Date:1 October 05
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ
Score: SJ-3, Brandywine-28

Cherry Hill, NJ-The SJRFC Devils yielded four unanswered second half trys in a disappointing 28-3 loss to Brandywine RFC at Evesham Rd.  The Devils B-Side dominated in a 17-5 victory.  The Devils Olde Guarde posted a 12-0 shutout in only their second test of 2005, both against Brandywine.

 First Game: 

 1^st Half

The Devils came out of the blocks with noticeably more intensity and focus than Brandywine and were rewarded with a Mulhall penalty kick at 5 minutes.  After about 15 minutes, Brandywine started to loose the car legs and pulled ahead 5-3 with an unconverted try.  Luckily for the Devils, Brandywine’s lack of discipline kept them from fully coming up to speed.  With lots of mishandles no less than 11 Brandywine 1^st half penalties to a mere 3 by the Devils, the Devils had plenty of possession. Although they did well in scrums and lineouts putting the ball in play, the Devils could not muster any significant offence against a very aggressive Brandywine back row and back line defense. Flyhalf Mulhall consistently kept the Devils out of harms way with his giant kicks to touch.  1^st Half score: Brandywine 5-Devils 3 

 2^nd Half

Successful rugby teams win games by forcing their will on the opposition…and the Devils managed to hold off Brandywine’s will for about 67 minutes.  Brandywine made it 10-5 at 50 minutes aided by the referee allowing two obvious knock-ons at the base of rucks in the sequence that led to the try.  The Devils countered quickly with fullback Tony Wood finally getting into space with one of his typically amazing runs. Unfortunately, his support didn’t keep up and the probable scoring play ended with a knock-on on the Brandywine 15 meter line.  Brandywine added a penalty kick at 65 minutes to make it 13-3. At this point, the Devils fitness and resolve began to waiver a little bit.  True to form, Brandywine smelled the blood in the water.  From the 67^th minute to the 77^th minute, Brandywine cranked it up, applied overwhelming forward pressure and mercilessly broke the Devils back.  When the dust cleared the Devils had yielded three demoralizing forward trys in ten minutes and the game was out of reach. Final Score: Brandywine 28-Devils 3.  

On the bright side, Mike Eykyn had his best game of the season at open side flanker and jumping in the lineouts, making tackles all over the field, linking phases together and taking 90% of the lineout ball.  The Devils backs held the opposition backs scoreless. Youngsters Greg Cobb and Burger Brotz played their first A-side games and both came up with impressive efforts. 

Injury Report: Greg Cobb (son of old boy Dr. Rich Cobb) injured his ankle in a nasty looking pile up. Preliminary report on Sunday afternoon-feeling better, bad sprain and he will be back in a few weeks. 

1. Graf
2. Van Guilder
3. Diaz (capt.)
4. Cobb (Decker)
5. Lightcap (Cambell)
6. Brotz
7. Eykyn, Mike
8. Midgely
9. Dugan (Diaz)
10. Mulhall (vice-captain)
11. Tyler
12. DiRomualdo (Dover)
13. Curtis
14. Blauvelt
15. Wood

Man of the Match-Mike Eykyn

Tries-0

Conversions-0

Penalties-Mulhall (1)

Second Game:

Led by captain Greg Dover at flyhalf, the SJRFC B-Side continues to impress. Moving moving to 3 and 1 overall and to 3-0 in the in D-II, we are #1 in the MARFU B-side rankings. Made up almost entirely of first and second year players, mostly all new to SJRFC, they consistently perform well against tough opposition B-Sides made up of more experienced players.  Saturday was no different.  Nchimunya (chi-MUN-ya) Hazwezwe started the scoring with another electrify display of pace on the wing.  Tom Ferrari converted and added another penalty kick making it 10-0 at the half.  Brandywine scored an unconverted try at 50 minutes.  Alex Diaz scored a nice try for the Devils and Ferarri again converted making it 17-5.  Final Score: SJRFC-17 – Brandywine-5    

1. Gallo
2. Eykyn, Mark
3. Casey
4. Scharf
5. Vercelli
6. Glover
7. Decker
8. DiBartolo
9. Diaz, A
10. Dover (capt)
11. Phil
12. Ferrari
13. Higgins
14. Will
15. Hazwezwe

Trys-Hawetze (1), Diaz, A (1)

Conversions: Ferrari (2)