5/2/2010: Westerns High School Final: St Thomas Aquinas (2) v. Austin Westlake (4)

The western high school championship final - what an honor to referee. St. Thomas Aquinas are the top HS from Heart of America. Austin Westlake came into the tournament as the #2 seed from Texas and played the #1 seed from Texas again on Saturday. In the Texas HS final Westlake lost to Dallas Jesuit 31-8 but miraculously turned it around on them on Saturday in the Western semi to enter the Western Final. The winner of this game would enter the High School National Championship as the #6 seed.

Here are highlights from the texas final:


The western final was fantastic, played at blistering pace. The High School rugby was really the best rugby on display at the westerns..d2 and d3 men was not much to show for. Austin Westlake punished St. Thomas Aquinas for every mistake they made..but did not create many scoring opportunities organically - their most potent threat was the maul on attack, otherwise, it was their merely their counterattack at broken defense. St Thomas Aquinas on the other hand were tactically very good, sending many very well placed kicks to the back three, punching through the middle of the centers, and running some nice loops and switches to break through. Unfortunately for Aquinas they were quite a bit smaller and struggled to manage the Westlake forwards.

For a game recap, see the Austin Westlake website:


http://westlakerugby.com/CV100503.aspx
The game was very challenging to referee because of the pace but I was very happy with my performance - I thought I stepped up well to the pace and controlled everything very well. The end result was a strong performance from the teams - I have never had so many people from the crowds come up to me after the game and throughout the day after-wards to tell me how good a game it was and how they are so happy to see such a professional referee.

There is an eval coming from this game, I will post it when I get it.

Notes:

-two yellow cards for repeated infringements, proud of my execution. Following the cards westlake really cleared up their game. First half was 8 penalties against Westlake, 2 against Aquinas. Westlake really cleaned it up after the half and Aquinas mounted quite a comeback.
-penalized clearing out (blocking) by Westlake at the ruck. sometimes this is subtle and not picked up on.
-repeated and cynical offenses by westlake defending their goal line resulted in two yellow cards against them
-other penalties were primarily unintentional tackle offenses...zone entry...not rolling...not releasing.
-Aquinas #12 was awesome, breaking through the line so well
-I had an almost block for Westlake #5...who was huge...need to check my positioning movement more. I still feel like i sometimes get in the way
-scrums were pretty faultless. Pinged both sides for foot up once.
-lots of kicks ahead. found it hard to pick up blindside winger hidden behind lineout coming up in front of the kicker. too focused on open side.
-played one very long advantage because Westlake defense was broken and Aquinas were so good on attack. 90 seconds.....but evaluator told me I was correct in doing so.
-later I think I called a penalty advantage over very quickly to compensate. this is bad news from me.
-had to call a picky lineout offense near full time. Aquinas clearly changed their #s on attack late into the lineout.
-probably one of the most challenging games I have had to referee. glad I managed to do well.

5/1/2010 Western Playoffs High School Semfinal: St Thomas Aquinas (2) - Kansas City v. Canton High School (3) - Canton, OK

This was an interesting one. The Canton, Oklahoma team has quite the story.

Canton, OK is town with a population of 600, about an hour and a half west of Tulsa. The middle of nowhere, literally. The Canton high school plays 8 man football in the fall. Two years ago the kids were pretty bored in winter time and went to see a rugby film called "Forever Strong." After the film they decided they all wanted to play rugby, and the football coach who was sitting with an 0-8 football team decided....what the hell...lets try it. So, the football coach set on his way coaching rugby, which he had never ever played or seen, to these kids as their spring sport. The team also adopted the "Ka Mate" haka, they performed this before this game and also before all of their football games.




Two years later...and they're in the Western Playoffs! Goes to show how much athetlicism counts. The kids may know little about rugby tactics, but sure were all athletes. Now not only did they get pretty good at rugby quickly with no knowledge, their rugby playing helped their football. The team went from last place in the 8man conference to state finalists!



Now on to the match. St Thomas Aquinas were clearly a class above the boys from Canton - but Canton certainly played with heart. Canton had some some of craziest tactics I had ever seen as well - tactics you could only see coached into a rugby game by a football coach. The way they played basically looked like the video below...just no blocking. Lots of wildly thrown passes, and on penalties they preferred to throw the ball like a football to the other side of the field for a player to run on to it, crazy!



The conditions for the match were 85 degrees, artificial turf. St Thomas Aquinas dominated every part of the game, but were caught off guard by the crazy tactics of Canton. Canton had a nice series of offloads early in the 1st half, but knocked on the final offload to score the try. On full time Aquinas had put in all of their subs and Canton pushed one in off a penalty play near in-goal.

St Thomas Aquinas (36)
Tries: 1:30 (c), 10:08 (c), 23:06 (c), 25:40, 34:00, 40:00

Canton High School (5)
Tries: 70:00

Notes
-I didn't feel to well. I felt I was starting to have too much empathy for the losing side...the same issue that got me in trouble for the STH v. Strake Jesuit game. I managed to keep it out of my head, and maintain my standard for the canton kids. To the Canton kids and the coaches credit...the canton boys did understnad the concept of on-side and rolling away at the tackle. What they didnt understand was the difference between dangerous tackle and safe. This was communicated and prevented.
-had one canton tackler not release the ball carrier. I penalized him and he didnt understand. He said "I dont want to let him get back up." my response...the ball carrier is not allowed.

5/1/2010 Western Playoffs Division 3 Quarterfinal Northern State (1) v. Arkansas Gryphons (8)

 

I arrived in Fort Worth, TX about 6 PM on Friday Night. I first went to dinner with my referee coach and then participated in a short conference with the other referees and assessors on tackle law. The discussion was lively and I could tell this was a good group of referees so tomorrow was going to be interesting.

I was given the first game of the day, the #1 v. #8 Division 3 quarterfinal, Northern State vs. Arkansas Gryphons - 30 minute halves. It was to be played on Field #1, the one full sized and properly lined artificial rugby pitch (pictured above...the one with the posts). The other two fields (soccer) had full size fields of play, but the ingoals were quite small.

Northern State came down all the way from Aberdeen, South Dakota for the game. They were a good mixture of polynesians, college students, and local townspeople. Northern State also...happen to be the reigning Division 3 National Champions - they won the 2009 national championship game 67-22. This might bring one to wonder why they did not move up a division. Then you realize....they're from northeast South Dakota...who the hell are they going to play in a division higher?????? At any rate, here they were again, Western Div 3 playoffs ready to stick it to the lowest seed from Arkansas - the Gryphons.

The Gryphons sneaked into the Western playoffs as the Heart of America #2 seed. They were a great bunch of guys at the start of the game but seemed to have already admitted defeat to the Northern State side - something which turned out to be their undoing.

The game kicked off to Northern State, a few phases occurred, some slow passes...and BAM - a Gryphon center picked up an errant pass to dot down beneath the posts at 2:20. The Gryphons seemed more shocked than Northern State.The game contined to be well contested in every facet..the scrum, lineout, and tackle. Northern began to show their organization as they had two well worked tries at 11:20 and 15:00. The Gryphons worked their way back to dot another down 19:30. NS ended the half with a try at 27:10. It should be noted....the NS kicker nailed every conversion...and a lot of them were from the sidelne (very impressive).

The Gryphons really seemed a little surprised they were in the game. To be honest, had they been more confient and serious about the match - they could have won it!

In the 2nd half NS scored at 41:00, 58:20, and but then Gryphons scored again on full time (60:00). The game was well contested in every facet and I really feel that ive Arkansas had felt more motivated about it they could certainly have won it.

Northern State proceeded to hammer the teams in the Semi and Final - the Gryphons scored more points against NS than any other side.

I also had an assessor watching this match. He was very impressed with my performance and that night I was promoted to L1. I will post his report when I get it. I was very fortunate - the two teams were out to play a good game and not screw around with the referee, the result was really special.

Notes:

-Scrum issues. Some wheeling going on. Only gave one scrum penalty when a NS player got shoved too hard by his flank and lost his binds.
-On a kick the Green (Gryph) 15 was "slightly" impeded. Shirt was grabbed which slowed him down a meter. This is enough to give a penalty - poor call by me.
-Players were extremely receptive to communication
-was out of position for first try...need to go in goal. I moved infield away from ruck near in goal. Never do that...you have to be there for the try. Luckily my AR was there.
-Assessors commented on my "lope." My response - I move around very well - I just look slow because my legs are long
-on first intercept...it was so unanticipated I was drastically out of position. Barely got there in time.