On Randall's Island this Saturday the NYRC Men beat the Connecticut Yankees 53-0 despite the torrential rain to go undefeated in the league format. As a result they get a bye for the first two rounds of the MetNY D1 playoffs, following their scheduled bye, which gives three weeks to prepare for a huge, tough encounter with the winners of the MetNY D1 playoffs in the D1 championship game. As a result NYRC are also guaranteed at least the 2nd seed in the NRU playoffs with the NERFU teams. Match report to follow soon.

October 3rd 2009 @ 2pm
Randall's Island South, Field 74
Weather: Rain Field: Turf

As the heavens opened, literally right on the kick-off, NYRC had to weather an early storm from the Yankees. Having done that though NYRC pushed back upfield where they scored the opening try of the day through a perfect lineout and backs move for Tim Antoian to go over out on the left. In reality it was a pretty sloppy game, partly due to the weather and partly to NYRC not executing properly. NYRC would score often from the Yankees greater lack of composure in the conditions though and the defense was equal to the task of shutting them out.

Link to article on rugmag.com

SENIOR SQUAD

New York 53 (27-00) 00 Connecticut Yankees 'A'

Game MVP: Tom Ding

Scorers TBC
Half Time 27-00
Scorers TBC
Full Time 53-00

Scorers

01 PEREZ-FOX, Prescott
02 DING, Tom
03 TYLER, Brian
04 DANAHY, Sean
05 LAYFIELD, Dan
06 CUSH-FAUTLEY, AJ
07 DELUCIA, Harold
08 LAWRENCE, Stuart
09 BRYDON, Ed
10 IMO, Walter
11 ANTONIAN, Tim
12 VENZIN, Matt (c)
13 BOWDEN, Darcey
14 WALTERS, Donald
15 DENEHY, Badger

Reserves

O'LEARY, Chris (for DELUCIA at 50 mins)
O'BRIEN, John (for PEREZ-FOX at 65 Mins)
RAKOV, Nicholas
MCNEILL, Mike
LANZARA, Josh
VEGA, Ollie (for BRYDON, 60 Mins)
PUSEY, Nicholas (for DENEHY at 65 Mins)
JULIANO, Ryan
KEELAGHAN, Andy (for BOWDEN at 60 mins; KEELAGHAN to 10, IMO to 13)
MCCUE, Ryan

DEVELOPMENTAL SQUAD

New York 12 (07-00) 00 Connecitcut Yankees 'B'

It seems that Mother Nature is a fan of Devo Rugby because after a steady downpour during the Senior side game the weather let up. The sun shone for the majority of Devo game before the rain came back lightly towards the end of the game.

As for the game itself it was a tightly contested affair, where the dedication and resiliency that NYRC Devo showed all season resulted in them earning the victory and moving to .500 for the season. New York forced the action and went on the attack, only to stall inside the 22 again for the fourth straight game. The Yankees then built up a direct attack but New York would not yield. The Devo side played its best defense of the season as they managed to get the ball back on a turnover and attacked down the side. The ball went to Sterling who got it to Pusey. Pusey shed some tackles drew the last man and slid a deft pass inside to the supporting Lock Rakov for the rookie’s first try for NYRC, and Pusey made the conversion off a drop kick. The Yankees continued to put pressure but to no avail. They attempted a kick at goal towards the end of the half but it fell short and the half ended 7-0, in favor of NYRC.

The second half started out with The Yankees on attack and successfully pushing inside the NY 22, almost 10 meters from goal. New York rookie Wade was given a yellow as a result of repeated infringements at the ruck. At a point when The Yankees thought they had New York reeling, the Devo side dug deep and held them out forcing a penalty for "not releasing the ball at the ruck" and kicked for touch to relieve the pressure. Late in the second half with NYRC awarded a scrum inside Yankee territory Mike Von Borsig, center-come-scrumhalf, took the ball of the base of the scrum and evaded the Yankees defenders to dot it down, he missed the conversion. The Yankees seemed to be unable to find a way back which was once again due to the New York defense. It was fitting that the final whistle blew with NYRC snuffing out another Yankee attack. Men of the Match performances were given to Mike McNeil and Mike Von Borsing. Honorable Mention went to Rookie Prop John Schmaltz and wing Andrew Sterling for their strong tackling and impressive all-around play.

Game MVPs: Mike McNeill, Mike Von Borsig

07-00 Try by Nick RAKOV, Conversion by Nicholas PUSEY
Half Time 07-00
75 Min 12- Try by Mike VON BORSIG
Full Time 12-00

Scorers
RAKOV, Nick 5 points (1 Try)
VON BORSIG, Mike 5 points (1 Try)
PUSEY, Nicholas 2 points (1 Conversion)

01 SCHMALTZ John
02 LANZARA, Josh
03 SPITZER, Jeremy
04 RAKOV, Nick
05 REMMEL, Larry
06 MASTROGEORGIOU, nick
07 O’BRIEN, John
08 MCNEILL, Mike
09 JULIANO, Ryan
10 PUSEY, Nicholas
11 STERLING, Andrew
12 BIRRITTA, Diego
13 VON BORSIG, Mike
14 DOMINGUEZ, Willie
15 O’CONNOR, Matt

Reserves

16 MITCHELL, Pete
17 CECIL, Saad
18 WADE, Joe
19 SCHLEBLE, Web
20 KEELAGHAN, Andy
21 LOGUERCIO, Luca
Note: Reserves started with Connecticut Yankees and swapped in at halftime and in the second half, with subbed players transferring to Connecticut Yankees.