Huntington Beach (HB) 15's
Saturday 17th November 2007
By Marty Jones
Once again LARC participated in the annual Huntington Beach 15’s tournament, one of SoCal’s best preseason tournaments for all divisions. Finally, in 2007, LARC entered the DI bracket and competed with Huntington, Back Bay & OMBAC. We faced OMBAC first and showed promising preseason form. With a strong forward pack, LARC dominated possession early. From the opening kick off LARC put pressure on OMBAC with club captain Gabe pouncing on a loose ball. The back line of Julian, Marcus, and Hunter fed the ball quickly out to winger Tim who touched down in the corner with less than a minute gone. LARC never let OMBAC hold the ball more than one or two phases, the tackling was impressive especially from the loose forward trio of John, Joe "man child", and Mike. The second try was scored by center Hunter, who showed his strength in fending off some OMBAC tacklers after receiving a great feed from center partner Marcus. Julian controlled the game from fly half with some precision kicking both on defense and offense. In the second half LARC continued to dominate even though several positional changes were made. Nick and Po came on to replace Chuck and Joe in the front row, Miles replaced Tim on the wing and Eric replaced Lucas in the second row. Standout flanker Joe scored LA's final try to seal the game at 19-0.
In the second game LARC faced the recently relegated Back Bay RFC. This was a scrappy match as the referee made several questionable calls and did not seem to know the basic rules of the game. Both sides were clearly frustrated at the officiating and showed poor composure at times. However, it was a battle of the back rowers as multiple fringe attacks were launched by the impressive Back Bay back row and equally impressive tackles were made by the LARC back row trio of John, Joe & Mike. LARC struggled in the game and were lucky to come away with a 3-0 win with only a single penalty on the board thanks to an impressive kick from Marcus close to full time.
The last game had LARC against the host team who, like LARC, were unbeaten and had not given up a single point in two previous games. This game was one of the best preseason games I have witnessed in a long time. Both teams looked very good with the ball and showed excellent control. LARC dominated the scrums (thanks to Steve Cumberland’s excellent coaching sessions throughout the day) and won their own line outs. This was a huge improvement on the first two games. Also considering Nick was playing out of position in the second row, as starting lock Bill missed the final match due to a shoulder injury. Impressive youngster Lucas is in his first season with LARC showed his talent and will be a future star for the club. LARC should have scored off a tremendous drive from man mountain prop Kana, who rolled 20 meters with three defenders hanging off. LARC was right on the goal line but were unable to touchdown. Huntington withstood the pressure well and drove into the LARC half. They were then awarded a dubious penalty for hands in the ruck and were 3-0 up at half time. The second half was just as exciting with both teams probing and playing great rugby. LARC brought on several new players including Chris and Justin at flanks, Chuck at prop, Po to lock, Miles to wing, and Gary for Gabe.
Huntington moved up a gear and became more accurate going forward. The LARC backline tackled well but with a slick move from Huntington, they found a gap and raced towards the corner. Rookie fullback Kyle raced across and made a try saving tackle. Huntington had found their stride and continued to run with purpose. LARC made many huge tackles, notably rookie flanker John putting in some punishing hits. In the end Huntington delivered a single try with another great backline move and sealed the win at 8-0 over a determined LARC.
This was a positive preseason event for all who attended. From a coach’s perspective, it was an excellent performance from many new players, and continued strong performances from several LARC veterans. We still have a long way to go if we want to compete and win at the D1 level. Our fitness is not quite there and we are lacking the depth that we had last season. With some quality additions on the way and several new players making a statement we are looking good. Let’s continue to move forward and work hard on conditioning, see you all Monday at the AGM and Tuesday at training.
