Welcome to BA Baracus Rugby Club

A mix of old and young Baracus stormed the Pickleweed Park pitch to lose to hosts Marin in the final Saturday. The maroon and gold made the final round because three of five teams failed to show..... The victories did not come on the score board as we dropped three straight to the hosts, who then graciously took us to a dock-side bar in San Rafael for beer.

The achievement came because of the improvement from first two games to final game of the day, which we dropped about 4 tries to 3. A few similarities between 7s and 15s are applying an even launch pressure defense, running from depth and maintaining possession. By the end of the day our defense was forcing Marin to make mistakes. Let's just say that the field did not have posts and conversions would not have been a factor in the first two games' outcomes.

So it was Murph, Stewy, Doctor, Show, Buckeye, Cork and Gavin joined by the oldest B-cus, me, Daddy DC, some new guy Brody and a rare appearance from the Comet and Oliver. Daddy, Doc and Gavin looked fairly frisky. The first time DDC touched the ball he might have been able to take his man to the house but instead dropped a grubber down, beat his man to the ball, let it hop and dotted it down. True international stuff. Doc had lots of hustle on defense, and Gavin showed a bit of staight ahead speed as well as logging the hit of the day.

Things to work on: Spacing, not being team-spaz with the ball, move the ball wide but run some scissors. Try to keep the ball in the hands of your playmakers or at least get them the ball at every opportunity. Stay tuned to details about future 7s practice, structured, in advance of PA 7s weekends. Hope Porno's angina or heartburn have subsided so he can soon make his 7s debut.

--P.I. Mike

A reasonable game with lots of physical contents marked by a couple of interesting refereeing points and lots of mishandling and turnovers. Seahawks are a stronger team with more penetration in the backs and the back row, which eventually took its toll on Baracus as the match unfolded. Forward passes and dropped passes meant that Seahawks didn’t score a try until late in the first half but they subsequently scored three more in the second.

The first interesting issue were touch judges that awarded two penalties (one at either end) in the first half that obviously were not successful. In both cases, the touch judges failed to stay on their posts and didn’t notice that the kicks curved outside late. A quick chat at half-time on the basics of touch judging cured the problem. The second issue came about when Baracus were under pressure from a 5-metre scrum. A hurried pass from the scrum-half led to an equally hurried attempt to clear from the out-half, resulting in a scuffed kick that went up in the air like a sick duck, barely making 10 feet in altitude and going forward the same amount to the Baracus left-wing, who was ahead of the kicker in goal. He jumped into the air to take the ball but made a complete hash of his attempt to catch it and only succeeded in knocking it backwards towards the dead-ball line for Seahawks to gratefully accept the chance to score. The question is – what decision would it have been had Seahawks not cleared? Penalty (where), penalty try, or other decision?

Seconds: SEAHAWKS 38 - BA Baracus 7

With some help from the Seahawks, Baracus put up a respectable B side, although the Seahawks proved too much for them. The first half saw both sides drive to close to the try line on several occasions, only to turn the ball over within 5 meter line. The Seahawks led 14 - 0 at the half. Baracus fans were finally given something to cheer about late in the second half with some great open field running on a breakaway which resulted in their only try.

A cold, grey Oakland afternoon on a dry and thus fast field. The AG contingent-16 players-rolled in noonish. Homeboys Baracus had plenty of bodies and were still miffed about the weekend previous.

It was all Baracus the first half; 22-0. Warmed by a cup of tea perhaps, AG made a go at it, scoring twice in the first 10 minutes of the second half. However, Baracus got its groove back and won 48-17.

The first league match for both teams was played on a pitch that held up very strongly through torrential rains. No rain today, though, as the hosts started off well. A halftime score of two tries and one conversion, plus a penalty kick, was evidence of their performance. They would have had a third try had it not been nullified in favor of a penalty. The second half was a more defensive-oriented period. Overall, Santa Rosa proved very adept at creating opportunities out of broken play. Baracus ran and tackled hard, but could not make much headway against the host's tough backline defense.

Baracus brought business focus when it counted to a preseason match Saturday against the Harlots at Treasure Island, where the first 10 to 15 minutes saw players from both sides dodging gushing sprinklerson the pitch that the City could not deactivate.

But in the best newsroom/sports cliche, not even wasteful Public Works departments could dampen the Baracus spirit. In a match of three halves, Baracus had about 10 tries to 2 with no points scored in the last chucker.

The match opened with Doc Neale, aka Baracus Obama, scoring more than Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights. One try came from some great defensive pressure that D applied to a fullback or wing off a Mayor high ball and another one Doc just gobbled up a loose ball. I think D then had another.

Meanwhile, the Harlots got on the board after an intercept. Mr. Mom, aka Andrew, nutted up to catch the guy after a 70 meter sprint but the Harlots had more men down there. Baracus answered back with maybe D. on kick and chase from brother Gramps--sending D off the pitch with an aggravated hammy.

The Mayor was carving; the forwards rucked and hit, ball flowed like blow at an '80's party. Every look to the pitch saw another Baracus, such as Keir, Kevin, Bailey or PG tearing straight up field. One such exchange went Chunk/Burley/Bailey into the corner. Church, Sam, PG, Max and others threw themselves at Modesto's Man Mountain,a prop who had to have been a McGriddle shy of 350 lbs.

New scrummy Half Moon Josh, playing in cleats 1.5 sizes too big that he borrowed from your reporter, took charge and earned man of the match honors for his savvy and controlling the tempo of the game. He directed traffic at the breakdowns and began to implement the system we have talked about in the last week.

Mr. Mom added one when, upon realizing that he is fast and quick, just beat the defenders around the corner before centering his try.

New meat porn 'Stache Steve made his debut, playing across from Buckeye on the wing. Steve likes the contact and will soon have that wrapping tackle form jazz with the arms figured out.

MJDJ was heard bellowing for "good, clean rugby." But we know the Dutchman likes it down and dirty. Murph jumped in at a lock but had to jump out with a shoulder problem.

Baracus had a couple of big try line stands that PG led. Things got a little giddy but Keir's talk nipped it in the bud. We are not professionals but need to play the part at all times because we have a monster season scheduled.

By match's end, Show was storming up the pitch and looked like he was heading for glory, only to be spun around by his neck or jersey.