For those of us who played Saturday at
the tournament in Monmouth-great day and
a wonderful time. I arrived a little
after 9AM and walking in with “Inky” we
quickly found a handful of SJ Olde
Guarde milling about (and could see that
numbers were going to be a challenge).
The tournament administrator came up and
asked the SJ gang who was in charge and
I was volunteered. We had 7 Lock Heads
and 7 SJ Olde Guardes. I borrowed an Old
Boy from the
Connecticut Grays who played
center for us and we now had 15.
The first opposition was
Monmouth (the tournament hosts
and one time fisticuff rivals in our
youth). Their Captain told me at the
coin toss they had a couple of 20 year
olds..which we did not (though everyone
on the sidelines thought Scotty was
barely 20 instead of 35). More SJ guys
showed up later and we were able to move
folks around to make a fairly
comfortable side. We had nearly 800
pounds in our front row with “Tuna”,
“BIG George” and Roger Howell. The Locks
were both fit and strong (brother Bob
and John –never did know his last name).
I was flanking with a couple of other
experienced back row forwards. Brad was
fly half along with Tony P at center
while Inky and Scotty were wings. The SJ/LM
pack demonstrated the fact that their
size would make a difference pretty much
from the start. Big George and I rolled
a maul about 25 meters off a line out
and then Lock John took it the remaining
5 meters for a try. Brad set up the
Connecticut Gray nicely for a try
up the middle and set up my #3 ranked
try of the day to Scotty with that
patented fake and our lanky speedster
raced it in. The # 1 rated try was off a
kick off from
Monmouth (we had already just
scored) and Big George fielded it and
popped it off to Tuna who quickly gained
pace (to the obvious consternation of
the opposing winger). Tuna rambled down
the pitch and quickly gathered a
cheering section after throwing off one
tackler and then deking (or throwing)
the full back to the ground and then
making a ballet move over him. He then
put the ball underneath the posts to a
rousing applause from the sidelines.
Final score was 31-14 with the SJ/LM
side ahead and not much doubt as to who
would win throughout the match.
The second and final match of he day
(actually the last match of the old boys
tournament) was between the SJ/LM side
and the Caribbean Cougars. The yellow
jersey’d opposition hailed from Brooklyn
but one look and listen told you they
were all islanders. They were pretty fit
and played a rollicking 7’s style of
15’s that reminded you of the Pacific
Islanders (
Fiji particularly). They threw
the ball everywhere and were continually
off side and putting their hands in the
ruck-all normally associated with 7’s.
The referee did not first call the off
sides infractions and the game was so
short it was a bit hard to clean up
(particularly as this was supposed to be
a friendly old boys game-not a time to
clean clocks and step on hands). The
islanders took advantage and gained a
7-0 lead on a converted try. The SJ/LM
pack started driving up the middle on
them and the Cougars began to collapse
under the pressure. Then the referee
started to call the off sides and the
Cougars became even more frantic. Tony
Pellegrino scored an unconverted try
(and I rank this as try # 2 for beauty)
taking it from about 5 meters out off a
forward drive ending with yours truly.
Tony then ploughed the remaining 5
meters and then some carrying two
defenders on his back and drilling into
the third and moving him back two
additional meters. We had several
opportunities to score a try or two and
a missed penalty kick. The full time saw
us as the dominant team on the pitch but
down 5-7 to a spirited team in an
energetic fun match.
Of the 6 tries scored by the SJ/LM side,
4 were scored by “Lock heads” and the
other two were set up by them. Since we
started off campus competition we have
accumulated a 4-4-1 record in 7’s
matches and 2-2 in 15’s.
Two matches left this spring. Both are
15’s matches with 3-20 minute periods
each. The first is
April 26th at Jersey
Shore and
on May 10th we have
the ALS tournament in
Brandywine .
There are a bunch of us going to a
bowling fundraiser for high school rugby
on April 12th (one
dropped out so we have room for one more
in our lane) and if any one else is
interested just contact me.
This week ends 7 LM B.O.B.’s at the
tournament:
Brad Sullivan
Tony Pellegrino (two tries)
Tony Lapolla (one try)
Scott Bruce (one try)
Joe Incudine
Steve English
Bob English
