4/11/2009 Hibernians @ Montclair (Met NY, Evaluation)

Considering the fact this game was to be an evaluation, I took extra care to prepare. Taking a half intensity week at my game (www.albanycrossfit.com). My girlfriend was also coming up for the weekend, so we would enjoy a trip to New York City together.

At any rate, I was presented with two Men's D2 sides, one from MetNY and the other from EPRU for my evaluation....along with 33 degree heavy rain, heavy winds, and posts not kept in the ground (taped to the top of soccer goals).

The presented me with the problem of the posts being blown over a number of times during the game and an enormous amount of scrums. Fortunately, despite the conditions, I had a few things to take away from the evaluation and game:

One of the flash points of the game near the try line when a player was pulled from the maul - I failed to pick up on this. Now, since the ELVs and the ability to pull down the maul, the management of the maul is not something I have had to practice much.....they rarely ever happened. However, with the conditions presented on the day the maul proved a great weapon for the teams and my failure to manage it properly and miss such a blatant infringement caused a fight to break out. I responded to the fight with my whistle, breaking it up and having chat with the captains, telling them to talk to their teams and calm down.

Writing this retroactively, this was the beginning of my troubles managing foul play...for D2 men's sides.

One thing I feel I did manage well in this game was scrummages, I managed to spot and penalize a "non-push" in a scrums, preventing the teams from using this illegal tactic.

Here is the hibernian match report:

http://www.hiborugby.com/
"The Hibo’s journeyed up the Garden State Parkway to play Met NY Division 2 team Montclair RFC. The weather would heavily impact the day; a heavy, cold rain fell all morning and afternoon, continuing through the match right up until the final whistle. The poor conditions, combined with the Easter weekend, impacted attendance for both clubs. At kickoff, only the Montclair “A” side was present so it was decided to have only one match, and the Hibo’s would play their extra players as substitutes. The Hibernians developed a roster for both the first and second half, and it was decided that the side containing players who wouldn’t normally start would play during the opening period. This proved to be extremely entertaining to the contingent of Hibo supporters on the sideline. The Hibo side contained 7 players who had yet to play an “A” side game for the team, yet they built a 17 – 7 lead over a D2 A side.
At halftime, Montclair expressed a need to now play a B game, since their B side players had arrived during the first half. It became obvious that they didn’t realize our more experienced players had been held in reserve. The Hibo’s agreed to accommodate their need for a “B” game, but we also held to the original plan of playing the previously decided second half roster"