To start with a side note, I made the times union! this is from back in April when I did these girls first game of rugby. http://blog.timesunion.com/youthsports/youth-rugby-kicks-off/708/This was the first annual Capital District Youth Rugby Tournament. To sum it up, it has been a great pleasure being involved with the development of this league in its third year. I've been able to help coach on occasion and I feel as though I really helped these boys learn rugby through my refereeing.
This tournament did not determine league champion, this was already won by Albany Bulldogs, but was just a tournament culmination with a tournament champion awarded. The tournament was seeded as follows:
1. Albany Bulldogs v. 4. Kingston Rugby
2. Berkshire v. 3. Southern Tier (Binghamton)
The bottom three sides played a round robin: Schenectady, Saratoga, and Rensselaer
Now to my games:
Schenectady 19 -15 Saratoga
I refereed Schenectady three times in total this season, and this game was by far their best. They finally got their 8 man back...he got injured by GLASS on the field at one of the first practices. Oh boy was this kid a bruising ball carrier....everytime he got his hand on the ball Schenectady got on the front foot. This whole team fed off this go forward ball holding on for the win at the end of the game.
Kingston 20 - 22 Albany
This was the 1 v 4 semifinal. This game came down to the wire with Albany scoring a try and conversion on full time for the win. I'm not going to lie, but during the game, I really enjoyed Kingston's style of game. They had a bit more size than Albany (who had A LOT more pace), and used their size to great effect. Taking advantage of the law changes (no maul collapses) Kingston murdered Albany in the set piece. It seemed every line out would get them great go forward ball as they won clean and got a good mauling drive. It also seemed, despite my best management and communication, that Albany could never find the offside line at the maul...seeing Kingston win a number of penalties...kicks to touch..and lineouts. It was a good Second Rows style of game (me, haha).
At any rate, the Kingston smash mouth kind of game eventually wore them down...their fitness showing. Albany came back at the death to win and enter the final.
Now, this was the first of a few championships this season which came down to PENALTY KICKS. I totally disagree with this tie breaker method, it is not representative of a rugby team..FORWARDS DO NOT TRAIN TO KICK THE BALL. It is not appropriate to determine a game winner, there must be another method. It was heinous that Cardiff Blues lost the heineken cup semi this year on kicks, it's just not fair.
Fortunately, I was not there to watch this sour penalty kick affair, as I was sent to referee the NRU U19 Girls All star championship that afternoon and sunday.
This was the 1 v 4 semifinal. This game came down to the wire with Albany scoring a try and conversion on full time for the win. I'm not going to lie, but during the game, I really enjoyed Kingston's style of game. They had a bit more size than Albany (who had A LOT more pace), and used their size to great effect. Taking advantage of the law changes (no maul collapses) Kingston murdered Albany in the set piece. It seemed every line out would get them great go forward ball as they won clean and got a good mauling drive. It also seemed, despite my best management and communication, that Albany could never find the offside line at the maul...seeing Kingston win a number of penalties...kicks to touch..and lineouts. It was a good Second Rows style of game (me, haha).
At any rate, the Kingston smash mouth kind of game eventually wore them down...their fitness showing. Albany came back at the death to win and enter the final.
Now, this was the first of a few championships this season which came down to PENALTY KICKS. I totally disagree with this tie breaker method, it is not representative of a rugby team..FORWARDS DO NOT TRAIN TO KICK THE BALL. It is not appropriate to determine a game winner, there must be another method. It was heinous that Cardiff Blues lost the heineken cup semi this year on kicks, it's just not fair.
Fortunately, I was not there to watch this sour penalty kick affair, as I was sent to referee the NRU U19 Girls All star championship that afternoon and sunday.
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