Westtown,  PA  (5/14/05)

The South Jersey Devils A-Side got rudely educated by upper tier D-II North opponent Brandywine RFC 34-7 in the main event at the Mike Bartone Fundraising Rugby Day held Brandywine’s home battlefield in Westtown.  The B-side game was cancelled by Brandywine due to moronic event scheduling.

A-side

Lancaster, Media, and Brandywine (and sometimes Doylestown) are consistently at the top of the heap in MARFU DII North and usually in the DII National playoff hunt for many reasons.  To be more specific: Rugby specific fitness, size, outside speed, sound tactics and experienced players.  The Devils got a lethal dose of all five on the hot and humid last day of the 2005 Spring Season.  With sidelines packed with dozens Brandywine alumni and supporters and the refreshment quaffing SJRFC Olde Guard contingent (they played earlier) standing by as run-on Ready Reserves, a battle field mood emerged.  The Devils responded early on with some heavy pressure that forced play inside Brandywines’ 22-meter line. A Chris Blake shot at goal unfortunately drifted wide.  Eventually Brandywine forward penetration and superiority in the back line began to yield dividends.  In a nutshell- The Devils tackled-but not hard enough, the Devils rucked and mauled-but committed too many or too few and did not reform defensive patterns quick enough, the Devils kicked but didn’t cover quickly, and as has been the recent frustrating trend, the backs had enough ball from the forwards to produce but could not get into space and had some shocking mishandles.  Result about a 60 minute Brandywine dominated 1^st into 2^nd half span that yielded 5 Brandywine trys, two conversions and a penalty.  On the bright side: Skipper #8 Justin Band scored a nice try at 75 minutes in a spurt of Devils pressure inside the Brandywine 10 meter line.  The tight forwards, led all year by veteran lock Bill Popoff, held their own in the scrums and were superior in the line-outs. Rookie scrumhalf Alex Diaz, nursing bad ribs and on the wing for only the second week, came back with poise and toughness from a scary clock-cleaning and played well against some very quick outside backs. Guest La Salle collegiate flanker Anthony Chwastyk started the game at hooker, switched to flanker and was outstanding at both.  Corrie Glover came in and did his Jason Robinson imitation during some impressive runs from wing.  Mike Euykin led both teams in tackles- BY A LOT- and continues to play at a higher level each week.  Chris Blake continued to refine his tactical kicking game.  Final score:  Brandywine 34-Devils 7

1. McFeely
2. Chwastyk
3. Diaz
4. Popoff (Lightcap)
5. Wilson (Van Guilder)
6. Martinez (Scharf)
7. Euykin
8. Band
9. Dugan
10. Blake
11. Accardi
12. DiRomualdo
13. Tyler
14. Diaz (Glover)
15. Blauvelt

SJRFC Scoring:

Trys: Band

Conversions: Blake (1)

Penalties: none

Man of the match: Justin Band