North Jersey RFC 5 – New London County RFC 0
14 November 2009
By A John Aitken
In the slightly surreal setting of the municipal pitches at Randall’s Island, with the traffic thundering overhead across the Tribeca Bridge, NLC faced the New York Metro D3 champions, the undefeated North Jersey. Slate grey skies that matched their shirts and a stiff breeze greeted the men from South East Connecticut who arrived knowing that this match would either mark the end of their season or provide them with an opportunity to play for promotion.
With regular fly half Tim Johnson unavailable owing to an ill-timed work injury New London took the turf pitch with a modified line up, utilising the multi talented Parulis at 10 rather than his more customary No8. With the wind at their backs and facing a large and powerful pack New London, unsurprisingly, aimed to kick themselves into decent field position and then revert to their more familiar quick ball style of running rugby. To their credit North Jersey’s back three effectively contained this strategy, fielding the ball well and responding with big kicks of their own. The main attacking threat from NoJo came in the form of their human wrecking ball of an inside centre, a powerfully built lad with a low centre of gravity and a fair turn of speed over 15 yards. Strong tackling in the midfield from Zubek and Booth blunted much of this threat with the latter producing some particularly effective hits, taking the man low and hard, stopping him in his tracks. A succession of forward passes further undermined the home team’s efforts whilst NLC also struggled with handling, a number of good attacking positions going begging as the ball was knocked on in a normally sure handed back line. With both sides finding any real fluency elusive, it became increasingly obvious that this tightest of games would be a low scoring affair as defence, excellent on both sides, dominated proceedings. The forwards, meanwhile, continued to slug it out, as forwards are wont to. New London’s pack, despite being several pounds per man lighter and in most cases several inches shorter, gave a manful display and to the apparent surprise of their opponents, the scrum gave not an inch. With the lineout competitive but increasingly affected by the blustery wind both packs gave it everything they had. Something had to give and unfortunately the breach came in NLC’s wall of defiance in the twenty-eighth minute. North Jersey’s left winger touching down out wide after a series of drives following a successful lineout. The conversion sailed wide and with the gap at just 5 points at half time both sides still had everything to play for.
The second half saw the same total commitment from both teams as they battled for supremacy. With the expected rain driving into their faces the men in grey dug deep and brought forward drive after drive, undone by handling errors and determined North Jersey defence, time slipped away from them. Desperate to give Johnson another game the Connecticut side re-gathered themselves and drove once more but when a 5 metre penalty was repulsed one sensed that this was not to be New London’s day. The final whistle brought elation for the home side but bitter disappointment for the visitors. Whilst the pain was understandable NLC maintained their dignity and showed the sportsmanship which differentiates this game from other ‘sports’ as they applauded off the victors and joined them for a fraternal beer. New London will be back next year and, provided they maintain their playing base, will be challenging for promotion once again.
NLCRFC Team sheet
15. R D Dickinson
14. E Issler (50 Rothstein)
13. L Zubek
12. E Booth
11. C Lowe
10. D Parulis
9. L Scott
8. B Taylor
7. G Smith (Capt)
6. K Laverty
5. N Anderson
4. C Key
3. M Bailey
2. W Hergott
1. M Keltner (60 Aitken)
Replacements
W Rothstein
J Wittpenn
P Mara
J Millard
A J Aitken