Queen City vs Metro 10/3/15 - Match Report

Queen City vs Metro 10/3/15 – Match Report

It was sunny and bright; a bit on the cool side. A lovely fall day to play a game of footie. The opponent was the Metro State Roadrunners – an up and coming small college side. The order of the day was to work on fundamentals and hone our skills as we prepare for our next league match against the Denver Highlanders. We wanted to play a fun clean hard match against the Roadrunners as part of our recruiting scheme.

City kicked-off and immediately put the Roadrunners under defensive pressure causing a knock-on. A scrum was order with the men in Blue rolling in the ball. The City forwards although high in the scrum were bound and determine to put pressure on the Metro forwards. Sloppy play and poor ball handling was the next order for the first few minutes of play. Finally, Metro kicked to touch. Lineout was cleanly won and the game plan was put into action. The first ruck off the lineout was nicely won; however, the next phase broke down where Scrumhalf Jack Cregan had to make a break feeding Flyhalf Scott Trench who in turn fed Wing Forward Chris “Diesel” Cummins then onto Outside Center Ryan Clemons. With some shifty running, Ryan took the pill to the house for the first points on the day. Flyhalf Trench added the extras to give the men in Orange and Black the 7 – 0 lead at the 8:30 minute mark of the match. Again a clearly kick by Metro found touch. Another clean lineout win by the City forwards put the game plan back into play. Inside Center Matty Williams broke through the porous Metro defense to final be stopped. Scrumhalf Cregan scoop up the ball and made his own break. An offload to supporting Flyhalf Trench who fed Winger Francisco Romero who drew the last defender to feed back to the inside to a streaking Fullback Alex Knorr who dotted down for the 5-pointer. Flyhalf Trench once again split the uprights to give City a 14 – 0 lead at the 11:40 mark of the first half. Good defensive pressure by the City forwards created the next points. From a lineout won by Metro, City forwards put the pressure onto the men in Blue. Wing Forward Diesel Cummins was able to jackal the ball to offload to No. 8 and Captain Dan Herr. Some tough hard running by the hard charging forward put Dan through to cross over the caulk and dot down for the try. Trench once again added the extras and City extended their lead to 21 – 0 at 23:27 mark of the match. Great lineout play continued for City. A clean lineout win spun out to Flyhalf Trench who had called for a different back play into action. A dummy runner opened up space to allow Trench to slide through. A clean inside pass to a supporting Scrumhalf Jack Cregan allowed for the next points to be put on the board as Jack slid-in under the post. Flyhalf Trench’s boot continue to be spot-on as he split the uprights to give the men in Orange and Black a 28 – 0 lead at the 31:55 mark of the match. Sloppy play on City’s part allowed Metro to put points on the board. A charged down exit kick (from offside position??) allowed Metro to get on the front foot. City was able to recover the charge down; however, a bad pass from outside in saw the men in Blue intercept the pass and take it to the house. The conversion was good and the Roadrunners sliced into the City lead 28 – 7 at the 34:40 minute mark of the match. Scrumhalf Cregan was also shown a yellow card by Referee Paul Johnston for a little too much dissention. City was able to get back on the front foot and put together a good sequence of play. Scrum moved to forwards running hard with the ball finally had the Roadrunners whistle for a side entrance infraction. Flyhalf Trench made Metro pay for their indiscretion as he was true on his kick and putting up another three points as Referee Johnston blew the halftime whistle. City went into half time with a 31 – 7 lead over the Metro State Roadrunners.

Sloppy play, poor ball handling, and discontinuity/disjointedness was evident in the second half. No real patterns of play both offensively and defensively were obvious. A sloppy ball with no defensive pattern allowed a Roadrunner to break free down the sideline. The coverage defense finally caught up and forced the Metro player to make an errant pass backwards and to the inside. Players were hesitant for the ball until Flyhalf Trench decided to pick up the pill and take it to the house out running the cover defense. Mr. Trench converted his own try to extend the City lead to 38 – 7 at 49:10 of the match. Disjointed play continued for the next twenty minutes; although City had the majority of the possession but just did not seem to be able to do anything with the pill. Finally, a scrum was ordered by Referee Johnston in the middle of the park. Scrumhalf Cregan made a break to the weak feeding a supporting Flyhalf Trench. Trench drew the last defenders and put Winger Francisco Romero away in the corner for the final points of the match at 66:49 mark of the match. The conversion was wide in one of Mr. Trench’s rare misses to put the final score at 43 – 7.

Overall, a good showing as the Metro State Roadrunners went away talking about the good, clean, hard match that they/we played; hopefully, a couple of those boys will be wearing the Orange and Black in the near future.