Match score 10/30/10 Saturday
Gentlemen of Dubuque 19 (3) - Chicago Riot RFC 16(1)
MATCH SYNOPSIS: By Dave Schlueter
The Gentlemen of Dubuque Rugby Club entertained the Chicago Riot RFC in the 1st round of the Midwest DIII Playoffs and were greeted with pleasant temps, sunny skies, and a wind that ran the length of the pitch and would prove to be a factor. The Riot opened the scoring with a penalty goal from 40 meters and would tack on a converted try 10 minutes later off of a Dubuque handling error. The Gentlemen dotted down with 10 minutes left in the first half on an unconverted try by Steve Ruden. However, before half, Chicago would tack on 2 more penalty kicks to take a 16 to 5 lead to the break. As the second half began, with the wind now at their backs, the Gentlemen were able to keep the opposition on their back foot while dotting down 2 converted tries to bring the final tally line of 19 to 16.
POSITIVES: Winning in the 1st round of the playoffs and keeping our composure and discipline in coming back from a 16 to 5 margin to dominate the 2nd half by a 14 to 0 count. Defensively, our tackling and aggression off the ball was good. We did well in lineouts and settled our scrum down in the 2nd half to control our ball and the opposition. In the second half we did a good job of putting the ball to space and using foot and wind to our advantage. Big boys did a better job of knowing when to turn the ball up in the backline and reset as oppose to trying to ship out a bad option pass.
NEGATIVES: The scrums were a little loose early on but improved with the match. Ball handling in our backline is what lead to the lone Chicago try, however, that may have been more due to hard luck as to anything else. We have to be disciplined at the rucks so as to not let teams hurt us with penalty points off their boot. We ran the ball to much in the second half at fly half when our centers were getting positive meters with every touch.
Great job by everyone on and off the pitch!
Cheers,
David
SCORING TRIES: Steve Ruden , Brian Ziemet, Matt Derby
CONVERSIONS: Zach Singsank 2/3
MEN OF THE MATCH: Forwards - Josh Flammang; Backs - Steve Ruden