Sat April 2nd @ Village Lions - Masters Shutout Lions

 

The Masters were victorious in their season opener, conquering the Village Lions 29-0. The game was much closer then the score indicates, with the Lions putting constant attacking pressure on Morris throughout the two 30 minute halves. The Masters defense proved strong, however, and the Lions were unable to take advantage of several opportunities from the 5 meter line.

 

The weather, of course, favored Morris, who showed up at Randall's Island 18 strong. Mud has always been an advantage for the older Morris side, who grew up playing on some of the worst pitches in northern New Jersey. The call of the Harlem river's therapeutic muck was too strong for many of us to resist.

 

Tony Jones caught the Lions wing napping, in the first few minutes of the game to score the Masters first try. After that, it was mostly pack play, with the wings crashing the center and the forwards supporting at the breakdown. The Masters were able to move the ball slowly through the muck and mire until both Alex and Gamer were able to make fast breaks from inside the Lions 22 for the second and third tries.

 

The Lions refused to be daunted, and led several strong attacks. They were also extremely aggressive with penalty runs (having a huge second row or two didn't hurt) and were able to gain some good ground with this tactic. On a side note, Andy was able to infuriate several of the larger Lion's players, which resulted in them taking it out on the rest of us. Thanks Andrew!

 

A strong Morris attack in the second half, led to a Morris penalty, that Andy was able to capitalize on, scoring the fourth try. Tony Jones, using his patented "grub kick to himself", was able to bring home the game's last score.

 

In spite of strong wind and rain, Tony was also able to convert two of the scores during the game. All in all it was an excellent spring, rugby day. The cooling rain and mud was refreshing after a long and dreary winter. A special thanks to the Lions for providing us with a field after ours was underwater. They are a top notch club and we always look forward to playing with them.

Fri April 15th @ Montclair - Morris Masters Win 19/10 at Montclair

Morris continues its previous spring season tradition with another apparent winning streak, beating Montclair under the lights last Friday night at MSU. The Masters showed up 16 strong, but finished with a 14 man side in the hotly contested match.

Montclair scored first in the middle of the early half. With a large pack and fast backfield they were able to exploit a hole in the Masters defense, touching down far right and leaving them a difficult, and consequently failed, conversion attempt. 

An angry Morris team stormed back with a furious attack that effectively mixed both kicking and forward play. Tony Jones did exceptionally well for the Masters, repelling Montclair's forward momentum with high, deep kicks to touch. This was complemented by the forwards, whose follow up was strong and gave Montclair little breathing room to recover and form a new line.

The Green Men, however, proved exceptionally tough within their own 22 meter line. The breakdowns in their red zone often went to the fifth and six phases. Eventually, after being set up with a punishing run by Dave Barrett, Jack "No Hair" Avagliano was able to break four tackles to answer with a try in the strong corner. The attempted conversion missed unfortunately, the wind taking it just left of the far post. The stalemate continued, with the half ending in a tie.

The second half played much like the first, only this time with the wind in the Masters favor. After a fierce breakdown within Montclair's 22 meter, Gamer somehow emerged from a rolling maul (he swears he wasn't offside) and was able to touch down between the poles for a try and easy conversion by Tony.

Montclair rallied and came back hard on the Masters, eventually scoring again, but missing their two point kick. Being old and wise, the Masters took this warning seriously and disciplined themselves to begin the attack anew. Montclair was relentless, and extremely aggressive in the forward play resulting in some injuries during the middle of the second half. 

Chappie took a hard blow, sending him off (he seemed to have recovered enough after the game to walk to the beer chest) and reducing the forward eight to seven. The referee called the scrums from that point on as "uncontested", and there was some confusion in the number two position for Morris lineouts. In spite of this, the Masters were able to score a third and final try when Kurt was able to emerge from a breakdown on the Montclair 5 meter and touch down near the posts for another 5 points and easy conversion. The game ended 19/10 Morris, but Montclair was as tough an adversary as any we've played. 

I am also glad to report that the Montclair social side of the club is just as much fun as they were in the 80's and we look forward to meeting up with them both on and off the field in the future.

I am going to award Tony Jones a try, as I missed his third try at Randall's (must have been after I got sent off with a broken tooth).