cost us the game.”

It would be unfair to pin the loss on one player, because every Rat made one mistake that could have changed the outcome of the match. It seemed the Rats finally figured out how to win, they finally played with the heart, determination and teamwork that Charles River Rugby was found upon and was once universally known for.

The dawn of a new, winning era for the Charles River Rats is finally coming.

FINAL SCORE: Rats 17, North Shore 19

Man of the Match: Corey Lang. Shifting to Outside Center, Lang a major force on both offense and defense. The biggest reason North Shore kept kicking throughout the 2nd half, despite having the wing in their face, was their backs were frightened by running into Lang’s “kill zone.” On offense, Lang used a perfect balance of power running and timely passing break North Shore’s defense. Lang’s performance was an inspiration to all the Rats through the entire contest.

Honorable Mentions[7]: Brendan Wönn, Karim El-Sayed and Phil Balas

 

Orange Whips Match

 

Match Details: Since both clubs had low attendance, it was decided that the Orange Whips would not square against the North Shore Blues[8].

Rats Scoring Table

 

PLAYER TRIES PENTALY KICKS CONVERSIONS TOTAL POINTS
J. Kenneally

4

4

8

48

C. Lang

2

0

1

12

R. Friberg

2

0

0

10

M. Fair

1

0

0

5

D. Bloom

1

0

0

5

J. Calixte

1

0

0

5

P. Cavallario

1

0

0

5

Season Results

 

OPPONENT

W/L

RATS SCORE

OPP SCORE

RECORD

Newport

L

8

22

(0-1)

@Saratoga

L

35

86

(0-2)

@New Haven

L

0

77

(0-3)

@Amoskeag

L

3

67

(0-4)

Portland

L

7

96

(0-5)

Burlington

L

7

46

(0-6)

@Providence

L

13

55

(0-7)

North Shore

L

17

19

(0-8)

@Worcester

Albany

Next Week

The Rats travel to Worcester, to take on the defending Division II NERFU Champions. Kickoff is at 11am. The pitch is located at Lake Park, which overlooks Lake Quinsigamond. The address is 290 Lake Avenue, Worcester, MA.



[1] Page played despite walking in an air-boot for two weeks because of a ligament injury.

[2] Lewis entered the game at Hooker while Tolivaisa moved to Flanker and Garner moved to Inside Center.

[3] McVey entered the game at Lock while Cassidy moved to Wing and Calixte moved to Fullback.

[4] To Cavallario’s credit, he did force a tough pass, which was the best play he could have made in that situation.

[5] North Shore’s touch judge was watching that side of the uprights and called the kick good.

[6] Balas had to put his right arm in a makeshift sling after he was substituted.

[7] Selected by Coach Clemens

[8] Surprisingly, North Shore has a nickname for their B-side, but not their A-side.