4/10/2010 Austin Blacks @ San Antonio

This was my first weekend out to San Antonio. The weather was perfect for rugby, about 75 degrees and sunny. The pitch however... not so much. It was a mix of hard ground (pavement) and deep mud at Olmos Basin park.

San Antonio have had a tough season in Division 1 with a solitary win over Shreveport. They forfeited the away fixture with Shreveport the weekend prior to this.

As I arrived at the field San Antonio club members were on the phone recruiting players for the game - not a good sign. San Antonio ended up fielding a full 15 but many of the players were 18 years old - quite skillful but woefully undersized for Division 1 rugby. Austin Blacks arrived with a full squad looking certain for the win.

Austin Blacks dominated the flow of the game scoring a resounding 10 tries. The San Antonio and Austin teams were a friendly bunch. I hope the San Antonio club gets back to their old successes. Apparently the San Antonio club is reliant on a number of military based players; thus, they are subject to varying numbers of players.

Austin Blacks (60)
Tries: 5:00 (c), 13:00, 16:00 (c), 20:00, 27:00 (c), 36:00 (c), 51:10, 56:30, 66:00 (c), 73:00
San Antonio (0)

Notes:
-got an intentional knock forward blatantly wrong, it didn't go forward! I felt bad for San Antonio I guess. The pass block was quite negative, but quite legal.
-I screwed up on a wheeled scrum. San Antonio were consistently overpowered and I was encouraging them to get the ball out. The ball went close to ninety to I put the whistle to my mouth in preparation only for San Ant. to pull it out. Unfortunately, the whistle let out a light blast to the attention of hte players. I reset the scrum.
-I got some tackle interpretations dead wrong, not sure why. Maybe Austin were in my head. Players didnt notice, but right after making the call I sure did. Three incidents: Austin prop manhandling tiny SA scrumhalf (penalty for not releasing), austin tackler on wrong side of tackle impeding ball for SA (play on call), and finally a SA "tackler" for zone entry but he did drop to a knee before playing the ball (penalized him for zone entry, incorrectly)
-SA were quite frusturated. They claimed there was significant obstruction, but I disagreed. This seems common among teams getting hammered.
-I did not feel like I improved my ball control in this game. Still positioning almost strictly infield.

The teams thought I did very well, but I know better. I got some calls dead wrong - good thing I'm the only one who noticed. Need to wake up for my next match. I felt strangely tired and unmotivated on my way SA this day. Tried to motivate myself but didn't quite get there. Need to stick to my new strict pregame rituals -  I missed out on my checklist review.