Round of 16…Round-Up!

Haha, I thought the title was pretty clever, hopefully you will too! I thought I would give a little tidbit about each game and it might be rugby related or not! Enjoy!

9:30am: Beantown vs KC Jazz 64 to 5
This game was the first game of the day and nerves seemed to be a factor for each team. The first twenty minutes were also helter skelter as the ball was a little wet from the dew on the ground. Beantown was the first team to calm down and start to control the pace of the game. They did a great job of pounding the forwards up and then sending the centers through the middle. Great game with the Jazz coming out pretty beaten up and defeated.

10 am: SD Surfers vs Atlanta 5 to 20
I was touch judging at the 11:00am game so I don’t really know what happened at this game, but I could hear the crowd yelling as big runs were made and big tackles were hit. The Surfers did very well over all in this game and their next game though. Atlanta didn’t look as sharp as they usually do, but they had some big runs that resulted in big tries.

11 am: Nova vs TC Amazons 17 to 20
This game was incredibly tense and awesome to watch. I was touch judging, so the action was always right in front of me. The scoring was pretty much one right after another and it came down to the wire. Nova drove and drove but it seemed that penalties were really the downfall of this game.

11:30am: ORSU vs Minn Valkyries 17 to 7
I was still touch judging for this game so I couldn’t watch any of it but the end…but I heard about it. Talk about a HUGE upset!?! Evidently Minnesota could never get anything rolling on offense and ORSU was firing on all cylinders. The 7 points that Minnesota scored was in the last few minutes of the game and ORSU controlled the game.

12:30pm: Philly vs N Shore 29 to 16
This game was the game I was looking forward to all day. I really thought Philly was going to be the sleeper that surprised everyone. They have been working hard to recruit good athletes and plenty of U19 & U23 players and that will pay off eventually. These two teams played a very physical match and it was thrilling to watch.

1 pm: Glendale vs Berkeley 0 to 58
During this game I was touch judging the 2pm fight, so once again I didn’t get to see it. I did hear the crowd yell though when Berkely put a try in about 2 minutes into the game. Those that watched the game said that Glendale played hard but that they were shut down completely on defense and couldn’t get anything going on offense. I had never seen the back line of Jaime Lange, Janay Lake, Lynelle Kugler etc and was excited to see it…but evidently they couldn’t do much because Berkeley was so stifling on defense.

2 pm: Keystone vs Furies 14 to 0
This game was great because I had never seen Keystone play before. Keystone came out of the gate swinging and scored pretty quickly. DC never seemed to get anything rolling as they were constantly backed up and having to kick for touch. This game was also physical and the penalties were pretty constant as each team was fighting hard for points. DC never gave up but never could get in the try zone.

2:30pm: New York vs Mudhens 67 to 10
This was the last game of the day and as you can see from the score New York took care of business. They had a great wide game all day and utilized the tactical kicking with great precision. The Mudhens fought the whole game but couldn’t contain New York’s continuity and beautiful rucks.

Beantown vs Atlanta 45 to 0
Clearly Beantown had a handle on this game as they made quick work of Atlanta…the score says most of the game. What the score doesn’t say is that Atlanta fought hard, but couldn’t make it happen. Great game even with the score being what it is.

MN Valkyries vs NOVA 19 to 5
This game was one of the lower scoring games of the day, but was one of the most exciting of the day. The Valkyries clearly wanted to let everyone know that they were still one of the best teams in the Midwest and they played that way. Nova didn’t give up though and was a thorn in their side the whole game. They caused knock on after knock on and almost had several beautiful tries.

Surfers vs Jazz 20 to 12
This game was one of my favorites of the morning…Since Belmont didn’t have their internationals to help them win their league games, I believe the best team in the South was present. I was also extremely excited to hear that the Surfers did it with their own strengths and merits. The Jazz played very well but it got away from them in the last 10 minutes of the game. Making it worse, the Surfer suffered a sin bin and won the game with 14 players on the field.

ORSU vs Amazons 12 to 24
This game was played very smart by
ORSU, they had seen the Amazons strong back line and clearly took note of it. They chose to keep the ball in the forward and to pound the ball down the field, slowly opening up things on the outside. But the Amazons were able to work around that and started working the ball up the middle as well and around the outside.

N Shore vs Glendale 49 to 12
This game was also highly anticipated for me as the West had already lost a match this morning and we were putting our hope on Glendale. The match was strong as Glendale had several great runs but couldn’t keep N Shore out of the try zone.

Berkeley vs Philly 31 to 10
This game was one of the more highly anticipated in my opinion. Philly played hard and I thought they might have won if the game was only 30 minutes long. It wasn’t a fitness issue, it was more a physical issue in my opinion. Berkeley rucked hard all day long and it was a physical match to say the least. Philly had several opportunities to score again but decision at the back of the ruck seemed to take to long.

Mudhens vs DC 7 to 41
I didn’t see this game as I was watching the Berkeley vs Philly game, but the score pretty says that it was a blowout.

New York to Keystone 31 to 7
Again New York played the last game of the day and the crowd was pretty amped up on rugby at this point. Keystone came out to win and looked strong in the first 30 minutes but then they seemed to wither pretty quickly. New York kept pounding them in the forwards and used their brute strength to control the game.

**Pictures were taken by Ashley Mefford of the Austin Valkyries. She is still working on editing them, so keep checking back for more pictures and albums.