Irish Fall to 0-2
Sept 15, Annapolis, MD- The Washington Irish headed into game 2 of 7 against Severn River carrying a frustrating loss to a well prepared Norfolk club. After a great week of training the team felt confident and it showed off the opening kickoff. The pack took it strong out of the air and played some excellent phase rugby. Only a couple of possessions into the game Mark Seiss found some space wide and was walked down but with great support. After a crash to Dave Beard that turned into an open field run, Beard found Luke Piepkorn who scampered 25 meters before selflessly dishing to John Baker for the try. It looked like the ball may have finally been rolling for green.
The 7-0 lead held for most of the first half. The general pattern of the game for that time consisted of the Irish stringing together some very sound rugby for several phases and then a turnover would occur. Turnovers came in both unsupported runners as well as a completely inordinate amount of obstruction calls that left onlookers on both sides questioning their own interpretation of the law. But, much of that was due to the Irish retreating chasing kicks. Severn wisely played only very rarely inside their own forty, making the Irish try to beat them for the length of the field. River found themselves inside the Irish 10 meter line a good few times but came up empty for all but one of them in the first half. Great defense from Nate Kusner, Jerod Jazenski, Beard and Piepkorn played a large part in stymieing the Severn attack.
Pay dirt finally came for Severn after Brad Burns and the opposing outside center met simultaneously on a flat pass from Anthony Caron. While both of them went down hard the ball was scooped up by Severn River, played very well through a few sets of hands and dotted under the posts. Conversion good.
The Irish had one more good break by Jon Hansen in the first half but a risky pass was picked up and blasted out of bounds. The half ends knotted in a 7-7 tie.
The second half was largely uneventful and at times, frankly, ugly. There appeared to be gross violations of laws in rucks and mauls that went unchecked. This made for slow, sloppy ball when it was called and far too many set pieces when it was. Both teams had a couple breaks that immediately disintegrated into knocks or some other infraction and led to nothing. The difference came in that Severn played a very smart game repeatedly using the foot to pin the Irish deep. Sure enough in a game with all kinds of penalties the Irish got dinged deep in their own territory and Severn converted it for a try. Severn 10-7.
Let it not go unsaid that there were some great efforts by many of the Irish players. Pat Fritz came on and gave a burst to the back three with excellent positioning for kicks and slashing countering runs. Brian McCue made his debut at scrum half and directed the attack remarkably. While coach Clay Gardner would have liked him to run a bit less, his running was not by a long shot ineffective. He made several breaks off hip of the rucks and was commanding on defense as well. Jazenski ran like a tank all day- again. Timmy Donavon got around very well and was tenacious tackling. In addition, Chuck Goldston found his way back on to an A side field and showed he is still capable of holding it down on the wing.
Late in the game Severn again had pinned the Irish deep in their own territory and were knocking on the door. After a few scrums, several phases yet another scrum was rewarded at the Irish five-meter line. The eight-man picked and went strong. As he went, flyhalf Caron collapsed to the ball carrier. As he did the eight-man dished to the flyhalf. Inside center Burns tried to get to the flyhalf but ultimately tackled him just a second to late and was unable to keep the Severn out. Severn 17-7. And that was the final.
As coach Gardner said, the Irish made a cornucopia of small mistakes that added up big time. They were totally dominated in the kicking game, and perhaps that was due to their reluctance to use the foot. Either way, with a back line that was largely starved of quick, clean ball the Irish back line was probably outplayed at every back line position. While the Irish pack was far more athletic a lack of support on forward play and inefficient rucking cost the Irish a great deal of ball and penalties.
All that said, congratulations to Severn River on being the better team on Saturday. They obviously have put the time in and when the chips were down they executed.
Moving forward the onus is on the Irish to play to their potential and follow Gardner's game plan to get back on track. With only seven matrix matches in a season losing any more than two might take control of destiny out of the Irish's hands. The Irish again had a great week of practice, ironed out some confusion in certain aspects of their play, and look ready to redeem themselves this week when they play at Rocky Gorge. Directions are available on the website.
B-Side
The B-side match saw quite a different tune. Within a couple minutes of the kickoff Steve Johnson charged down a kick and put in a try for himself. In fact, much of the first half saw Johnson running the attack from flyhalf and running the attack extremely well. More than a couple times he would link up with John Baker firing through a hole or Pete McGrath on his outside. They both had a couple tries on the day.
Another Irish try would come off a short lineout when Neil Goodwin took the ball of the top from the jumper and hit Tom Rege on the sprint who weaved his way through the Severn back field in for a try. Half ends with Green up a few tries.
At the beginning of the second half Baker had one particular run where he got to show off all of his running skills. Very impressive. He almost got a chance to finish a break when Anthony Rodgers broke and looked to grub it through. When he went for the kick there was a collective groan but the outcome of a well placed, well struck kick left most shrugging thinking, "maybe it wasn't that bad".
Minutes later Severn drilled a clearing kick directly into the arms of a waiting Pat Fritz who diced the majority of Severn's team and took it himself for the try.
Great defense by Baker and Chuck Goldston created a turnover that got the Irish deep into Severn territory. A scrum and a couple phases later James McIntyre took a crash ball and found pay dirt.
Severn would put a try in when an errant clearing kick by James Thomson was picked clean and returned through some great open field play for a try.
Game ends in an Irish rout. Congrats to all who played B-side. This is a testament to how deep the current Irish team is. Every player on the B-side had a highlight-worthy play during the game. If the Irish can play that pattern in the A-side this week they should get a tally in the left hand column.
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