Austin Valkyries vs Lady Raptors of Glendale

Below is our coach’s notes and some of my memories of the game combined. The Lady Raptors played well, but the blowout score doesn’t reflect how well Austin played. I think the notes below will show that!

The Lady Raptors of Glendale…Glendale Old Girl Lady Raptors?…Old Lady Raptor Glendale Girls?…whatever they are now they are the ones that used to wear pink and aren’t allowed to by the club anymore (they “negotiated” to be allowed to keep the pink socks). They have an absolutely beautiful, though unfinished, new rugby stadium complete with Jumbotron. If you missed the game which was streamed live over the internet (yes, the 7 cameras to catch complete action were all working) then you may read the summary here. I may not be as glib as the announcers for the TV broadcast (recorded), Mediazone internet broadcast (live) or radio broadcast (live in Glendale), but I’ll try to get the main points across.

We started the game a little shaky in the rucks but solid as a brick wall on defense by forcing a knock on right from the kickoff. CO was much larger than us, but our under sized scrum was strong all day long. Off this first attack the scrum was unable to avoid being spun but accurate tackling stopped the attack. Then CO had a beautiful passing combo to run around the outside but were stopped by a saving tackle by the Valks fullback. We recovered with 2 strong rucks and crashes to regain ground but eventually lost the ball on a poach by CO, this was due to lack of quick and assertive support by us.

Line outs were a bit sticky all day as each team was constantly being called for the ball not being thrown in straight. I do have to say that the ref choose an interesting place to determine that the throw wasn’t straight…he typically stood to the right of the scrumhalf that was on offense. So he was in the way of my pass if the ball was played AND how can you see if the ball is not straight from there? He based his calls on the “leaning” of the players, interesting theory in my opinion.

We were able to get a few barging calls because CO was jumping the engage and from then on the scrum was a bit more stable. One particular scrum down was put in by us, but CO spun it ninety and we lost the ball, resulting in another scrum CO’s ball. At this point, we put up an amazing defensive stand (for about 15 minutes!!) that included holding up a maul, several great tackles and pushing CO back about 20 meters before finally succumbing to a breakthrough on a dummy up the middle for 7pts.

A great kick-off by us, was followed by an excellent poach to steal the ball…and a picture perfect ruck all leading to a long kick from the base of the ruck. The kick was successfully ran down by the backs who forced CO out of bounds for a line to us. A backs crash by us is followed by a solid ruck and scoot by the forwards is then lost forward in the tackle. In the resulting scrum, we had great weak side defense of the scrum by the flanks and wing. This great pressure defense ended up in a line out for the Valkyries. From here there is a back and forth series for both teams for about 10 mins.

At the 25 minute mark an ill advised kick directly to the strong side wing leads to a CO try – 5pts. After the kick off, solid rucking and fringe defense push CO back and force a panicky kick to the our FB, who ran straight up the field, setting a good ruck. This phase was followed by several strong plays, gaining about 30 meters before an offside by CO gives us a penalty kick and then a line out in the green zone. We lose the line out, but steal the ball back in the ruck followed by a strong run and support only to lose possession on a hands in the ruck penalty.

Great pressure defense again leads to a kick away by CO in which we brought the ball back to the CO side of the field. This is followed by a great weak side run off of a scrum down for a 30 meter gain back into the green zone. We eventually lose possession through lack of support but regain the ball by spinning the CO scrum. 2 great crashes (backs then forwards) and good support is followed by a back and forth for several minutes before pressure defense gives us a line out on the CO 5 meter line with only a minute left in the 1/2…a good line and support but the ball is finally killed in a ruck by CO and time is blown.

Halftime score: CO 12 Valks 0

Our strength again in this half was defensive pressure, both on the fringe (post, X, Y) and in the line. Our weakness in this half was not sliding hard to the outside to cover overloads…we left our wings without defensive support and did not get out to help them. We were beaten to the outside once in the first half (off of a kick) and 4 times in the second (the other 2 trys were the 1st one up the middle and one try late in the game running weak off a scrum).

The only other try by CO was on a missed tackle in which the tackler took the wrong angle on approach…overall, tackling was strong all day. This is my favorite stat of the day, we were able to cause at least 12 knock ons by the CO backs . A great weak side scrum passed out to the backs and supported late in the game is eventually turned over by a knock on of our own. Late in the game we got a little lazy and tried to poach more than ruck and as a result lost a lot of ground and eventually the last try to the outside occurred.

Final score: CO 41 Valks 0