Sorry for the delay in getting this to you, but given that the news is less than scintillating it just hasn't seemed that important. No disrespect to those who participated, but clearly summer isn't a big rugby time for a lot of you, so what's the rush, eh?
Anyway, this was my first time at the annual "New England 10's Championship" put on by Old Gold in Acton, although I'd heard plenty about what a good time it is and Portland's storied past at the event. I'd also heard about what a hard time it could be to get players together in the middle of summer, and this year proved to be no exception. On the face of it you wouldn't think getting 10 plus a few subs together would be all that hard when we can get 45+ out for the chance of a few cheap tries at the fairgrounds, but it wasn't until the morning of that we were able to confirm that we actually had enough players to participate. Indeed, it was only thanks to a couple of St. A's finest, Sean and Ray, that we were able to pass muster.
Portland had been drawn into the erm..."group of death", containing Springfield, Middlesex and the unknown quantity of Brookline High School Alumni, although given the size of the group we would only have to play The Rifles and Brookline.
We arrived just in time for kick off against Springfield, who had returned all of their Irish ringers back to Old Gold, and were now devoid of super powers. The result was a pretty free flowing game that saw Portland put up 43 points while leaking 12. That worked out to about a try every two minutes, and a tackle every five. All that touch-sevens in Payson had clearly put Portland in to an offensive mindset, although would that be at the expense of any defense when the time came?
If Brookline HS ever offered rugby on the curriculum, it was clearly a long time ago, and criteria for the alumni side had become pretty loose. And so it was another sling-around, with Brookline deprived of much possession to do anything with. The result was 35-5 in Portland's favor, without too much to write home about.
2-and-0 in group play gave Portland a pass in to the Championship bracket with all the big guns, although it would be a bit of a wait before our opposition would reveal themselves. In the end it turned out to be Northeastern, who had proven themselves to be Portland's nemesis in the two previous years. On the face of it however it appeared to be a good draw, steering clear of all the D1 clubs for another round.
As it turned out however any hopes of a free pass proved ill-founded, as Portland pretty much rolled over and played dead and allowed the kids from Northeastern to run in 35 uncontested points. Whether it was the lack of opposition in the group games, playing too much touch, or just general apathy, Portland failed to contest for the ball at the breakdown, which sucked in too many players and left too much space for the college speedsters. Towards the end of the match Portland were at least able to mount some opposition, but by then it was of course too late.
So, despite the promising start, Portland went out with a disappointing whimper. Meanwhile Northeastern went out in the next round to the eventual winners, Mystics.
Thanks to all of those who went down and gave it a shot. Congrats to Portland Women's team who won the Bowl Division (Sarah’s hot wet t-shirt picture here) and also to the Stripers who won the Men's Bowl (Chris' not so hot picture here).
