-Match Results-

Spring 2009

 

March 29, 2009: Gentlemen of Dubuque 15 (3)  - Pearl City Pumas 24 (4)

MATCH SYNOPSIS:  By Dave Schlueter

The day turned out to be a beauty!  The Gentlemen of Dubuque hosted the 1st “Ruck at the Rock” at the Loras College Rock Bowl.  The match was preceded by a free clinic for boys and girls 4th thru 8th grades.  Match time was set for 4:25 PM and by clinic time the snow from the night before had all melted and left the field turf dry and fast.  Temps were in the high 40’s with a slight breeze and a day full of sunshine.   The match started with both teams hitting and running hard.  Pearl, which, due to injury was forced to play various DI players on there DIII side, dotted down a try and added the conversion 10 minutes into the match.  About 10 minutes later Pearl tacked on another, unconverted try, off of a beautiful pass by there DI fullback.  The Gentlemen finally breached the opposition line and Steve Ruden scored an unconverted try under the post.  The Gentlemen were knocking on the door as time ran out in the half as a “bad luck” knock on ended the half at the opponent’s 5 meter line.  Score at half was 12 to 5 in favor of the Pumas.  The Gentlemen came out at the beginning of the second 40 with renewed commitment and scored a try to start the half at 10 minutes in when Matt Roberts grounded a try after some tremendous forward play.  The score was again unconverted.  From that point the game moved up and down the pitch with neither team showing the upper hand, but both demonstrating some very exciting rugby for the fans in the stands.  Pearl put up a converted try to extend the lead to 19 to 10, but the Gentlemen answered with a try of their own on a break off of a lineout ball by Ruden.  Again the Gentlemen’s conversion was a miss.  With the score 19 to 15 and the Gentlemen desperately pushing for the tying score, the Puma’s broke free and scored an unconverted try try with no time on the clock.  

NEGATIVE REMARKS

One word, kicking!  We missed 3 very makeable conversions and 1, dead on, penalty.  That’s 9 point’s missed in a game we lost by 9 points!  Our kick in’s were atrocious and our use of the boot for touch and during open play were also unsatisfactory.  The problem seemed to be more mechanical and not so much decisional.

POSITIVE REMARKS

Playing against top quality competition, the Gentlemen represented themselves well.  The forwards played with commitment and as the game wore on took control of the set pieces and physically started to dominate a forward pack which at various time was comprised of anywhere from 1 to 4 players that have played on the DI, Black Bear side.  The back line breached the opposition gain line time and time again and if it wasn’t for some hard luck, looked very dangerous with ball in hand.  Tackling around the pitch was ferocious and discipline for the most part was excellent.

All and all a great day, a great match!!  Kudos to all who helped make this great event a reality!  And the number of people are to numerous to mention—but you know who you are and do know we will remember.  Three cheers!!

PS: Katie Meyer played rugby this same weekend in Nashville with the Madison Women’s RFC and represented her team with distinction.  The club went 2 and 1 over the tourney and, as usual, Katie found the try zone twice while playing a new position—fullback!  Well done by the lady!

MEN OF THE MATCH:  Matt Kunau-Forwards, Matt Derby-Backs

 

April 4, 2009: Gentlemen of Dubuque 27  - Rockford Ravens 10

MATCH SYNOPSIS:  By Dave Schlueter

The Gentlemen traveled to Freeport to play against the Ravens on Saturday.  The weather was sunny with a slight breeze and the temps in the 40’s and other then the tiny (very narrow-about 50 meters across) pitch and wet conditions (the pitch drained poorly), it was a great day for a game of rugby.  Due to the pitch conditions it was hard to develop any type of backline attack and the game progressed slowly with Rockford drawing first blood with a penalty kick 10 minutes in.  The Gentlemen responded with a penalty of their own and then added 2 unconverted tries by Ryan Marshall and Steve Ruden to go to the half with a 13 to 3 advantage.  The second half the Gentlemen moved some players around and started to shake things up with some strong backline attacks’, resulting in 2 converted tries by Brian Ziemet and Ruden.  Matt Derby slotted one conversion and Ron Pole the other.  In between the 2 tries, the Ravens also pushed across a try of their own which they converted leading to the final tally of 27 to 10 in favor of the Gentlemen. 

NEGATIVE REMARKS

Though the use of the boot was greatly improved, it’s still an area of concern.  Decision wise, we need to be aware that locking a lineout down tight after a penalty is an advantage with the dominance we’ve shown from that set piece.  We probably need to develop some sort of drive to use off of a 5 meter lineout.  Our 8-man needs to break away from the scrum half when picking up and attack at the fly half or the first backline player off that side of the scrum.  Look for that break whenever scrumaging at the opponents 10 meter line.

POSITIVE REMARKS

Despite playing on a tiny pitch, the lad’s played well and controlled the tempo of the match.  Kicking was much improved in all aspects from the previous match.  The boy’s played hard in the forward pack, especially the loose forwards, who were constantly breaking through the opposition’s first line of defense.  The backline was creative and made maximum use of whatever space was available.  The communication and discipline was good and for the most part, decision making was spot on.  Everyone got a good run and represented themselves and the team well.  We were able to move players around and see different combinations staying with the pregame plans for lineups.  The forwards were dominating and the backs looked dangerous in all combinations!

Overall, a very good effort by all.

MEN OF THE MATCH:  Ryan Overhoefer-Forwards, Brian Zimet-Backs,
                                    Overall man of the match-Matt Roberts (as voted by oppostion)

 

April 18, 2009: Gentlemen of Dubuque Tournament

SYNOPSIS:  By Dave Schlueter

First off I'd like to thanks all the teams and referees who participated at our annual tourney and helped make it a great event.  I hope all who attended enjoyed their experience!  The tourney featured some of the best in Iowa playing clean, hard fought matches.  Our tourney was 2 pools of 3 teams and consisted of 4 strong DIII teams, 1 DII team and a college side.  Results were as follow:

Pool 1:
1-Clinton Muddy River RFC  1-0-1(7 tries)
2-Pearl City Pumas RFC 1-0-1(6 tries)
3 Augustana College RFC 0-2(1 try)

Pool 2:
1-Bremer County Bucks RFC 2-0
2-Cedar Rapids Headhunters RFC 1-1
3 Gentlemen of Dubuque RFC 0-2

Finals:
Tourney Champion: Clinton Muddy River RFC 7      Bremer County Bucks RFC 5
3rd place----Cedar Rapids Headhunters RFC
4th place----Pearl City Pumas RFC
5th place---Gentlemen of Dubuque RFC
6th place---Augustana College RFC

We also had a premier women's match at noon between Madison and Palmer/Iowa City which had a lot a great rugby action both ways and ended with Madison the winner.

It was a great day of rugby all the way around but even in moments of joy sometimes the unexpected happens.  Our thoughts are with the Pearl City RFC and Allie (not sure I spelled that right).  Allie had a very severe car accident and in the Iowa Union rugby community our thoughts and prayers are with Allie, his family, and his club.