| vs San Jose, February 21st, 2009 |
| Halloween 10's, November 1st, 2008 |
| at San Rafael 7's, May 31th, 2008 |
After days of tussling with our old friends at SF Park and Rec, The Nation of Baracustan was able to defend its home ground of the Polo Fields for two bruising matches with San Jose.
The first team match kicked off at 1:00. Baracus retained much of the ball early, but an unfortinate holding-it-in penalty against BA lead to a long kick and the first points of the day for San Jose. BA quickly got the ball back and continued to dominate position. Good work in the backs was frustrtaed by an errant pass, picked off by a San Jo center and run back half the field for the first try of the day. 10-0 San Jose.
This was a tough blow for a Baracus team that felt like they were controlling much of the game. BA forwards were quicker and fitter and able to turn over much of the San Jose ball and -finally- these advantages started to show. After a really impressive series of at least 10+ phases, Matt Busch was able to dive over from the #10 spot for the first BA points. Kevin slotted the conversion using an exciting new invention: a kicking tee! Score 10-7
San Jose came back with an unconvereted try to lead at halftime 15-7
In the second half Baracus injuries began to mount. Sam got cracked in the ribs and had to leave the game and Mark Baker who had been holding it down at outside center got his bell rung and had to exit.
BA tackling also began to faulter as Baracus forwards found themselves tackling high on the bigger San Jose pack, who were able to off load for a couple of long runs and San Jose punched another long try in to lengthen their lead to 22-7.
Baracus would not quit and came back with another series of 10+ phases. The sidelines were shocked that a yellow card didn't come out as San Jose was repeatedly cheating like bastards to keep BA out of the tryzone. Finally Andy picked, went, and dove over for the second BA try of the day. BA had narrowed to game to 8 points, but San Jose got one more in the end for a final of 27-14.
Baracus forwards again demonstrated that fitness and heart make up for size as BA controlled the majority of ball on the day. Tackling, a few costly mental errors and the continued Baracus efforts to forge an effective identity in the backs marked the difference on the day.
In the second side match it was more of the same. Baracus held much of the ball, but tricky moves in the backs and a lack of consistent BA tackling allowed San Jose to score three unanswered tries in the first half. Baracus mounted a comeback with two unanswered tries. The first was after a series of aggressively-retained crash ball on the San Jose tryline that saw the Return of The Buckeye as Buckeye Mike Darwal (at #9) dove over the breakdown in classic style to score the first BA try. Buckeye then slotted his own conversion kick (all hail The Tee!)
Not to be outdone and hungry to lengthen his highlight reel, Royal with Cheese was able to pick off a San Jose pass and go half the field for a second BA try. While Baracus had tightened the game to within one try, San Jose again seemed to wake up and were able to punch in several more tries during the last 20 minutes to win going away.
T'was the day after Hallowe'en, and not a creature was stirring, apart from 20 or so of the Baracustani Liberation Army and 8 other Bay Area rugby teams who headed out to Treasure Island for the Baracus 10s tournament. In keeping with the date, there were certainly some ghosts of Baracus past in evidence, with several of the "I'm too p*ssy to play rugby this year" retirees there to watch, and even a brief cameo from Gramps before disappearing due to the rain, sorry, due to concussion.
With officially two teams out, the B.L.A had a full schedule but started strongly, beating Marin (the eventual champions) so soundly that one of their players questioned whether there were more than 10 of us on the field. With no time to relax and enjoy the weather, the 2nd game followed immediately after. Despite a stunning run of all of 5 yards by your humble correspondent for the opening try (after build up play from man of the tournament Jesse "Quint from Jaws" and Hutty "I'm not a prop honest"), the fitness started to suffer and a breakaway try meant Vallejo (the other finalists) scraped a draw.
Injuries then took their toll, but in truth fitness was the undoing of the Baracus as we lost to Fresno in the final pool game, and then Marin (did I mention they won the cup and we beat them in the 1st game?) in the semi, despite a cameo from our (now player &) coach, Hurricane & Hutty appearing in the centres, and Square Sam matching Usain Bolt for pure sprinting elegance.
The final was a beautiful exhibition of flowing rugby in grinding rain, or should I say grinding rugby in flowing rain, with Marin (I really should mention we beat them earlier in the day) beating Vallejo (who we drew against) to take the kudos of the 2nd annual BA Baracus RFC Hallowe'en 10s tournament title.
Despite rain of biblical proportions (and yes it did remind me of home) and a couple of cry-offs the tourney was a success commercially and proved that where there's a will (or EPA players on the sidelines to drink copious amounts of sparks) there's a way - so props to el Presidente Murph Dizzle for all his hard work. We even managed to fit in a referees' eating contest at the end of the day and somehow squeezed in a novel method of making a hardened English drinker nearly vomit (multiple sparks flavours mixed with beer, drunken from Rishi's steaming rugby boot - I can recommend it to anyone).
So, many positives to take from the tourney, but also a lot to build on before our next friendly, particularly fitness, so get your asses to training tonight & Wednesday and we can take our vengeance on the next poor b*stards to play us.
