Thanks to everyone who came down to Newport over the weekend. In particular, thanks to the old boys, Len and Suber, without whom we could not have played. Also thanks to Linus who flew in specifically for the tournament. Thanks also in particular to JP for leading from the front, and helping with (or carrying) the training. The team will miss him next season. Our opening game just after lunch was against one of our current "foes" North Shore whom we lost to narrowly in league play last season. In contrast, this time around, they were clearly outclassed. Despite sometime scarppy play, MIT dominated the play on the big Newport field and repeatedly penetrated the fringes, and around the corners. Our wings were unlucky not to score more. Unluckily, JP, in his last game for MIT (until he comes back again) was injured late in the first half. Subs were Brock and Shiv.
Tries: JP, Linus, Cody Our second game was a different case, against our current nemesis, the Wolfhounds. The 'hounds C team is currently heading to National Div 3 championships, which says something about their quality. For this game we no longer had any reserves, and thus struggled from the outset. Although reasonably matched around the ruck, MIT had no answer wider, consistently allowing large overlaps to develop, although also shutting down these options frequently. Consequently we rapidly got tired and were finally exposed by this excellent team. final score: 42 to 0 (or something like that....). On balance, a good tournament. We were stopped by a team who deserve (or should) be in a division above us, but much to be pleased about. |