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RSL Recap (provided by Coach Bing Dawson)
OMBAC 45 - Belmont 32
The match was played at Cal State University at Long Beach, which is
Belmont's home field, and both sides had players unavailable for several
reasons. So, this is nothing like the teams are going to be during the RSL
season. Jason Raven scored a hat-trick of tries, and Riaan Hamilton and Jeff
Hullinger both got two tries a piece. We were very marginal in our tackling
and Belmont scored 3 of their tries while we were a player down due to
sinbinned players. Eight players check into the Eagles camp being held here
in San Diego from 2/18-2/24, and most of our coaching staff will be
attending their meetings and sessions. We do get to pick up those players
early Saturday morning to fly up to San Francisco for the Golden Gate
pre-season match/scrimmage. The following week will see us at University of
California, Berkeley.
D1 Recap (Provided by Coach Clark Bernales, who could be nominated for a
Pulitzer for his outstanding reporting)
OMBAC 47 - Belmont 44
In what amounted to be the embodiment of a yet to be written coaching book,
"Rugby Without Defense: A Day at Long Beach State 2007", the OMBAC Div 1
side defeated Belmont's equivalent 47-44.
Of note were fullback Steve Neville's three second half tries, #6 Michael
Wiese's "youtube-esque" hits (which eventually led to his second half early
dismissal due to injury), and fullback/wing/scrumhalf turned flyhalf Andrew
Gray's remarkable performance. Tactical kicking and smart distribution of
first and open phase play from Gray in the second half accounted for 35
points in the period. Without a kicking tee he was also able to convert all
tries scored with the exception of one; I believe that only two of the tries
were centered.... I am not sure that former OMBAC greats Simon Matthews and
Sean Doherty were capable of Gray's laser-straight accuracy in drop-goaling.
If it were Tommy Romani, it would be a whole different story.
Another moment to remember was the return bus ride home. After another
lackluster Belmont after-match function at the Springbok Bar (back in my day
they only served water, chips and salsa -- you damn kids never had it so
good with real meat hamburgers AND two buns!!!!), we boarded the bus for the
first away trip home of the season. With only a handful of rookies, the trip
didn't appear too be promising. But MCs Mike "King of the Burrito-in-hand
Knockouts" French and Jason "No really - I am not unmasked pro wrestler"
Wood quickly turned the tables with the announcement of the criteria of who
should sing and the unveiling of Crow and the "chaser".
The theme of the night was EPIC performances as each participant sang with
gusto that only an American Idol reject could appreciate. Reminiscent of
Soro Schram's (I think his last name was Kororitanga but I can't find any
more of my Breitbard Hall of Fame certificates to verify. Vizzy - can you
look this up? I know you keep these in your briefcase at work. I am only
using "Schram" as his last name because A) it is easier to spell and B)
because Vizzy, Piddy, Eddie and I used to pull cable together at ACN in
Mission Valley -- that's it....) Fijian rendition of the Italian classic, "O
Sole Mio", new prop Mike Kelly belted out Vanilla Ice's, "ICE ICE BABY". I
can only describe the experience of the ovation he received as "gargantuan".
He was also invoked with a new nickname - Dynamo <watch the Arnold
Schwartzenegger classic film "Running Man" to understand the correlation>.
Similarly, the USD alumni belted out a bastardized version of the OMBAC
fight song. They leave out the part about Harry and Mary and carrying Harry
to the Ferry. They have the action item to re-baseline their song to the
original OMBAC version and distribute to all for memorization. Chike
"Carlton" Outlaw was also invoked with his new nickname and provided an
awesome retort to the charge of excessive suntanning.
We also reconfirmed that 98% of the time joke telling is never better than
singing. Despite not having Jon Hinkin (OMBAC Legend/D2 parttime player who
is good at the robot), Mike Saunders (My first captain who always outplayed
current USA 7s coach Al Caravelli at scrumhalf despite giving up two and a
half inches in height to him <great to see you and Lynne at USA 7s>), or
Eric Stewart (New OMBAC legend who just lost his rugby "hall pass" to
marriage, second child, and the inability to compete in boat races) as MCs,
the event was a success that could've brought in millions had we charged at
the door.
Someone also performed Gilligan's something - I forget who...
D2 Recap (Provided by Coach Bryan Watts)
OMBAC D2A 10 - Kern County 38
OMBAC D2B 22 - Kern County 5
A - We need to be able to start games quicker. We started slow and spotted
Kern 28 points early. The boys had a better second 40 scoring 2 nice tries.
In the end the early lead was too much to come back from, losing 38 - 10.
Kudos goes out to Keenan Riley, still in High School, who stepped in at
scrumhalf for one practice last week and started the game and did a great
job under pressure!
B - The B side got over the hump beating Kern 22 - 5 for the D2a/b sides
first Victory. From start to finish, they played fun, inspired, team rugby.
Everyone did their part for the Victory, but newcomer Malcolm Richardson
playing center could not be stopped punishing tacklers repeatedly. Another
one to watch will be Charles Warren, who after one practice showed he has
the speed and moves to play at another level in the future.
This weekend we are playing cross-town rivals, the Old Aztecs at Robb Field
at 1:00. Hopefully, the pitch will not be under water. Also, the D2 side
funded their own Bus Trip to lovely Bakersfield last weekend due to budget
concerns. Needless to say, the 4-hour bus ride home was well worth the money
and as of Thursday, people were still recovering!!
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OMBAC
RUGBY