kodiak

Welcome to South Carolina

Geez, I am a slacker! Again, sorry it has taken me so long to post the results from South Carolina!

Short version: We won both games and have advanced to the national championship game against the Boston Irish. The final game is set for June 10th in San Diego.

Long version:
We flew from SFO again on the Friday before the games, via Dulles (my favorite airport) into Columbia. The flight could have been worse and past pretty quickly. The airport was a welcome re-introduction to the south- white rocking chairs and sweet ice tea just waiting for you in the terminal. We picked up the vans and headed into Lexington- toward our hotel and the fields.

The drive out to our hotel was uneventful, but you can tell so quickly that Carolina and California are worlds apart. American cars driving down winding two-lane roads dotted with a Waffle Houses and church every 500 yards. We stood out a little, but no more than any of the other 39 rugby teams in the area for the weekend. The Comfort turned Quality Inn was again our home for the weekend. The owner seemed to remember the team from last year- perhaps Mission makes an impression.

We took care of the basics, beer, water and dinner and then settled in for the night. Some of us thought about going out, but to where? There was nothing around!

The next morning a couple of us headed to the closest Waffle House and got some breakfast. So tasty! even with the WT smoking a few booths down. Who smokes at breakfast!?! And from there back to the hotel and then the fields. It is a great complex, 9 or so fields all together, though it is lacking in the shade area. Not that it mattered- with the humidity around 90%, it was just hot- shade or no shade.

To start the day off, all of our hearts were warmed by the defeat of Bend Rugby 42-18 at the hands of the Boston Irish. We were next on the same field against Pasadena RFC and at this point I will post *their* interpretation of the game:

9:00am - The team arrived at the pitch and will be watching the first set of games.
10:15am - The team is having a brief meeting with coach, going over the basic game plan.
10:45am - The team will start to warm-up. I will do my next update at 10:15-10:25 and will be online from then until the end of the game.
11:32 - Pasadena kicking off to Mission.
11:39 - A couple of bad plays but we have been in their side threatening to score the whole game so far.
11:48 - We are dominating their scrums, we just had one lapse and Mission is barely on their side for the first time.
11:50 - Mission 7 - Pasadena 0
12:03 - Sorry for the long update. We just held them up from scoring and we now are attempting to score ourselves.
12:11 - A couple more faux pas see us defending our try zone again. Mission 14 - Pasadena 0
12:17 — half time Mission 14 - 0
12:22 - We are receiving the kick, and going left to right on the computer
A quick review of the first half. Pasadena has played 80% of the time within 30 metres of scoring. A couple of mistakes and Pasadena not following the game plan and they got two tries that we gave them, they did not earn. They are a typical islander team, they suck the backs in to create an over load.
12:33 - We have been going back and forth midfield. Almost scoring to be pushed out of bounds about the 3 metres. Ciampa, FYI Earl drove up from Georgia, and Swing stopped by.
12:36 - Ball came back to mid field, went into the maul, ball passed out to Bart, he took a hit, but got the ball out, passed to another back, somehow Bart got back to take the next pass, which he passed to Dean, who who ran down the side line kicking the ball. They played Dean instead of the ball, penalty try. Mission 14 - Pasadena 7
12:42 - water break
12:45 - Mission just got a penalty, kicked for points. Mission 17 - Pasadena 7
12:51 - Mission got a lucky bounce, just ran it in for a try. 24 - 7
12:55 - Mission 29 Pasadena 7
1:05 - We dominated them, had possesion most of the game, beat them in the in our line-outs and theier, beat them in our scrums and theirs. Just had a few bad breaks and played one try a man down. Final score 34 -7

My personal favorite is “They are a typical islander team, they suck the backs in to create an over load” — which is kinda the whole point of modern rugby. As you can see, we totally got our asses kicked en route to a 34-7 victory.

On Sunday we played Louisville, a strong team- good skills, hard workers. We beat them 43-7. At least they scored a real try. We came out strong and the game was never in doubt. Sadly there was a bad injury. Doug- our Zimbabwean breakaway, badly dislocated his elbow early in the first half and is out for championship game. From there on out we scored almost at will and ran Louisville ragged. Hats off to them, but better luck next year.