New Players Encouraged to Come Out

Spring Season Write-up

Well Greenville headed into the Spring Season with a fairly new squad.  The Fall season had it's highs and it's lows but the key with the spring season was going to be consistency of play and within the squad which has been our Achilles heel in the past.  The first week in January was our first spring practice.  A cold time of year to start to say the least. We had a few new faces in the squad and several seasoned campaigners.  We practiced well, dropped a scrimmage to Clemson and headed into our first league game against Cape Fear on the road. 
Always a fun road trip but a gnarly trip for our first game.  With Greenville when it rains it pours.  We traveled with exactly 15 for the 5 hour sojourn to Wilmington.  There several new face in the side, most notably the Lander Connection. Cape Fear had just absorbed the entire UNCW collegiate side that week so they were sporting a squad of close to 40. It was a tough game, Greenville kept pace for the first 20, but in a 20 minute spell there either side of halftime we switched off and let Cape Fear rattle off 28 points.  We lost 2 to injury so played the last 30 minutes down to 13 men.  But what showed was the character of the team in those 30 minutes in that we didn't allow Cape Fear to score but we scored ourselves.  Final score was a 12-59 loss but a ton of character shown and a glimpse of some of the good rugby to be played in the season ahead.

Our 2nd game was on the road to Charlotte B.  Always a seasoned side with some excellent players we knew it was going to be a tough one.  Ex-Greenville scrumhalf Dutch Jones was slining out for them so it was going to be an interesting tussle at #9 between Dutch nad Brett V. We started in the worst way possible allowing Charlotte to take the opening kickoff for a try.  Rest of the half we started to get our game legs under us but we allowed Charlotte to dot down again and go into the half 14-0.  Disappointed but more pissed off than anything we came out into the 2nd half charged up.  Led by Superhuman Brett Van Der Merwe we started to claw our way back into the game and finally took control.  On the back of Brett's 4 tries we secured a bloody good win 22-19 on the road.

Next up was Columbia who was undefeated going into the game.  Mike's brother Zach was making his return to the field after shoulder surgery.  Again we started slow letting Columbia dot down to take an early lead.  Time to wake up.  Brett got us back on the right track scoring nicely in the corner.   We traded tries through the half going into the break tied at 15-15.  The 2nd half was going to be a tough one.  What started to show in the 2nd half was that our fitness work in training was paying dividends. We weren't fading but were getting stronger.  The 2nd half was a tight affair but we pulled away and came out on top 30-25.  That now had a 4 way tie at the top of the table between Greenville, Cape Fear, Charleston and Columbia.

Next up was Charlotte B at Home. We were looking to close out 2-0 against them.  Well the conditions were far from stellar.  Monsoon like rain made for a lovely day.  But Greenville kept to the task at hand and while the first half was a low scoring affair we moved up a gear in the 2nd half to pull away and win 28-5. 
We were 3-1 going down to Augusta. This was a game where everything just started to click well.  We absorbed the pressure of Augusta but we were just able to play our style of game and pick up points.  Brett V was continuing his stellar form of the season picking up another basket full of tries.  The final score was 35-12 and we really were having an awesome season with a 4-1 record.

Charleston was next up and if Greenville won we would secure a home quarter-final.
The Charleston game was our test for the season.  We definitely use them as the yardstick to measure our success by.  This game was going to be a great tussle.  Unfortunately we started slow and let Chucktown score write off the kickoff in the corner.  You can't gift a side like Charleston points. It ended up going back and forth through most of the game, we'd score and take the lead then they would score and take the lead.  A dubious penalty try awarded to Charleston helped their cause.  In the end the final score was 32-25 and Greenville mistakes had allowed Charleston to take this one.

With Columbia losing that day it guaranteed both Charleston and Greenville quarter-final spots against a side from Florida. It would go to the last weekend to decide who was #1 and who was #2.Greenville was to play Augusta at home. But unfortunately Augusta was to forfeit that match which denied Greenville some valuable game time going into the quarter-finals. beat Cape Fear so it meant we would be traveling down to Jacksonville.

Well the last time we had played Jacksonville was in the South Playoffs to secure the final spot for the South in the Sweet 16.  That game went into double overtime and we didn't want to see a repeat of that.  It was a beautifully balmy day in northern Florida.  We traveled down with a solid 20.  This was going to be a bloody tough game.  It started hard and that pace kept up for the whole game.  Zach Hunt was particularly in a head knocking mood and he caused all kinds of trouble with the Jacksonvill side.  But Jacksonville proved to be a better side than Greenville on the day and they pounced on Greenville mistakes to turn them into points.Jacksonville ended up winning 42-15.  It was a great lesson for several of the newer players about the intensity that the game is played at this level.  It can be used as a great learning experience so that when we get back to the quarter-finals next year we are wiser and better and then we are the team dishing out the lessons.  It definitely ended up being a fun night in but it's no fun losing.  We learn from it and we get better.

A great season, let’s learn from it and be stronger next season. Good job by everybody and thanks for everyone's commitment.  It takes dedication and commitment to the team and to the players beside you to be successful. Enjoy the summer.

Posted by Webmaster April 23^th, 2009

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