11/22 UNCC v. Davidson, UNCC B v. Belmont

1:00 PM UNC Charlotte B v. Belmont Barbarians

In the morning prior to my arrival at the pitch there

 was a high school game played between two schools from low-income Charlotte areas playing a great game of rugby. It's great to see high school rugby being so successful in North Carolina.

My first game of the day was Belmont v. UNC Charlotte B. Belmont is a club newly formed just south of Charlotte. They are going through their first year of games. The only special note I have from the game is that one of the Belmont scrumhalves tried to pull a fast one on me, faking the ball coming out of the scrum - I had not had anybody try to do that in one of my games before.

Belmont wrote this match report for the game. As a referee it's always satisfying to hear that a game was well played and everyone had a great time:

http://belmontrfc.wordpress.com/

Belmont went to UNCC with a purpose and it showed. From the start of the game Belmont layed hard hits and used their power and speed to hamer the young kids of charlotte. Belmont played a complete game.they destroyed uncc in the scrums dr

iving them back off the ball and pushing back down the field. Rucking was a little slow at first, but then the Barbos started hit the rucks strong which really killed any chance of uncc making a play. Our strong point saturday was without a doubt the backline. They held strong on defense and contained the young speed on uncc with ease. On offense they drove up the field beautifuly passing the ball back and forth like pros. This was by far the best game the Barbos have played yet. The flow of the game was great and everyone did their job, and did it well. We now have completed a great feat we finished our fall with a .500 record. Great job guys that is a feat that other clubs who have been around 7 or 8 years have yet to do.  Our 

Man of the Match was of course Henny. Henny you will be missed on the pitch. We better still see you around the club. Thanks for all the hard play and instruction we appreciate everything.

3:00 PM UNC Charlotte v. Davidson

I did not expect to have a lot of difficulty with this game - but my ankle/fitness sure did having just ran that full game. These boys were hitting a lot harder than I expected them too, but the game was overall rather clean with your typical D3 college men issues at the breakdown. I feel I let the coaches influence me a little too much in this game, actually listening to the sideline moaning a little too much and I think it may have affected my game, which is unfortunate.

UNC Charlotte ended up winners, but only after a lengthy break following a serious looking head injury where the game was stopped for over 30 minutes for a player to be stretchered off. The player simply caught the shoulder of the Davidson player he was trying to tackle....a hooker with a low center of gravity and plenty of momentum.

At any rate, I wonder waht the result would have been had there not been the long break for UNC Charlotte, the more experienced side, to catch their breath during the injury break. Prior to the break the game was drawn, leading to a final 10 minutes where Charlotte managed to run in a couple of tries.