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Sale Jets Defeat RGC 1404: Seven Canadians in Starting XV
[ed. comments below]
posted March 17 2010
The North Wales/Canada Development Team known as RGC 1404 played the Sale Jets for the second time in a month this time losing 21-19. In February RGC defeated the Jets, the academy team of the Sale Sharks, by a score of 31-17.
We had a reader at the game who provided this insight (yes we have people strategically placed in all the rugby centres around the world ;)
"Ended up 21-19 to Sale in a VERY entertaining game, without a doubt the fastest game of rugby I have seen in a long time! Probably on 6-8 lineouts and 5-7 scrums all game, it never stopped, as did the speed of the game! Canada standout was Sean White, a real menace all night for Sale with half breaks and offloads, he is maturing into another Phil Mack. Hearn scored a lovely try hitting line at warp speed and not having a hand laid on him, but seems to be carrying a knee injury by look of things! De Goede worked hard, but didn't really show against Sale's bigger forwards, Cudmore was pick of forwards in NW team, putting himself around field and adding some aggro to breakdowns. They are playing way better rugby than the BC Premier league right now in terms of speed of game, but their physicality would be questioned at the next level."
I really didn't want to print that last sentence but that's his opinion [I'll admit since they're playing mostly young academy teams it's faster but not as physical], remind me to cut his BCRN salary in half, lucky for him half of zero is...
This is the report from Sale's website, notice they even give praise to Sean White, way to go Sean!
A late try by Adam Birchall snatched a narrow victory for The Jets against RGC at Heywood Road in a hugely entertaining game. With RGC fielding seven Canadians in their starting fifteen, against a predominantly young Jets side, there was plenty of pace on view on Heywood Road's dry, green surface. Visiting skipper Sean White's speed caused problems from the start, leading to the opening score, a Raikes penalty after six minutes. Jordan Davies replied with penalties on 11 and 24 minutes, either side of a mass confrontation which was sensibly settled by words from referee Ian Tempest and handshakes between the identified perpetrators, Jebb Sinclair and Tom Holmes.
With both sides anxious to take quick re-starts, the exchanges were fast and furious, the tackles purposeful, but The Jets had more of the play up to half time. Fly half Will Cliff scored the opening try, straightening his run and dashing through a gap at centre with half an hour gone, for Davies to convert. A minute later, Davies and Birchall had a good move spoilt by crossing, then Brady embarked on a mazy run out of defence. A great backhand pass from Tait to Styles was worthy of more than the turnover which ended the move. The half ended with Ripol jinking out of defence to set up O'Donnell on a bullocking charge down the left. The move continued into the red zone, but a delicate chip ahead was fumbled in the in-goal area to leave the half time score at 13-3.
RGC opened the second half with more speedy attacks. Moorhouse mis-read his clubmate Raikes's pass, but the visitors gained their deserved reward after 44 minutes when international fullback Cieran Hearn ran a great line to take Moorhouse's pass and score. In reply, Brady produced two good breaks from centre, but sandwiched in between was a dangerous burst from the base of the scrum by Gogs' number 8 O'Toole.
Oriol Ripol gained approval after 60 minutes when his strength, with forward support, took him on into danger territory for the visitors, who eventually conceded a penalty, which Davies sent over. Two minutes later, White carved a way through The Jets' defence, again at great speed, leaving Chris Leck with little option but to impede him illegally and receive a yellow card. Raikes sent over the resultant penalty. Hearn again provided the thrust from fullback, but when the Gogs scored their second try, it came wide out on the left through Kris Wilkes, who evaded two incomplete tackles to draw the scores level.
RGC took the lead for only the second time during the match after 74 minutes via Raikes's third penalty. Saving tackles by Davies and Dan Birchall halted promising RGC moves, but one final effort from The Jets saw them narrowly home. Ben Roberts and Dan Birchall combined to drive close to and over the line, but Birchall was 'held up'. From the 5 metre scrum, the ball was passed to his namesake Adam, who had switched to the left to cap a promising display with the winning try. The Jets had time to steal a line out, allowing Davies to clear down the line. Although RGC produced a final shove at a scrum, a lively, fast-tempo game ended with just two points separating the sides.
This was a committed game from two quick, skilful teams. Behind a sound Jets' scrum, Chris Leck was ambition personnified, Will Cliff added to the threat with his excellent distribution from fly half, and Jordan Davies again impressed both in defence and attack. Tom Holmes, on his return, put in a 'full shift' of 80 minutes.
Scoring (Jets first): 0-3, 3-3, 6-3, 13-3 (Half Time) 13-8, 16-8, 16-11, 16-16, 16-19, 21-19.
Scorers:
Jets - Tries: Cliff, A.Birchall. Con: Davies. Pens: Davies (3)
RGC 1404 - Tries: Hearn, Wilkes. Pens:Raikes (3)
Teams:
Jets: Ed Styles; Adam Birchall, Tom Brady, Jordan Davies, Oriol Ripol; Will Cliff, Chris Leck; Martin Halsall, Ben Roberts, Rob O'Donnell, Tom Holmes, Ian Kench, Ben Davey, David Tait, Alex Shaw (capt.). Reps. Charlie Baleirara, Dan BIrchall, Pete Altham, Dan Hall, Ben Vernon, Ally Sutherland, Ryan Glynn, Jack Turton, Mark Atkinson, Ed Stobart, Tommy Bell.
RGC 1404: Ciaran Hearn; Robert Hopkins, Jack Moorhouse, Nick Blevins, Dylan Owen; Michael Raikes, Sean White (capt.); Tom Dolezel, Dave Blackwell, Simon Griffiths, Jebb Sinclair, Luke Cudmore, Thyssen de Goede, Joe Palmer, Chauncey O'Toole. Reps. Andy Baston, Tom Hughes, Doug Wooldridge, Arwel Lloyd, Will Bown, James Farrell, Stephen Woodward, Kris Wilkes, Chris Malherbe.
Referee: Mr.Ian Tempest (RFU)
Steve Woodward Scores All RGC1404’s Points in Loss to Leicester Academy
[from BBC Sport]
posted Jan 18 2010
Fly-half Stephen Woodward scored all RGC 1404's points at Welford Road as the recently relaunched north Wales regional team lost their first game. Poor conditions led to the game being switched from Friday at Colwyn Bay to Leicester on Sunday. Woodward dropped an early goal and kicked two penalties for the visitors to be level 9-9 at the break. But a Leicester Academy side including seven players with first XV experience proved too strong after the interval.
Steve Woodward [ed. comments]
Steve's rugby history is an interesting study. He hails from Calgary and played club and RCSL rugby there. He played for Canada U21 in the World Junior Championship in 2005 when Canada defeated Italy (when is the next time we'll be able to say those words). He played for Velox in the BC Premier league and the Canada West team in the NA4 prior to heading to Wales and playing for Cross Keys in the Welsh Premier league for a couple of seasons. In all this time he never got selected for the Canadian Senior Men's team. Now all of a sudden he's in a "development" environment and to no surprise (except maybe to the Canadian selectors and high-performance crew) he is going to excel. This is what I don't get about this move to North Wales. If he had stayed at Cross Keys he would have played Llanelli this season, as a member of RGC1404 he is playing the Llanelli Development team [note: a reader pointed out that this is the Llanelli Scarlets development team which is regional, my reply was "the full Scarlets squad sits 9 out of 10 in the Magners league, the #1 squad has DTH van der Merwe who basically went from James Bay to Glasgow. If you have talent it will show in the BC Premier League and you will get noticed]. So he wasn't good enough according to selectors to play for Canada while playing Welsh Premier, so he's been "promoted" to playing against the development teams of Welsh Premier clubs and that's a good thing? I think the high-performance crew is having difficulty spotting talent in the early stages.
Talking of that U21 team from 2005 here is the roster. This is when we were playing in the Tier 1 championship and capable of defeating teams like Italy. When did our current High-Performance Director start his job, 2006. When was the Pacific Pride cancelled, 2005. The Senior Men for the first time went winless in a World Cup in 2007. Which direction do you think we're going with our current high-performance program?
2005 U21 Canada Team
1 Jordan Allen
2 David Nielsen
3 Robbie Wright
4 Josh Dunning
5 Cody Berg
6 Nolan Ott
7 Adam Kleeberger
8 Dave Biddle
9 Spence Dalziel
10 Dave Spicer (C)
11 Phil Mack
12 James Buchanan
13 Dave Stockton
14 Steve Piatek
15 Jarod Selby
16 Ken Van Allen
17 Glen McKinnon
18 Matt Evans
19 Sam Val-Zehan
20 Aaron Goddard
21 Andrew Gudmunseth
22 Steve Woodward
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