Sunday, September 16, 2001

Sept. 11 Info
To contribute to the disaster relief in New York City, Washington DC and to the many families that have lost loved ones, here are a few ways that you can help those who were impacted directly by the senseless attacks on our country on 9/11.

Red Cross - blood donation number: 1-800-448-3543.
For cash contributions to the American Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund, Yahoo! http://yahoo.com has created a secure online donation form.

United Way of New York - secure online donations to the September 11th Fund for New York and D.C.

Salvation Army - 1-800-SAL-ARMY. For donations to the Salvation Army's Disaster Relief Efforts, Yahoo! http://yahoo.com has created a secure online donation form.

NY Firefighter's Fund - all proceeds go towards the New York Firefighter's Memorial Fund.

Monday, September 10, 2001

Burlington 29 - Portland 18
On a day that was way too hot for September, the Portland boys went down to a strong Burlington side. Opening the scoring with a penalty from the solid boot of Andy Nelson things looked good, but the heat and pressure from the Burlington front row in the scrummages began to slowly take their toll. Tim McMahon started a nice movement that Leo Scheidel and CB Brady moved to Todd Roma for a first half try but Burlington answered with two of their own. In the second spell Portland opened the game up a bit more, but the combination of riskier play and unsettled ball from set play saw them unable to close the gap. Jason Willey and CB were very solid in three-quarter play all day while Tim and CC added nice tries in the second half.
Maximus DeSalle!
We are thrilled to report the most recent success of the PRFC breeding program: Mike and Tammy welcomed Max early Saturday evening at 6:13pm. The future PRFC number 8 weighed in at a healthy 9 lbs 3 oz and stretched the tape measure a full 21". Look for Max to be running roughshod over the opposition like his old man in 2025 or so.

Friday, September 07, 2001

Match vs. Burlington
Tomorrow's match vs. Burlington will be played at Dougherty Field on Douglas Street in Portland. This is the same pitch that we played the English side on. Match time is for 1:00 and there will be a B-side match immediately following the first side. All players should be at the pitch and ready to go at noon.

Friday, August 31, 2001

PRFC 37 Border Park RFC 10

Playing host to the touring Border Park RFC in a mid-week fixture, Portland Rugby started slow but things began to click as the game progressed. Tim McMahon scored a couple of nice tries and the backs did well to mix up the offensive looks. Portland, sporting its classy new Blue Gritty's/City Deli strip, held the visitors to 3 points before the visitors crashed over a quick-tap on the final play of the match.

The post-match social at Scarborough Downs was a great hit, with great food and much money thrown in the direction of BratGirl, Diesel's three-legged horse. The Border Park side was a class act and hopefully we will have to opportunity to visit them on the other side of the pond in short order.

Tuesday, August 21, 2001

Portland 24 v Central Maine 20

The hometown heroes traveled to Farmington for their first exhibition match of the fall season against the Central Maine Stripers. While we were treating this match as an opportunity to try newer players and people in new positions, we expected to walk away with an easy victory. It was anything but easy. It was hot as hell, the field while nice and plush on one end, was quite possibly worse than Fox Street on the other end. To make matters worse, the Stripers didn’t just lay down and concede victory as we had expected. In fact, they scored the first points of the match mere minutes into play. If not for the dead nuts kicking of hooker Andy Nelson the Stripers would have won the match. While we were able to keep the phase rugby going strong for six or seven phases, we lacked the intensity and urgency needed to put the ball down in their try zone. Our lineouts were working up until we brought the ball down to the ground, then we had trouble getting quick ball out to the backs. Speaking of the backs, they seemed a bit confused between the newer style of play we’ve been working on at practice and the attack scenarios of last season. The brightest moment of the day for Portland was the series of phases that ended with Dave “don’t call me Jacko” Jackowitz smashing through the Striper defense and into the try zone.

In order to get this club ready for the fall season we need everyone to get out to practice and learn our new offensive attacks and defensive strategy. Simply coming to practice is not enough; we also need to be running on our days off. While it was brutally hot for rugby on Saturday, our fitness was also somewhat lacking. So ruggers, drop the remote, put down that ice cream, get off your ass, and GET IN SHAPE!