Date:10 September 05
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ
Score: SJ-32, SC-22

Cherry Hill, NJ- The South Jersey RFC opened the Fall 2005 Season with a fairly comfortable 32-22 victory over recently self relegated to D-III  Second City Troupe RFC at  Evesham Road.  This victory follows a hard earned third place showing at the sweltering Monmouth RFC preseason  tournament at Seagirt NJ on August 27th .  At Seagirt, the Devils posted victories over Montclair (NJ) (24-12), Landsdowne (NY) (13-3) and lost to eventual men’s club division champ Union (5-12).

 
First Game: 

 1^st Half:

 The sun was hot, the field was like a brick with straw spread around for cover, and Second City came ready to play with a much more talented side than was tied by the SJRFC in the Spring.  With brand new shirts on their backs and four new players popping their SJRFC 15’s cherries the two teams went straight to work.  The Devils match performance was the proverbial good (very good at times), bad, and at some points, ugly.  The Good: scrums, tactical kicking by new Irishman flyhalf  Stephan “Sam” Mulhall, relentless attacking by new Kiwi fullback Tony Wood, and standout all around play of veteran front rowers Gene Graf, Greg Van Guilder and Tom Diaz.  The Bad: back defense vs 1^st phase and team one-on-one tackling.  The Ugly:  All but a few lineouts, Second City touch judging and the Devils giving up two tries down the stretch.  The Devils started the scoring at 4:00 with a Tony Wood break that simply blew away the un-suspecting defense. Mulhall converted to make it 7-0.  Second City countered with an unconverted try at 11:00 and then another at 24:00.  Both tries resulted from the deceptively atheletic and speedy Second City backs taking advantage of a very slow and uneven approaching front three defense, lack of backrow pressure, and big back line gaps caused by apparent indecision.   At 32:00 the Devils forwards took down one of the few clean lineouts of the day on the Second City 5 meter line and hooker Greg Van Guilder powered in for the much needed try. Mulhall converted making it 14-10. The play of the day occurred at 38:00 minutes: Mulhall alertly kicked over a sleeping Second City blind side winger, ran it down with wing Bill Blauvelt, gained possession, and put away supporting prop Gene Graf.  Half time score: Devils 21-Second City 10
 

Second Half:

Mulhall slotted a penalty kick after some intense Devils pressure and thumping tackling around the loose by Tom Diaz at 44:00 to bring the score to 24-10.  At 50:00 minutes, the Devils Tony Wood finished off a nice Devils break with a try in the corner. Mulhall converted making it 32-10.  At 60:00, an obvious “make-up” call was committed.  A clear Second City out of bounds at the Devils try line was ruled a try by the Second City touch judge (and the referee) to make up for an earlier close play where the touch judge correctly called the Second City player out of bounds close to the try line. The conversion was wide. The Devils, pretty knackered at this point, disappointed with the referee and touch judging and completely out of their defensive pattern, gave up a final converted try at 36:00.  Final Score Devils 32-Second City 22

Trys- Wood(2), Van Guilder, Graf
Conversions-  Mulhall (3)
Penalties- Mulhall
Man of the Match: Gene Graf 

B-Game

For the first time in perhaps 15 years, several Old Boys were turned away    (they were a bit relieved with the hard ground on everybody’s mind) to let younger guys play a full B-Side game.  If this keeps up, the club is on its way to having two full sides, competition for all A-side selections, thirty plus players at practice fighting for positions, and a whole generation of new players.  Lets continue to support both teams equally (instead of leaving early/ignoring the B-game), take a genuine interest in our newer players (talk to them), continue to step up when asked to referee B-games, and keep fostering the club growth spurt that we basically haven’t had since the late 80’s.     

 1^st Half:

The first half was all about establishing familiarity and a comfort level for all the Devil’s new players, several playing in their first game after only a couple practices.  This was a challenge because Second City had a particularly tenacious B-side with plenty of experienced players, including some A-side players thrown into the mix.  Second City drew first blood with a converted try at 10:00.  The Devils came right back with winger Will Barry finishing off an outstanding blind side break at 22:00 by new flyhalf Greg Dover, Risely converted.  Both teams slugged it out for the rest of the half with new flyhalf Greg Dover creating lots of opportunities at flyhalf.  First time players Greg Cobb (flanker), Mike Higgins (center), and Tom Vercelli (flanker) all showed their fitness, aggressiveness and athleticism.   Second City punched in a try right before the half.  Half time score: Second City 12-Devils 7.

 2^nd Half 

 Second City started hitting on all cylinders as the second half progressed scoring three unanswered trys, converting two, and starting to dominate in the backs.  Veteran flanker Timmy Shore, on as a reserve, found the try zone at 23:00 to re-ignite the Devils.  Nchimunya Hazwezwe, (Chi-mun-ya) showing some blazing pace, then ripped off a 60 yard try after first stepping through three defenders  that seemed to have him boxed. Second City scored one more converted try, making it at 38-17. Final Score Second City 38-Devils 17

Note: Former A-Side prop Derek Everman took the field for the first time in three seasons after a severe knee injury. Look for Derek to challenge for an A-side prop or lock job in the near future.     

 1.   Gallow (capt.)(DeCoste)
2.      Mark Eykin
3.      Everman (Potoczek)
4.      Scharf
5.      Cambell
6.      Cobb
7.      Vercelli (Tim Shore)
8.      Risely (Brotz)
9.      Duggan (Alex Diaz)
10.  Dover
11.  Barry
12.  Ferrari (Martin)
13.  Higgins
14.  Goldner
15.  Hazwezwe

                Trys: 4 (Barry, Shore, Hazweze
                Conversions: 1 (Risely)
                Penalties: 0