Gentlemen,
Well a hard weekend of Rugby this past weekend. We hosted a very successful tourney and we are looking forward to hosting a bigger one next year and growing it to the Premier Fall 15's tournament in the South. So onto the games:

Greenville 5 - Asheville 20
Hard first game to lose and I think primarily because we went out thinking this was the gimme game. We played well in patches but ultimately played scrappy the whole game and played into their hand. Asheville scored early and that flustered us. Rather than blowing it off as an aberration and sticking to our guns and playing controlled Greenville rugby we switched into catch-up mode and started taking chances where we shouldn't have been. When the chances we took didn't pan out Asheville pounced on the ball and kept the pressure on us. This is definitely a game we shouldn't have lost. The one time we set good ball and used our hands well we sent Tex over for a nicely taken try near the posts. But the story of the game was that we never got in our groove. We put ourselves under pressure through not winning our setpieces (Lineouts and Scrums) and not dictating the play. Lesson Learned.

Greenville 15 - Old White 18
This was a heart breaker to lose. The 1st half was excellent. It was a perfect example of how when you win your set pieces and you start playing to your pattern you can dominate a game. We set the tempo in the first half and played excellent phase ball. We maintained possession for multiple phases and recycled the ball quickly which made a huge difference in moving the ball down the field. Unfortunately a couple of lapses in the 2nd half and some stupid penalties let Old White in the game and ultimately the chance to win. However a much better performance and I believe an excellent example of what happens when we control part of the game. Just need to control the whole game now.

Greenville 17 - Triad 13
A good win here gentlemen. However we made it difficult for ourselves. No matter what is happening in a game we need to maintain our composure and stick to our game plan for the whole game. When a penalty is awarded against us, get back 10 yards quickly and ready for the opposition to run the ball. No amount of questioning the referee is going to make him change his mind. Shut up and get back quickly. End of Story. But we kept at it and pulled out an excellent victory. Good job.

Greenville 0 - Columbia More than Zero
Well Gentlemen a very hard game. We played 3 tough games on Saturday and this was a case of 1 game too far. Columbia were fresher having only played 2 games. First half was fairly even. We put ourselves under pressure with stupid penalties and some costly handling errors in crucial areas of the field. Columbia played a very tight game with pretty much the same team throughout the Tourney.

Overall Gentlemen I would class this tournament as a success. We got every one who came out game time which is extremely important for the development of the club. You can do things in practice but the only way you really learn is playing games. And everyone got a chance to play against some tough competition. Again everyone can see how good we are as a team when we string everything together. No one can beat us when that happens. Probably the biggest thing that hampered us this weekend is DISCIPLINE. We can't afford to give away stupid penalties for infringements we know are wrong. It's important that we all channel or energy to playing the game and trying to secure the ball. Sometimes we get a little focused on the opposition players than actually focusing on the ball and the bigger picture around us. So everyone keep your head up we learned some more valuable lessons this weekend and we will now focus to this weekends game down in Atlanta. We will call off practice tonight as everyone is pretty banged up and the weather doesn't look like it's going to clear up. So rest tonight and we will see everyone out there Thursday night. Also, Greenville has decided not to enter the Palmetto Tourney the weekend of October 26. So we will have that weekend off. So let's see a good showing for this weekend before we take a break.

See everyone Thursday Night.
Good job gentlemen.

Dan Roberts
Coach Greenville RFC


Greenville Grffins Rugby Club