Lynn, MA- Even with inches of mud, rain pouring down at times, and an unknown river under the field that could have surfaced at any moment, the New London County Rugby Football Club dug deep and defeated the North Shore Rugby Football Club, 17-7, on Saturday.
The New London players took the muddy field Saturday knowing what each of them had to do to achieve victory. With their mind set on tackling low, supporting each other in rucks, and focusing on moving the ball to their back line, New London found themselves in complete rhythm from the opening kickoff.
North Shore tested New London from the very beginning sending the opening kickoff deep down the field. With the kick cleanly received by New London’s Fly-half, Tim Johnson, Johnson sent a blistering boot right back into North Shore’s half that bounced out of bounds. With the line-out in North Shore’s favor, New London quickly showed the type of disciplined defense they were going to show, intercepting North Shore’s line-out.
New London was quick to show North Shore how dedicated to the game they were as they sprinted to every ruck, and showed support on every play. The momentum was clearly in New London’s favor, the only thing they couldn’t control was the slippery ball.
“It was very sloppy out there,” said New London’s Captain and Flanker, Greg Smith. “We were definitely in control, but sometimes the ball wasn’t.”
New London stuck first when they received a penalty in their favor and decided to go for three points. Johnson took his time setting up the tee in the mud, and delivered a perfect kick between the uprights for the early lead, silencing a pumped up North Shore crowd.
With the early lead, New London began to show true promise moving the ball up field, and with the mud it was only going to be a matter of time before New London delivered another score, and they did around the 18th minute of play. When a ball was knocked on by North Shore, New London had a scrum in their favor roughly 25 meters outside of the try zone. When the ref located a small piece of grass to scrum on, New London fired up and ready to score, drove over North Shore giving New London’s loose forwards, Ken Laverty, and Doug Parulis some ample field to work with. With a nice pass to Laverty from Parulis, Laverty did his best “Adrian Peterson” impression, rolling over North Shore’s defense into the try zone for the easy score. With the converted kick by Johnson, New London showed North Shore why they are one of the most feared teams in the division.
New London scored again later in the first half after Laverty made an “ESPY” like catch and drove into North Shore’s defensive line. With New London’s forwards in quick pursuit, New London was able to ruck over North Shore, and deliver a pass out to their Wing, Brian Taylor, who dove into the try zone for the score. With a long and very wide converted kick by Johnson, New London exited the half with a 17 point margin over North Shore.
New London entered the second half with the same mentality as the first, but couldn’t quite capture the scoring threat they had previous. Defensively New London pressured North Shore throughout the second half, especially on line-outs, where Parulis, and Chris Key intercepted, or disrupted nearly all of North Shore’s passes.
In the later part of the second half North Shore managed to score, but couldn’t catch up with New London in the end. With the huge victory for New London, New London climbed to the top of the division. New London hopes to close out the season with a victory next week against the Boston Irish Wolf Hounds, a team that also is on top of the division, and a team New London fights hard against every season.
Post game festivities were held at Molly’s Irish Pub in Lynn, Massachusetts, where New London’s scrum half, Liam Scott was named Man of the Match.