Aside: Old White  22 -- Nashville  18

Bside: Old White 0 -- Nashville 23

 

Atlanta -- Saturday, January 26th 2008. by Bo Marr.

 

The Old White Rugby Football Club kicked off the 2008 season with one of the most tremendous comebacks these eyes have seen; undoubtedly there are several Nashville players that headed home with broken hearts on the sunny saturday afternoon.  The second match of the day saw bravery, courage, hard defense, and several bruised rookies as the Old White B-side took on a depleted Nasheville B-side, largely made up of A-side players.  Much credit is due to both Nashville sides as they navigated the 4 hour drive and 1-hour time loss to Atlanta,  were still able to give Old White everything they could handle all day long, and still managed to show up for some comraderie and beer swilling after the match. 

 

The first Division I fixture of the season opened with the Nashville pack being aggressive immediately from the first kickoff.  Tackling was fierce, every ruck was hard-fought, and each line break was stopped by a flowing defense.  Through a series of penalties and strategic kicking, Nashville made there way down inside the Old White 22m line and put a penalty kick through to go up 3 - 0.

 

Old White quickly responded and showed their pack was equally competitive, displaying good possesion rugby, and found themselves with a penalty opportunity at the Nashville 5m line.  The Old White captain, Joe "Put Some Italian in your Mouth" Bambinelli elected to drive in for the try.  The Old white pack ran a successful penalty play to end up inches from the try zone and then sent the ball out to the back line.  Richie Kanda, caught the pass from the full back position at full speed, made his way into the try zone, but a deft Nashville defender was able to shove him out of bounds at the last minute.   22m drop to Nashville.

 

The rest of the first-half went similarly for Old White with scoring ending with another Nashville penalty kick and a converted try.  Nashville was able to take advantage of an out-of-sync Old White backline, several Old White penalites around the rucks, strategic kicking, and a swarming defense that was able to steal the ball away from Old White several times, either through rucks or pushing them out of bounds.  Nashville up 13 - 0. 

 

Old White made several adjustments at the half with the substitutions of Marnus and Malakai into the backline and Stetson, Ross, and Shonka bringing fresh legs to the pack.  Old white regained their dominance at the breakdown due to the likes of Johnny 2k, Niko, Wally, Hunter, Francesco, Charlie, Kyle, and Bambi, and used good ball control to make it down to the Nashville 5m line where Malakai stunned the crowd with a quick drop kick to break the Old White scoring drought. Nashville up 13 - 3. 

 

With the game being battled back and forth at midfield, the Old White backline saw their first crease of the day as Luke picked up a loose ball and was able to shoot a laser pass across the field to the looping Malakai who was able to charge through an unsuspecting defender.  With only the fullback left to beat and Dave "Metro" Winiarczyk to his left, Mala threw out a dummy pass to send the full back shooting off to the edge of the field and then popped back to his inside to a speeding Luke for the converted try.  Nashville up 13-10.  Nashville quickly answered with a try of their own as the pack was able to briefly outdrive the Old White pack and mauled into the try zone on the edge of the field for an unconverted try.  Nashville up 18-10.  10 minutes left. 

 

With time running out, the Old White faithful grew worried until Luke Waikamakamakamakama took the game literally into his own hands.  With a hard charge on the Nashville backline, he was able to block a Nashville kick, scoop it up in stride, and outrace the Nashville fullback to the try zone for his second converted try.  Nashville up 18-17.  4 minutes left.  The Old White pack battled hard trying to win the ball back for one last possesion with crushing hits where the clash of bone against bone and the groan of a fallen ball carrier could be heard from the sideline.  With few minutes remaining, the ball swung out to Luke, who sent a 30m chip from midfield up over the Nashville backline.  Marnus, in truly clutch form, outran all others in pursuit, caught the ball and dove for his life, touching the ball down just over the tryline.  The sidelines erupted as Marnus was mauled by adoring fans.  Old White took their first lead of the match at 22-18, and hung on the last few minutes to take their first Division I vitory of the 2008 season. 

 

The B-side match saw several Old White players playing their first ever match of rugby.  Old White had trouble retaining ball possesion throughout the match through penalties and some errant rucking, but showed promise of growing into a championship team through true grit on defense.  Playing against a mostly A-side nashville offense who put up 18 points on a well groomed Old White A-side, and having almost no ball possession, the Old White defense was rock-solid holding Nashville to a mere 3 tries.  The B-side was young, but showed the hearts of warriors.  A good effort by all involved. 

 

 

Old White A:

1. Bambinelli

2. Jonny 2k

3. Nikolai

4. Hunter

5. Wally

6. Francesco

7. Kyle

8. Charlie

9. Kombo

10. Dave

11. Eric ATF

12. Luke

13. Chad Provost

14. Ron

15. Richie

 

Reserves: Marnus, Malakai, Ross, Shonka, Stetson