Blacks 44 - San Antonio 3: Blackmore (x,2,x), 

The Blacks defeated an aggressive and physical San Antonio side last Saturday by a convincing 44-3 score. The Blacks scored 8 trys and with regular kicker, Glen Blackmore, injured converted only two. San Antonio managed a lone penalty kick. The Golds got back in the win column, scoring 7 trys and two conversions to San Antonio's single converted try for the 37-7 victory.

Austin now travels to Dallas for the much awaited re-match against the Harlequins this coming weekend. Since beating the Quins (8-6) here in Austin on Jan.19, the Quins first XV have racked up scores of 57-3 (Houston), 35-12 (Dallas), 82-0 (Woodlands), and 109-5 (Ft. Worth). It appears we have awakened the sleeping giant and I'm sure the matches will be hard and fast
this weekend in Dallas. The matches will be played at Lake Highlands Park -- just east of White Rock Lake at the intersection of Loop 12 (N. Buckner Blvd.) and Lake Highlands Blvd.

The Blacks kick-off against Harlequins I at 2:00pm followed by the Golds against Quins II at 3:30.

:

Blacks: Brewerton (1), Blackmore (x,x,1)

Austin RFC continued it's winning ways with two come from behind victories over arch rivals Dallas Harlequins.
The weather was sunny but a brisk Southerly wind made it cool. The Blacks had the wind in the first half and maintained a decisive advantage in both territory and possession but couldn't put the ball over the line. At the 20 minute the Quins were forced to play a man short after their no.8, Rangy Peterson, killed the ball in an Austin ruck just a yard from the Quins line. Instead of awarding the penalty try, the referee, Graham Bullen, put Rangy in the sin bin. Austin had been dominating the scrums taking several against the head, but inexplicably lost their own hook against the short-handed Quins scrum.

Former US Eagle fly-half, Matt Alexander, cleared the ball to touch and the Quins were out of danger. Later, however, Alexander managed to connect on a penalty kick to close out the half with the Quins ahead 3-0. The second half proved to be more of the same, a defensive battle with neither team able to keep the ball through more than a few phases. Finally, with 20 min. to play, Austin mounted a multi-phase attack finishing with prop and captain, Mark Brewerton, driving over for a well-deserved try, 5-3 Austin. The Quins answered 10 min. later when again Alexander hit a penalty kick to take a 6-5 lead. Austin stole the ensuing kick-off and maintained possession for the next 6 mins. The Blacks pounded at the Quins line but
were held out by the strong defense by the backrow of Matt McNeeley, David Care, and Peterson. Peterson made a try-saving tackle near the line and played the ball on the ground to prevent another Austin try.

Rangy got his second "yellow card" on the day resulting in a send-off. The Austin fly-half, Glenn Blackmore, slotted the penalty goal and the Blacks led 8-6 with four min. to play. The Quins still had a chance "at the death" with a scrum 10 m. out from the Austin line. The Blacks, however, put on a tremendous shove and not only stole the ball but drove completely over the Quins scrum to seal the victory. The Quins nominated departing Austin no.8, Peter Nicholls, as the man of the match. Austin will sorely miss Pete as he  and Jolene return to New Zealand this week.

Austin Golds (28) vs. Harlequins II (24)

In the second XV match, the Harlequins led 24-5 at the half, thanks to the wind advantage along with disorganized play and poor tackling from the Golds. After some key substitutions and a stern half-time speech, the Golds came out firing, scoring three trys in the opening 20 mins to trail 22-24. In the last 5 mins. Kris Stewart connected on two penalty goals to take the lead and the game at 28-24. For the second week in a row the Golds came from behind to score the victory again led by "man of the match" Rob Dick. Austin has the next week off before traveling to Galveston for the Mardi Gras Tournament on Feb.2-3. We're all going to miss Peter and Jolene and wish them the best of luck in the future.

5 trys (penalty try, Oosterhouse, Cleary, Lieberman, Burnett), 3 conv. and 2 penalty kicks (Blackmore)

Blacks lineup (from 1 to 15): Brewerton, Burnett, Varney, Lane, Olivas (Grocott@50min), Dick, Haga, Elliott, Medina (Risha@20min), Blackmore, Liberman, Todd Oosterhouse (Brown@60min), Cleary, Lemoine, Mikell(Gomez-50 min).

The match was closely contested from the start with HARC winning the toss and opting to kick off with the wind. HARC spent the majority of the first half in Austin's side of the field, with Austin putting together several breaks that resulted in try scoring opportunities.

The second half began with a spirited surge from HARC that kept Austin on defense for the first 15 minutes. However Austin kept their composure and started using the wind to their advantage. The tables turned completely with Austin running in a flurry of tries as the clock counted down.

 

December 15, 2001: Austin Golds (43) vs. HARC II (3)

Burr Field: ARFC Golds (43) : 7 trys [Annino, Herzog, Hickman(2), Watt, McGilton, Fry], 4 conv.(Watt)
Golds Forwards: Chris Thompson, Paul Hickman, Kirk Risha, Mike Noonan, Steve Herzog, Mike Clegg, Matt Fry, Paul Grocott, Pete Nicholls,
Golds Backs: Ben Anderson, Matt Mulqueen, Tony Stevens, Jay McGilton, Chris Annino, James Mikell, Scott Chaffey, Steve Watt, Gerry Gomez

This past Saturday Austin RFC played two matches against cross-town rivals, the Austin Huns. The Blacks took the day off and the Golds took on the Huns first XV and cleaned up their opposition.

The Golds game started with HARC kicking off with the wind against an optimistic Golds side. The game progressed uneventfully for the first 5 mins until the Golds missed an attempt at a penalty goal. Houston regrouped quickly and Austin found themselves having to defend tightly while HARC spent the first 20 minutes of the game camped inside Austin?s 22. HARC blew a few good attacking opportunities due to bad execution, sterling pressure from the Austin forwards, not using the wind to their advantage, and their scrumhalf losing the plot on a few penalty taps. They eventually chose to kick a penalty, which earned them their only points of the game. After what seemed like an eternity Austin managed to turn the ball over and spin it out to their backline who managed to take the ball into the HARC 22. This move culminated in Paul Hickman going over in the left corner off a well structured Austin maul. The conversion was wide and Austin held a 5-3 lead. Tony Stevens had a stormer at flyhalf and soon received the ball off a scrum and cleared it to 15m inside HARC's half. Centers Jay McGilton and Chris Annino were right up on the ball as it landed near the isolated HARC winger. The ball bounced perfectly off the ground for Annino to take it in stride, hurtle the would-be tackler, and sprint to the posts. Though two HARC reserves who were standing on the dead ball line tried to tackle him, Chris neatly side-stepped them and grounded the ball. Maybe HARC needs to be reminded that this is indeed a 15 man game. The conversion was good and the Golds led 12-3 as the half-time whistle blew.

Austin started the second half using the wind to their advantage and kicking for territory. This proved to be a simple but highly effective tactic. HARC was predictable, always restarting to Austin?s right. The forwards set up the ruck, scrum-half Matt Mulqueen cleared it to Tony, who then peppered them with kicks landing on their 22. Try after try resulted in this tactic and HARC never figured it out. Hooker Paul Hickman and flanker Matt Fry took advantage of the disorganized Houston backs under the high balls, with Paul breaking the line and going over and Matt wheeling off a maul touching down. Both tries were scored in the right corner and the conversions were wide. [Oddly enough, there are houses immediately behind the goal posts with a sign posted on the fence stating that any balls kicked over the wall would not be returned. Considering that the fense is only 15 feet behind the posts, Houston lost all of their new game balls.]

Austin were continually able to turn the ball over in the HARC 22. A try resulted from the Golds forwards working through multiple phases and captain Steve ?Zogger? Herzog going over under the poles. The try was converted but at this stage, both the linesman and the ref seemed to have it in for No.8 Pete Nicholls. Austin was penalised after Pete Nicholls was charged with dangerous play. Usually such a call would involve Pete knocking the snot out of some poor soul in a tackle, however this was a rather unique call. Pete was actually penalized for ?Running too hard?... This action has sent shockwaves through the close-knit Kiwi community and Jonah Lomu is reportedly distraught at the implications this new IRB ruling could have on his livelihood. Austin was unperturbed and kept up the drive, turning the ball over again and getting quick ball out to Tony who threw a spectacular skip pass (skipping the entire backline) to his right wing Steve Watt in stride to run it in under the poles. The try was converted and the Golds led 36-3. The clock was ticking down, but the Mighty Golds were not satisfied to rest on their laurels. After another of Tony's probing kicks going into touch on the HARC 22, Austin managed to turnover the HARC lineout. A ruck ensued after the driving maul and Paul Grocott did well to clean-up a scrappy pass, join the backline, and send the ball through all hands to Jay McGilton who went over in the far left-hand corner for the try. The difficult kick was converted by Watt and the whole team was suitably elated after giving HARC a 43-3 drubbing in their own backyard.

An interesting comment was heard after the game from Golds ?Man of the Match? Matt Fry... " I didn?t really care that much about my try, I was more excited about my first ever stomping, and it being on that dirty @#!$#@# ...".

Burr Field: Trys Lemoine(2), Ben Anderson (1): Conversions:

Austin Golds - 8 tries with no conversions/ Austin Huns - 1 tries with no conversion

This past Saturday Austin RFC played two matches against cross-town rivals, the Austin Huns. The Blacks took the day off and the Golds took on the Huns first XV and cleaned up their opposition.

Back-rowers Mike Elliott and Rob Dick were ferocious in the loose while Matt Fry dominated the lineouts and hooker Paul Hickman the scrum, taking several balls against the head. Austin displayed classic rugby skills amidst the sloppy conditions with the Backs regularly hooking up once the loose forwards on the break. Glenn Burnett played well at Flyhalf and kept the opposition guessing with his well placed positional kicks and good distribution. This weekend also saw the return of the feared Aussie Rules boot of Grant Campbell. Royce Lemoine always looked dangerous on the right wing and went over for 2 tries. Max Cleary danced through the defense in the mid-field feeling confident in the ample headgear he was sporting. Ben Anderson added an additional Jonah Lomu presence at Fullback. Credit does need to be given to the Huns who played with a lot of heart as usual and kept Austin extremely busy up front, but lacked the big guns in the backline, especially with their fullback Luiz being out with injury.

 

December 8, 2001: Austin Purples 21, . Huns II 0

Burr Field:  Trys: Brewerton (1), Varney(1), Fry(1) Conversions: Watt (x,3,x)
Austin Purples - 3 tries with 3 conversions

The Occasionals took on the Huns seconds for a third half and came out on top 21-0. The Occasionals back-line was made up primarily of Blacks' forwards - Pete's quote was "they spend most of the time out in the backs, anyway" (I've cleaned that up a bit for this PG-13 email).

With regular no.8 Pete Nicholls at fly-half, prop Mark Brewerton in the center, and the other speedy prop Abel Varney at Wing and Brendan McDonald at FullBack it looked a dangerous back-line, indeed. They lived up to their hype with Brewers bursting through the Huns centers for a try under the sticks and Varney supporting on the wing for another. The strangely elusive lock forward Matt Fry finished the scoring with what is now becoming his trademark 50 meter breakaway try. Matt is obviously going through the Bobby Skinstad dilemma of "Am I forward or a back ?".

All tries were scored under the poles. Steve Watt converted all three trys to become the only Austin kicker to split the uprights in a month.

 

November 10, 2001: Austin 53, Dallas 5, Golds 43, Dallas II 19, Purples 24, Alamo City 17

  Burr Field:  Trys:

 

November 3, 2001: MLR Playoffs: ARFC 51, Tempe Old Devils 0, Blacks 38, Chicago Griffins 3

 

October 20, 2001:MLR: ARFC 43, Atlanta Renegades 17

Burr Field:  Golds 17, Bay Area 24 (L)

Burr Field: Purples 48, Bay Area 0

October 13, 2001: ARFC 77, Ft. Worth 13

Burr Field: Trys: Nick Lane(1), Matt Haga (2), Pete Nicholls (3), Chris Stewart (1), Bo Brown (1), Jacob Lieberman (3), Mike O'Keefe (1,6,x), Gerry Gomez (1): 

* The Blacks * Well, what can we say about the Blacks game... The Blacks game was an occasion of absoloute debauchery as the Austin players completely gorged themselves full of tries in a jarring 77 - 17 bone-crushing, demolishing of the Forth Worth 1st XV. The Austin Blacks were looking unstoppable as they racked up yet another victory with a try-scoring melee that opened up in the first 5 minutes and which brought almost every player on the side onto the scoreboard. A big welcome goes to Aussie newcomer Nick Lane who notched up a try in his first game for Austin. The Blacks move into the Atlanta Renegades game with great momentum and look to convincingly extend their unbeaten streak.


*The Mighty Golds* ably led by Steve Herzog, powered their way to another victory this week against Fort Worth 1st XV. Fort Worth were unable to field a 2nd XV so their 1st XV played a shortened 2nd match against us with 20 minute halves. Austin resisted Fort Worth's suggestion of playing 7's rather than 15's since we didnt happen to be fielding any Eagles 7's players that day (Unlike Fort Worth...:)

After lending them a few players, our match kicked off and Austin immediately imposed domination. The first try was scored in the corner after Austin did well to retain posession after several phases. The forwards kept their momentum going, spirited on by the experienced Paul Grocott who kept up the pressure. Soon afterwards the results paid off with Tall Matt joining the Blindside and running onto the ball with pace and breaking three tackles to go over just right of the poles.

Credit certainly goes to the forwards who were doing the hard work obtaining turnover ball and keeping possession away from the FW backline (and most importantly the FW Wings, who seemed to have been carnally gifted with rockets up their arse).

Austin were now playing comfortably into their own game and the next try was scored soon after right underneath the poles, neatly set up by Jay McGilton. Austin was in their own 22 and Fort Worth attempted to spin the ball wide through the backline on a set peice. The Austin backs came up quickly, so much so that the pass from the Inside to Outside Center was under pressure as Jay read it,intercepted and slipped through the gap to run all the way and offload to one of the Stewarts who ran it in under the poles. A successful conversion was made which brought the 20 min. halftime score to 17 - 0 to Austin.

The Second half lacked a little of the impetus set up in the first, however Austin played with heart and had several near scoring opportunities with a pseudo harbor move occuring with Scrumhalf Chris Jones quickly clearing the ruck to pass it through the hands from Steve to Jay to Mike Clegg bursting onto the ball at wing again showing great natural ability breaking the last tackle almost on the line and extending his arm to place the ball down over the line. Unfortunately it fell short about 10cm, however it was very close call for FW. In only his second game of rugby, Mike is playing like a seasoned wing. Yet another mention goes to Tall Matt, who was astounding in cover defense every time the Eagles 7's wing broke through our line. Its not often a forward comes from behind, races past all the backs, and nails a super speedy winger on the break.

Austin conceded two tries and one conversion during the half. James did great at FullBack being repeatedly tested under high balls and punts by FW who were now playing with the wind in second half. Austin again fielded a bunch of guys in their first game. Rusty had a great time in his first game at prop as did John at wing. Oddly enough, yet again, no-one commented on how Austin needs to play more like the English National Side.

 

October 6, 2001: ARFC 39, San Antonio 0

Burr Field: Trys: Glen Burnett (1), Sal Olivas(1), Scott Joyce(1), Bo Brown(1), Max Clarey(1), Mike O'Keefe (x,3,1)

The Austin Blacks Demolished San Antonio 39 - 0. The side played incredibly well as a team, and credit certainly goes to the Forwards who repeatedly won turnover ball, provided a superb platform for quick ball to the backs, and kept the defense so tight that San Antonio were unable to break through. Highlights of the first half were LJ's solo break of roughly 50m, HoundDogs huge Penalty Kick from 5m in from the halfway and the myriad of tries. The one try that stood out started with a backline move that had Grant Campbell offloading back inside ( as he was getting nailed by a Flanker) as Max Clarey came Exploding through the line.

Rick Medina showed good vision by taking a few quick penalty taps and keeping SA on the back foot. HoundDog was on form with his kicking and service as usual, Todd and Bo Kept the midfield locked solid, and Grant did well using his Aussie Rules Boot kicking for touch.

It was a game of classic rugby. Forwards doing the hard work of outperforming SA on the loose and tight ball and providing an easy platform for Rick to send quick ball out to the backs. Forwards and Backs linked up like they had been playing together all season. Abel did great, He is the first prop I have seen make a tackle in the backline and then stand up in one sweeping motion and steal the ball (Classic Prop- Openside Flanker Hybrid !)

Austin Roster

1-Scott Joyce,2-Glen Burnett, 3-Abel Varney (capt)4-Jon Morgan, 5-Sal Olivas6-Paul Grocott, 7-Nick Ricono, 8-Pete Nicholls 9-Rick Medina, 10-Mike O'Keefe 12-Todd Oosterhouse, 13-Bo Brown 11-Gerry Gomez, 14-Grant Campbell, 15-Max Clarey 16-James Mikell replaced Clarey at the half



The Mighty Golds Demolished SA 27-8, with SA scoring the try late into the second half. The Golds hosted a slew of new players, including Matt our new flanker, The Twins(Chris and Dan) and a new Winger and a new Prop. Zogger led the charge in the forwards and the amount of turnover scrums we won was amazing. Matty did a good job at hooker as well as Matt the flanker. Tyler had a great run at flank, especially off the 2nd phase ball where he repeatedly gained 20 yards or more. Lineouts were good too, with the Golds winning a number of opposition ball (possibly due to the fact that both our flankers are about 6'6).

The forwards provided the crucial momentum needed to disarm SA up front. Mike Noonan added a very solid presence to the scrum, as Kirk Risha and everybody. As usual the forwards did the tough stuff up front, which is what enables the backs to really shine.

SA played with a man down from about 10 mins into the first half because of an off the ball incident where the SA Player though it might be necessary to attempt to kick Jay McGilton in the head. Needless to say, Jay got up from the ground, shook himself off and commented that it was no big issue since he had been dropped on his head as an infant.

The First half got underway with Austin scoring off a quick lineout ball from our 22 that was moved literally through the hands of the whole side, and ending up with one of the twins scoring. (Think it was Chris). Great stuff.

The Next try, came from Matt Haga (no. 8), picking up off the base of the scrum and exploding through the opposition blindside, with Scrummy Chris Jones in full support, the Ball moved through the hands with Wing Steve Watt going over in the corner.

The Austin Forwards provided good platform and Chris Jones doing a great job on his tackling as well as service to Chris Stewart. James Mikell and Jay McGilton did great with his scythe-like runs through the opposition on the 1-2 Scissor calls and backline plays. The Next try came off the platform Jay set up with one of his runs, where the ball was moved quickly through the hands from Dan Stewart at Outside Center to Steve Watt at Wing, and Back and Forth with Chris Stewart looping from Flyhalf to take the ball over in the corner.

Chris Stewart was in charge of the conversion duties and did a good job. More tries were scored, during the game with most notably Matt Haga on a remarkable individual effort, taking a crash ball right through the opposition and staying on his feet until he went over under the poles.

Mike Clegg, our new Winger did a superb job for his first game. Definitely showing copious amounts of natural ability. He repeatedly gained good ground on every break, breaking an average of 2 tackles per break with his size and speed.Gibby came on at center mid way through the second half displaying his trademark ability at being able to break the line on every run, and was a stalwart defender as usual.

Austin look good going into this years season and have good momentum to retain their TRU Champ title.