Greenville Palmetto Tournament
The 2010 Palmetto Tournament proved to be an excellent springboard for
Greenville Rugby going into the future. There were some great lessons learned
and an overall great tournament for us.
Greenville vs. Augusta 29-O
Well early Saturday morning games have never been a strong point but we proved
that with a good warm up and good numbers that we can get the job done. Our
start was as to be expected, trying to get our feet and work out the cobwebs, we
forced the play a little. However, once the points started flowing from the
beast Florian (2 tries that looked like he was charging a Shoneys buffet) Brett,
and Jameson the game never looked like it would slip out of our control. The
pack played an excellent game, scrums were solid and line-outs were nothing
short of excellent with us stealing about 50% of theirs. The backline were
severely hampered by the lack of space, which made any defense out wide easy.
One positive was how well we defended from the back three, returns with
interest. Mulli did a good job controlling the pace and keeping us moving
forward. Sammy and Jameson were solid at centers. As with any game against
Augusta, it always turns nasty when they are
getting it handed to them. Great restraint by Zach!
MOM-Florian
Greenville vs. Myrtle Beach 29-5
With Myrtle Beach being an unknown entity I really didn’t know what to expect
but I was hoping for another strong start. MB opened the scoring on what really
was a poorly defended play and put us 5-0 down after a couple of minutes. We
have seen this before!!!!!! As usual, it takes us settling down for us to bounce
back. We had no problems in the scrums or line-outs, but our speed to the
breakdowns and rucks was horrible. Any other team would have had a field day as
we looked like we were sleepwalking. Good effort tries by Joel, Justin (last
years MVP rookie) and Brandon got us moving. Backline played a decent game
resulting in two fantastic tries by Chris, good angled runs make the difference.
A win is a win, but sorry guys I really wasn’t impressed by this performance. We
are so much better!
MOM -Chris
Greenville vs. Asheville 31-0
Two games into the tournament and the bodies start to feel the stops and starts.
This is where numbers are crucial and for us it was great to have 27. There was
no doubt that we were going to win this match so it became a matter of rotating
players and giving everyone a shot. Tries by Brandon, Sammy, Titus (I think
that’s a Zulu?) and Brett sealed the deal. Excellent plays by Titus out on the
wing gave him a try and set up one from an unlikely position. Doser led the pack
through some tough phases with Joel and Florian resting up. The pack was solid
and did the job. Small field once again negated any out wide plays. Overall a
solid game.
MOM-Titus
Greenville vs. Columbia 17-23
Sundays game proved to me that we are going to be a great team in the near
future. If and only if, we can manage not to beat ourselves. Columbia never
dominated, the score may have looked like it at times, and we camped in their
half most of the game. The difference was that we made crucial errors that cost
us points. We played a solid game and really should have won. The scrums are
going to be a hot point in the future, we demolished them in some only to have
them crush us back on the next play. Line-outs were outstanding, best in the
South! Loose forward play was excellent with Florian and Brandon making some
devastating runs, with some support players around we could score more often off
them. Nice hustle Florian and Tim on your tries, always hungry for the ball
reaps rewards. Zach showed me what a man of his size can do when you put your
head down and charge the line, Philly looked like a stack of pancakes at the
IHOP as Zach laid him out.The
backline really manned up!!! Great tackling by all negated their center pairing
and essentially saved us points. We had some good runs and the hands looked much
improved from the day before. We got caught a few times trying to run the ball
out and getting isolated means loosing the ball!
Overall a good game that I enjoyed being a part of, 5 more minutes and I think
our momentum would have brought home the trophy.
MOM- whole team!
Match Stats:
Augusta 29-0
Try scorers; Florian 2, Brett 2, Jameson 1, Joel 2 conversions
Myrtle Beach 29-5
Tries; Chris 2, Justin, Brandon, Joel, Joel 2 conversions
Asheville 31-0
Tries: Brett 2, Brandon, Sammy, Titus, Conversions Brett 2, Mulli 1
Columbia 17-23
Tries: Zach, Florian, Tim Guillaume, Conversion Mulli.
Players:
Zach Hunt, Justin Allen, Josh Bucinskas, Joel Hedge, Michael Honeycutt, Nicholas
Sadie, Florian Vie, Brandon Harrison, Casey Flanagan, Dave doser, Tad Bray, Brad
Oney, JD Elliott, TD Maze
Brett Van DerMerwe, Jonathan Mullikin, Sammy LeVoit, Joseph Engram, Tyler Scott,
Titus Scott, Tim Bentley, Tim Guillaume, Trevor Turner, Trevor Jones, Freddie
Fralmuka, Jimmy Rupert, Anton Dolenc
Played 27 different Players 2 more showed up Sunday who didn't play, Jason
Padgett and Shawn Marin.
Posted by Webmaster October 16th, 2009
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