New York Men took on their toughest opponents this spring on a hot and muggy day (84F) after a 3 and a half hour road trip to Baltimore, and were just edged 22-27 in a contest for the purists. Baltimore-Chespaeake finished top of the pile in MARFU D1 and were smarting from a playoff loss to Mystic River in overtime 2 weeks ago, but the men of NYRC have come on in leaps and bounds since they themselves lost to Mystic in the spring last year and it showed.

The BC-Brumbies have a large set of units in the forwards and a skillfull flyhalf and back three. They made NYRC pay for not getting rid of the bus legs with two quick tries out of the blocks. The first came as they won a series of rucks on the left to tie in our defence, their flyhalf putting a chip into the corner for their wing to run on to. The second was an interception in their half with NYRC seemingly set to capitalize on the overlap and go in, instead they had to turn and trot back under their own posts. Both went unconverted. NYRC then started to play the game they had come to play; turning the big Baltimore forwards, taking them on route one, before going wide. The rest of the half was NY's with three tries punched in to reverse the deficit and take the lead through an Ollie Vega 1 yard SH-sneak , an AJ Cush-Fautley charge-down and a nice passing movement for Tim Antoian to score in the corner. 17-10 to NYRC at the half.

The second half saw BC taking the favor of the wind and the slight slope. Their forwards started to get back into the game but NYRC wouldn't take a step back and numerous scuffles were starting to wear the patience of the ref very thin. Eventually a BC second row would be yellow carded. However BC were first to score with their forwards rumbling over the line, NYRC 17-15. Undeterred NYRC came right back at them and scored a very pretty try. Johnny Roberts made the initial break, sliding through a gap, and when closed down by the defense the support was there from the backs for Casey Mizzone to dot down after several offloads, NYRC 22-15. BC weren't finished though and gradually started to get the better in terms of territory, camping in the NYRC half for long periods. Dogged defense kept them out, in particular a stunning cover-tackle from reserve prop Danny Sonon, until they twice fashioned scoring overlaps on our right to put them in the ascendency 27-22. But this is not an NYRC that lies down anymore and we spent the last minutes of the half bangning at the door on their tryline. A final chance went begging as Vega disrupted their scrumhalf at the base, the ball popped back up and was passed out wide where NYRC just failed to hang on to the pass. BC won the resulting scrum and were able to clear for the win.

SENIOR SQUAD

New York 22 (17-10) 27 Baltimore-Chesapeake Brumbies ‘A’

Game MVP: Ollie Vega

00-05 Try by BALTIMORE
00-10 Try by BALTIMORE
05-10 Try by Ollie VEGA
10-10 Try by AJ CUSH-FAUTLEY
17-10 Try by Tim ANTOIAN, conversion by Johnny ROBERTS
Half Time
17-15 Try by BALTIMORE
22-15 Try by Casey MIZZONE
22-22 Converted Try by BALTIMORE
22-27 Try by BALTIMORE

Scorers

ANTOIAN, Tim 5 points (1 Try)
CUSH-FAUTLEY, AJ 5 points (1 Try)
MIZZONE, Casey 5 points (1 Try)
VEGA, Ollie 5 points (1 Try)
ROBERTS, Johnny 2 points (1 Conversion)

01 LA MORGIA, Andre
02 MAZZURCO, Tom
03 BAKER, Nick
04 KEEGAN, John
05 WEISHAUPT, Tom
06 CUSH-FAUTLEY, AJ
07 WALSH, James
08 YANULIS, Pete
09 VEGA, Ollie
10 ROBERTS, Johnny
11 ANTOIAN, Tim
12 VENZIN, Matt (c)
13 BOTHUR, Chris
14 MIZZONE, Casey
15 ELWELL, Dave

- Reserves-Played -
16 LAWRENCE, Stuart, for KEEGAN (YANULIS to lock)
17 SONON, Danny, for, BAKER
18 Von BORSIG, Mike, for ELWELL (ANTOIAN to fullback)
19 BIRRITTA, for BOTHUR

DEVELOPMENTAL SQUAD

New York Lost (score TBC) to Baltimore-Chesapeake Brumbies ‘B’

Game MVP: Dexter Brierly 

01 O'BRIEN, John
02 LANZARA, Josh
03 PEREZ-FOX, Scott
04 RICHARDSON-EAMES, Greg
05 SPOER, Ben
06 GALEN, Pete (c)
07 SCHULMAN, Ari
08 McDERMOTT, Chris
09 Von BORSIG, Mike
10 AYRES, Pete
11 FALL, Mamadou
12 BUTLER, Matt
13 BIRRITTA, Diego
14 PIKE, Ross
15 BRIERLY, Dexter

- Reserves-Played -
HARPER, Michael
LOGUERCIO, Luca
MASTROGEORGIOU, Nick
REMMEL, Larry
STERLING, Andrew

Despite two losses on the road both teams showed guts and determination to keep pressing until the end of both games. The long bus ride back was epic, with the 80s/90s theme well taken up on and much merriment from our rookie singeing sensations. Next week sees the NY Men travel up to Yonkers to take on METNY D challenegers Lansdowne.