LARC v Santa Barbara
Saturday 19th January 2008
By Julian Bristow
A side wins 32-19 and B side wins 32-0
The Los Angeles Rugby Club was up against it's 2006 nemesis in the form of the Santa Barbara Grunions.
The last time these clubs did battle was back in D2. On both occasions in 2006 the Grunions came away convincing 30 point winners.
The Grunions had a successful debut year in D1 in 2007 making it to the National Sweet 16 and kicked off their second D1 year with a narrow defeat to Super League Club Santa Monica 31-27.
LARC prepared accordingly and travelled north to Santa Barbara with confidence.
The confidence was soon to be tested with the Grunions scoring a converted try in the 5th minute followed by a penalty to go 10-0 after as many minutes.
LARC flyhalf Marcus and Grunion fullback Enrico traded penalties before LARC inside center Johnny crossed for a try in the 23rd minute.
The first half was a battle with a try each but the boot of Enrico ensured the Grunions went to the break 13-8.
The Grunions came out the stronger in the second half powering down field and drawing crucial penalties which were taken by Enrico to put the Grunions out to an early 19-8 lead. The game looked like it was getting away from LARC, until the 13th minute of the second half when the LARC forwards found their rhythm, AJ found his targets and the LARC back line sliced through the tough Grunion defense to put Tonga over for another season try. No conversion, 19-13 Grunions with 27 minutes to play.
LARC dominated the lineout with Bruce and Dave flying high, the scrums were an even contest but with just 10 minutes to play LARC kicked into another gear, power phase plays from the forwards gifted the backline space resulting in impressive trys to 2nd rower Dave (70th), prop Sean (75th) and wing Tonga (78th) with a conversion from Marcus shutting the game out 32-19 LARC.
LARC B side scored it's 2nd win of the season beating the Grunion B side 32-0. This impressive victory comes on the back of a 55-0 victory over Huntington Beach last week. Ageless LARC veteran Joe Katoa captains the LARC B side and was quoted after the game saying "I'm too old for this shit". Joe Katoa also reserved for A side and came on in the first half as a blood replacement much to the delight of the travelling LARC supporters.
With the second "5 try come from behind victory" in as many weeks LARC finds itself 2nd on the table behind Santa Monica, both with the maximum 10 points but Santa Monica has a better points for and against ratio. LARC and Santa Monica will meet on Saturday 26th January 2008 at LMU in a top of the table clash. 1st grade kicks off at 1pm followed by 2nd grade at 3pm.
