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News
Greenville makes it to
the Sweet 16 with a 35-32 overtime win against Jacksonville
May 3, 2007 -- Well what a bruising weekend it was down
in Columbus, Ga. Greenville went down with the goal of returning
to the nationals for the first time in 9 years. One win was
all we needed to secure our spot. A win on the saturday would
have secured us a place with a game to go, a loss would make
it go down to the wire on the Sunday game.
We opened up playing Naples on the Saturday. It was hot, the
fire ants were biting but we were ready to play, or so we thought.
The opening 10 minutes against Naples was not the prettiest.
We were firmly encamped in our half and managed to cough up
10 points before we started to play. The recovery was started
by Brett Fereira with a great individual effort to score from
70 yds out. That finally woke us up and we started playing some
good Greenville ball. We pressured for the remainder of the
half and went into the break up 13-10 through a try by #8 Dan
Roberts and a penalty by Mulli. We felt good going into the
break and vowed not to be so slow starting in the 2nd half.
It appears we didn't listen to ourselves after another slow
start we mirrored the 1st half, we coughed up 10 points to be
down 13-20. Finally we woke up and scored a sweet try through
center Jimmy Oney to bring it to 18-20. Greenville again went
on the attack but coughed up the ball inside the Naples 22 only
to have it worked down the field for a Naples score to bring
it to 27-18. We managed to get back a penalty to leave the Final
score 27-21 to Naples. Really a game of missed opportunities.
Several tries went a begging and we all know it was a game we
could and should have won. Discipline in both execution and
infringements cost us.
So it was ont the Sunday game against Jacksonville who had been beaten narrowly the day before by Memphis. Win and we go to the nationals, lose and the season was done. Jacksonville had a big pack so it was going to be a bruising encounter up front. A little hazy here on all the try scorers but I believe we went to the break ahead by 2 tries to 1. One through Bucci bustling over the line form the back of a ruck and one was wide out in the corner. It was getting bloody hot and we new we could take them. We just needed to play our game. We were setting a good platform in the pack and we had them out wide. There flyhalf was giving us a bit of heartburn as we continually fell for his fake kick and let him get some good yards up the middle. Second half started with a roar as we jumped out to a 20-10 lead through 2 excellent tries. We switched off though form here thinking we had it won. The ensuing kickoff was let bounce between 3 forwards and they gathered it to march down the field and eventually score. Another try by them with a missed conversion tied it all up at 20-20 with around 10 to go. We were staring overtime in the face. Last thing we wanted was to have to play another 20 minutes in the glorious Columbus heat. But final the whistle rang and we were heading to overtime. Two 10 minute halves. We started out with a hiss and a roar, determined to win and make amends for the sloppy end to the 2nd half. Before we knew it we were up two tries to one going into halftime and we were playing some excellent rugby. The bench was used wisely as legs were beginning to tire out there. We had to be focused for the final 10 and secure our spot in the sweet 16. Second half was evened out to a try a piece (Jacksonville's a very dubious forward pass let go) and the score was 35-32 to Greenville with only minutes remaining. We kept Jacksonville in their half and finally the whistle blew. Greenville wins it 35-32 and with it a berth in the top 16 Division II teams in the nation. We had played 100 minutes of rugby in the hottest place on the entire planet and emerged victorious. The Champagnes tasted very well.
What an incredible weekend. All the training has paid off. We
can now spend these two weeks preparing to play Red Mountain
who are the Pacific Coast #1 down in Columbia. A job well done
by all who traveled and lets all gear it up now for the trip
to the Nationals. |
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