Greetings from sunny Glendale, CO. Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard that your own Metropolis DIII team was victorious today over the South Bay Rhinos by a score of 24-19. For those of you receiving my updates throughout the match and possessing the basic math skills that even a Wisconsin Public School educated person like me has, you'll note it was ALL Metropolis in the 1st Half....and a little more South Bay in the 2nd Half. While I'm tempted to discuss all the reasons this weekend is important to the Club and the individual players themselves I'm going to save that for a weekend recap and get to business on what went down on the pitch today.It's been my dream, since 1997 when I first joined Metropolis, to earn a trip to the Final Four, regardless of Division. Well, I made it! I'll admit, however, that my dreams didn't include me pacing the sidelines with a newly purchased Office Depot clipboard trying to maintain some sanity but I am still with Metropolis at a Final Four and have never been happier or prouder of this club. (Hey English, there, I did say something about myself in one of the updates instead of just trying to memorialize the trip for you guys, and feed the rest of the club's hunger for info, now you can give me grief). Ha.
Notice that misdirection? I said I was going to go directly into match content and I didn't...oh well, here ya go:
Metropolis Rugby v South Bay Rhinos
6/4/11 Infinity Park, Glendale, CO
Kick-off 9:00am MST
South Bay in Red
Metropolis is brand-new navy jerseys, sponsored by SAOS and made to order, under a tight deadline, by Rugby Athletic
View the Official Metropolis Rugby DIII Semi-Final Roster to see who was out there representing the Globe today.
9:00am MST
South Bay kicks off under clear skies, call it mid-60's...about to get warmer. Opening moments found both sides kicking the ball deep as they tested each other's back three. South Bay was first to blink with an errant kick outside their 22m, straight out, line-out Metropolis and a sign of things to come.
It was clear from the beginning that South Bay was going to play a little more of an open, wing it out, toss it around style than what Metropolis has in its gameplan. The Rhinos clearly had some speed out wide, with shifty and large runners from #13 on in. Fortunately, so does Metropolis, but we also play defense and keep our heads, relying on the plan at all times.
7th Minute TRY: Will Pilkington/ CONV: Isaac Johnson (7-0)
This goes in the books as one of those scores that came about because of action and effort in phases prior that were probably already forgotten....not by me though, I have a clipboard!
Since this was the first score and my favorite of the match, I'll provide color:
After multiple kicks by the Rhinos, attempting to catch right-wing, Pete Christenson out of position or give their wing an opportunity to get under a high-kick, it became clear that it wasn't going to happen for them. Rhinos #10 puts one through to Pete, on the bounce. Pete finds the handle, but is quickly covered up by the chasing Rhino. At first it looked like Pete was in trouble, isolated, on the ground, setting the ball for someone. In an instant, as the tackling Rhino is also trying to play the ball, #8 Will Pilkington comes through and blows the whole thing up in a text book clearing, 1-man, ruck. Metropolis bench voices its excitement....sir blows the whistle, "Not Releasing" on South Bay, back 10. A little insult to injury as far as I'm concerned.
The mark is given at about the 50m, Nate Osborne is kicking for touch and the bread & butter Metropolis line-out. Nate, whose foot was perfect the previous 7 minutes finds this kick landing at about 15m from goal and 10m inside the touch line. South Bay fullback is in position, but misreads the bounce, a bounce which carries through 10m to the right (touch) and 10m down field (5m line). Bread & Butter time! Perfect throw by Squirrel, Kohbleck handles it, drive is on....Will Pilkington, #8 who blew that ruck up in the middle of a Rhino penalty scores the TRY off the back of the driving forwards! Metropolis DIII rugby at it's best.
Score is 7-0 for the next 14 minutes as the majority of rugby is played in South Bay's half with Metropolis a constant threat, but it was clear that with the Rhino's athleticism they could pop one loose 80m the other way.
21st Minute TRY: AJ Jimmerson (left wing)/ CONV: Isaac Johnson (14-0)
After another Rhino penalty, Metropolis kicks for touch and a line-out on the right side of the field at the 50m line. Showing that practice makes perfect, Peloquin's throw is golden, Kohlbeck snags it, down to #9 Diffley, quickly to FlyHalf Nate Osborne, "miss 2" (Ike did enough by making the conversion), #13 Chris Reynolds hits left wing #14 AJ Jimmerson (former Michigan State Running Back & current Spearhead Academy player) at pace, with a long pass. What little space AJ has is gobbled up by the Rhinos speedy wing, but a step and extra gear by AJ finds him around the wing, goofy footin' the fullback and centering the ball for a great TRY.
24th Minute TRY: Scott Stafford/ CONV: no good (19-0)
Another great Metropolis drive from the line-out finds #7 taking over and touching one down for the good guys. Great rugby to watch. Tough kick for Ike from the corner, while he converted a similar one after that first try, this one couldn't find the mark.
The battle continues, both sides pretty evenly matched in penalties, but our ability to capitalize off of their proved to be a difference maker.
37th Minute TRY: Scott Stafford/ CONV: no good (24-0)
The Metropolis line-out, subsequent drive and score by Stafford were mirror images of the 24th minute try, but the story here is how close it came to never happening. With Metropolis on the attack, an attacking scrum inside the Rhinos 22m, twice and other runs that nearly got us in things almost went terribly wrong. Attacking the right side, inside the 22m, a pass from a guy who rarely makes bad passes, falls short to his targeted back, takes a sick bounce into the hands of a full paced Rhino winger, screaming down the sidelines with little chance of being tracked down.....WHISTLE!!! This fine young man, unfortunately, was off-sides - Penalty LineOut inside the 10m Metropolis....Bread & Butter. 24 points in the books and it's Half-Time.
1 substitution prior to the half: #16 Ben Hilgers on for #2 Louis Peloquin
Half Time Metropolis 24 - South Bay 0
Much was said at half-time, but the most telling was by Nate Osborne. Loosely translated: "Two more tries and this is ours mates! 24-0 at half-time may work against other teams, but not these guys, not with their athleticism." Boy o Boy, Nate was almost "too right" about that.
Thankfully, for your eyes and my fingers, things started speeding up in the 2nd stanza. South Bay on the attack, but Metropolis and the "Wall of Blue" kept them in check for the first 15 minutes or so. We stared substitutions in a more liberal manner this half as #1 Denny Rowlands & #3 Jason Ahrens gave it their all for a few more minutes before being replaced by Justin Swartz and 19 year old, Spearhead Academy player Victor Zapata.
Things get a bit fuzzy here, but I do remember the never-say-die attitude of the 15 men on the pitch. Although, we were down to 14 at one point as Justin Swartz and his eagerness to make an impact in the match was binned for diving over (I think). Unfortunately for Justin, he was the victim of a yellow card due to multiple infractions by the boys in blue earlier in the match. Tough luck, no doubt.
The first Rhino try was just overwhelming work by them with Metropolis making tackle after tackle and simply running out of men. This was around 15 minutes or so into 2nd half. 20minutes later, after multiple attempts stuffed by great defense, the Rhinos broke through and found the try zone again. At this point it's 24-12, but we're on the back foot, constantly being tested by their athleticism.
So, at roughly 35min into the 2nd half, it's 24-12.....then 40minutes (on the running clock) it becomes 24-19 with another Rhino try. Their sidelines, never even close to quiet the entire match, explode and, I'll be honest, it didn't feel great right then. I'm in the touch-judges ear, and we have at least 5minutes of injury time. Well folks, we owned every second of those 5 minutes. Attack, Attack, Attack. We actually lost the handle on certain tries TWICE, 10m out, during that time. In addition to that, with ball in hand off of an attacking scrum, inside the 22m, with me shouting at Nate to just find touch, AJ nearly picked up a 2nd try in the corner, but was forced out of bounds.....FINAL WHISTLE!
I've left much out, but the message remains that the boys fought hard, bent but never broke. They didn't merely hold on to a win, they took it and their passion and drive was clear in that final 5 minutes with the game on the line.
That leads to the match tomorrow, the National Championship Match. Metropolis will play the other Semi-Final winner, Syracuse, at 11:00am MST in the Stadium at Infinity Park.
Scouting Report on Syracuse: They made the Championship match, they are a good team. Done.
As if this wasn't a great experience already for these guys, we'll get our own, assigned locker-room, we have a "Team Liaison" and will be coming out of the tunnel together prior to the National Anthem and some good, ol' Fashioned Metropolis Rugby!
WATCH METROPOLIS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH!!!
Tomorrow's match will be streamed, LIVE, by USARugby. Check it out here USARugby National Championships
There were a few people snapping photos during the match. I'm sure those will be available at some point in the future. Speaking of the future, I'll do my best to keep you all posted during the match tomorrow. As for a detailed write up like this immediately following, I'd say don't hold your breath. While skipping the pool and the movie with the boys today in order to take care of some tour stuff today made sense, missing the Championship celebration tomorrow is not even a remote possibility.
One final note and thank you to a few folks traveling out here to support the boys: From supportive wives and families of Rowlands, Diffley & Pilkington, to "young Old Boys" Gordy & Doc Swing, to recently relocated players, Kyle "HotChick" and, um, "Mature Old Boys" Herc and Buster. Hats off to you all and the players and club appreciate your support and are looking forward to that continuing tomorrow.
I did snap a few pics yesterday one or two today....check them out HERE (you don't need to be a Facebook member to view them)
That's it....team dinner shortly and I'm out of words.....
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