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Brandon Barbarians Rugby Football Club

Rugby Manitoba Senior Men Division One

Quarter-Final

Sept 19, 2009

Game Played at Reilly Field, Canada Games Rugby Park, Brandon

Brandon Barbarians  36  Saracens 24

The sixth-place Saracens did what nothing or nobody else could do to the third-place Barbarians: to their dismay, they wakened the slumbering double-blue shirts from this dozy season called 2009 and wrapped it up losing 36-24. The Barbs scored two tries early in the game and then allowed the Saracens two tries near the end of the first half making the score 12-10.

To open the 2nd half, the Saracens went ahead 12-17 on a converted try. With the dreams of playing the Wombats in next weekend’s Semi-Final slowly fading, the Barbs were not enjoying this reality and suddenly woke up. Four tries, a couple of them converted, brought them to life. Alas, the Barbs were obviously in next week’s game while still playing this one and allowed the Saracens to conclude with a converted try.

The Barbs’ 36 points were scored by Jon Fitzpatrick and Aaron Kaluzniak with two tries apiece, and Scott Fowell and Scott McMullan with one each. Again playing like it was 1999, Scott also made three conversions.

Sometimes during the course of a match - players are faced with challenges or adversities which they are not expecting... Challenges or adversities which they may not be prepared to encounter at that particular time... In order to succeed under these conditions, players must make mental adjustments to their game - 'on the fly' - and respond in the best possible fashion.

That's how we won today.... For our players, I think today's match was a genuine test of their rugby 'character'.

I've never been one to be critical of refereeing decisions made during a game - or the individual interpretations of any given Referee. And I'm not, in this instance... However, after we quickly built a 12-0 lead within the opening 9:00 minutes of the First-Half, the rapid escalation in the penalty count against us - certainly became a source of collective concern, frustration, and distraction.

For our guys, the increasing level of frustration and distraction was obvious - and it was becoming a problem.... Over the remaining 30 minutes of the First-half, we simply 'stopped playing' - for fear of another penalty call against us (.... well, at least, that's how it appeared)..... Although, I'm sure that the Saracens quite enjoyed that particular 30 minutes of the match.

After the opening 40 minutes, we still maintained the lead on the scoreboard (12-10); but we had stopped 'playing our game' by that point..... And the Half-time break allowed for some very necessary -- 'mental re-grouping'.

I would say that our guys were feeling positive and fully determined as the Second-half began - in spite of what had happened over the opening half.... But, regardless of our good intentions, the Saracens managed to score first - and we were very suddenly trailing 12-17.

However, in a very real sense, this was the 'turning point' of the match for us.... Within two minutes, we replied with a Try of our own - and continued on to score 24 consecutive points (4 Trys), without a reply from the Saracens.... Interestingly, our scoring of 24 consecutive points - without reply, represents our best run of consecutive points, thus far this season.

So, much to our credit, we had managed to re-gain control of the match - both on the pitch and on the scoreboard... Now, leading 36-17 with only a few minutes remaining in the match, we did concede a late Try - however,  we knew that it wasn't going to effect the end result.

We now look ahead to the Semi-finals, next weekend in Winnipeg.

P.S....

I certainly wasn't expecting the various 'challenges' that we faced on Saturday afternoon.... However, the way things were going for us in late August - we 'needed' to play in the Quarter-final Round -- much more then we needed a direct bye to the Semi-finals.

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