Surprisingly everyone showed up at 7th Street on time, no one was left in Georgia and no one went to jail. Not surprisingly, we went 3-0 and won our Division II trophy. Great job to everyone involved and congratulations to Coach Jim Ford on collecting his first hardware!

Friday worked out very well with matches at 11:00am and 3:00pm. The first match saw us face the Florida Area Rugby Touring Side (FARTS) and they pretty much lived up to their name. Frederick fielded a strong side for the first half that saw six Frederick tries (Brian “Magnum” Taormina, Alex Agre, Dareld “Dud” Dudley, Mike “Piggy” Winpigler, Julian Reading and Pete “Quick-Draw” Karacki) with 5 of 6 converted by Chris Sipe to lead 40 - 0. The full complement of substitutions were made in the second half and after a 10-minute adjustment period Frederick added a penalty from Sipe and two more tries (Dudley and Art Hall) both converted by Sipe. Final score was Frederick 57, FARTS 0. Al Goetz lasted about 2 minutes before getting a cut to his head (nothing too serious) and all the subs made good impressions.

The second match was much tougher against a well-organized Morris, NJ team (Web’s old club). Due to the tightness of the match there was only one substitution made. After a somewhat flat start that saw Morris lead 6 - 0 at the half (penalty and drop goal) outside center John Redmond had a few “words of encouragement” that helped focus the team. Tactically we also moved to involve the back row forwards more and the combination of these things led to a storming rally. Tries by Art Hall and Pete Ireland both converted by Chris Sipe, along with a Sipe penalty led to a satisfying 17-6 victory.

After this successful day on the pitch we had our team dinner in Mary’s Steak House. Mary is a little white-haired old lady who is the ultimate purveyor of Southern hospitality. We had a great time. The Club had a back room (with a door that could close - this will become important later on) and we were joined by Richard “Radar” Looney and Elisabeth, Kathy Gustafson and the one-and-only James “Doc Oliverio who had come to Savannah independently. The first order of business was for us all to raise our glasses to Pat O’Connell. Then we moved on to presenting tour jerseys to John Redmond as a sign of appreciation for all his help in the pre-season and to Jim Ford for all of his hard work (we actually just had to refund Jim’s money - we had already ordered his jersey but Magnum couldn’t think of the right thing to say when Jim forced the money on him early in March!). A couple of players (Piggy and Quick-Draw) scored their first tries so there was a certain Zulu right to be performed. You could have heard a pin drop in the back room when Piggy managed to get past Dud into the main restaurant (fortunately Elisabeth Looney was in his direct route and slowed him long enough for Dud to grab him before he turned the corner). There was also a wine appreciation exhibition from Ernie! The evening wrapped up with rugby guys (all in our great tour jerseys) dancing with little old Southern ladies to very bad disco music in between being summoned by the waitresses to sing “Happy Birthday” to diners in the restaurant.

Saturday was a day off, everyone headed down to River Street early for the parades and “Call-me-a-cabs”. The good thing about starting early was that everyone was back in the hotel reasonably early, ready for our 10:00am final on Sunday.

Sunday matches are never that pretty in Savannah, something to do with dehydration and headaches, but Frederick played well against a big Knoxville team. 5 substitutes got on and everyone played well. After a lot of congestion in the middle of the pitch, Frederick managed to get some momentum and a break by Pete “Quick-Draw” Karacki led to an easy try for Julian Reading. Chris Sipe slotted the conversion and added a penalty. In the second half James “Doc” Oliverio came on to replace a bruised Sipe at Fly Half and injected some pace into the back line. Knoxville kicked a penalty before Bryan “Rabbi” Gustafson sealed the match with a try in the corner. Final score was Frederick 15, Knoxville 3. Frederick won the Division II Black trophy.

Unfortunately due to the large squad of tourists and that tight second match on Saturday not every Frederick player got on the pitch for Frederick. Fortunately Jeff “Stax” Carrington’s old club Western Suburbs needed players so “English” John Astill, Gabe “Band-Camp” Hare, Irvin “Arizona” Martin and Richard “Radar” Looney got to play along with Mike Tucci, Scott “Dog” Shackleford and Mike “Muscles” Depry. Frederick supported Suburbs and there was some very promising stuff on display. Band-Camp was under a lot of pressure but laid the ball back well after contact, Arizona was ready for anything and made some good stops, English John and Radar were all over the place making tackles.

Great job by everyone involved. MVP’s for the tournament were Pete “Quick-Draw” Karacki and Brian “Magnum” Taormina, congratulations!

• Post-Tournament Article from Savannah Morning News