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.