Sat 14th - Sun 15th March

Luckily for the Frederick Tourists, El-nino took the weekend off and the Sun shone down on Savannah. This year without the mid-week game in Raleigh, all of our players arrived in Georgia, fit to take the pitch. Unfortunately, the legendary Chris White quite literally, missed the bus, but we did drink a beer or two for him!! Mitch turned the weekend into a one day Tournament and a day of rest as did Little Lutton. The rest of us enjoyed 3 matches of powerful Frederick rugby and 3 nights of socializing. Our bracket was a mixture of Div I ‘B’-sides and Southern Div II ‘A’-sides. The hosting Savannah Shamrock ‘B’-side won’t put us in their bracket again. A 72-5 spanking by FRFC wasn’t what they had in mind. Great team performance to score so many points on a narrow field and maintain our defense (ask Tobin to describe the 5 points for you HA! HA!). The second match saw a rotation of forwards and another dominating display. The North Jersey ‘B’-side were a mixture of OMEX and another NY Div I team. We were let down by the Tournament organizers and given a fat Savannah prop instead of a ref. It took Frederick a while to adjust to no off-side enforcement and not being allowed to place the ball, but our outside speed racked up 35 unanswered points in the win. Saturday night in Savannah is always a late night, and the 10:00am match on Sunday definitely came around too early. Lots of slightly forward passes and knock-ons led to about 100 scrums!! All I can say is that I have never seen a team win every scrum whether they put in or not and every line-out, whether our throw or theirs. An outstanding (though tiring) forward performance. Ft.Rucker scored 12 with 4 penalty kicks, Frederick scored 40 the old fashioned way. Young Heavy had a great Tournament (I think we should get his mum up to some of our other matches) and Rolling Romano was outstanding.

Saturday March 7th

The Club elected a Selector/Vice Captain Kenny Orndoff and an alternate Selector Julian. Together with Coach Redmond and Captain Tory this is your Selection Committee. Please be supportive.

Congrats to Chris Sipe and Robin and to the original "Heavy" Stu Levine and Cathy on their engagements. Also to the O’Connells on the birth of a daughter and probably by the time this gets out to the Wilkinsons!! Unfortunately we have a couple of retirements to mention. Pat Dumpster has decided to call it a day, his plate told him enough is enough!! Pat will however, be on the sidelines with his camera. Chuck Zang has done so well in his Academy that he has been given too many extra responsibilities to make time to play with us. Chuck will, I’m sure, stay as involved as possible and personally I really wanted to be his team mate for one more season.

To follow up on our Southern success, Frederick entered 2 squads into the Washington Irish Tournament. The plan was to get everyone a lot of playing time (rather than just taking a single squad). Well, the weather really messed things up. After a storming opening win by the ‘A’-squad over New Haven, with Sarge Shuster, Toby and Slash burning up the sidelines, a confident Frederick ‘B’ squad went to field #4 to face Media ‘A’. Well, it wasn’t exactly a field - more like a mud hole with a 45^o slant. In a freezing rain, Media found 2 gaps to score 2 tries, Frederick were unable to get into gear. I know it’s not funny - but I have never seen anyone as muddy as Mitch was that day!! Luckily, showers were available so our guys could get cleaned-up. The ‘A’-squad went on to destroy Ormstown of Canada, 48-3. The ‘B’ squad had to head back to the mud to face Blackthorn’s ‘A’-side. Once again the conditions didn’t allow any real rugby to be played, but Frederick got on the board going down 7-12. The hit by English John on 2 Blackthorn backs was so hard that his mouth piece flew out into the mud somewhere!! George Pappas did a little kick boxing and ended up admiring the goal posts for 10 mins!! Sunday found a somewhat diminished Frederick squad. Our ‘B’-side actually got to play on a decent field (#1) and after leading Danbury ‘A’ at the half 12-10, conceded 2 quick tries and a penalty kick to fall 12-25. Frederick however did go on to beat Brandywine 40 - 10 (4 tries from Slash) to reach the final against hosts Washington Irish. This was an interesting match. Frederick are #1 in the North, the Irish are #2 in the South. There was a lot of tension in the air. Frederick started off great with a lineout - but just knocked it on. In this big match, we weren’t playing as confidently as before - all a little jittery. 5 mins later, a gang tackle led to the Irish Full Back leaving the field with a broken leg, and Frederick picked up the intensity. It was all out offense. But at the half it was still 0-0. Thankfully a great run by Slash, followed up by Kretz led to a score. Kenny converted and added a penalty kick to lead us to a 10-0 victory and the Cup. Well done Frederick - it’ll be 70^oF this Saturday - promise!!