We took a huge (18 players) squad to Slug 7’s and did really well – falling to MOB in the bowl final. Everyone – even the rugby rookies - played great and we managed to work our substitution policy to get everyone a good amount of time.

The only down side to the day was losing Dan Bernazani in the last play of our third pool match. Dan ended up having to go to the emergency room and will need surgery to repair a dislocated collar bone. Obviously our thoughts will be with Dan as he recovers and we all share in his disappointment – Dan was playing great – just an awkward fall in contact. Thanks very much to Matt’s Dad, Tony Breda, for taking Dan to the hospital.

I’ll put all the team information and scorers below – although technically we were only supposed to make 3 substitutions I think we made up to 7 in one match – just so that everyone got a chance to participate.

In pool play we went 2 and 1 beating Western Suburbs well (29 – 5) and grinding out a close one against Rocky Gorge II (17 – 14) well before losing to Towson Old Boys – who were a solid side (12 – 26). That put us in the Bowl semi-final playing the other pool #2 seeds. We played very well to beat West Potomac in the semi (24 – 7) but fell to the wizardry of MOB – though the team played much better than the final scoreline (15 – 31). In particular Jamie Romano and Brian Dills put in some serious hits out there on the old men!

In rounding up – all of our forwards showed well – Warren Nell, Nick Dolan and Sean Rafferty all played hooker, Kurt Brunken, Jim Disinger, Pete Ireland, Tom Sorrels, Andrew Trask and Brian Dills all played through prop. When you figure that Andrew had never played rugby before and both Jim and Kurt don’t have much experience they played great – and all have the Frederick Rugby bug!

In the backs our starting half back combination of Vinny Baker and Tobin Triebel played very well and it took a little while for our second combo of Scott Wade and Steve Strickland to get used to playing so close to the scrum – but they developed well through the day. In the centers we ran Jamie Romano – who really impressed me particularly in defense and Clem Voinot in his last matches for Frederick scored 4 tries (didn’t get damaged before flying home thank goodness) and on the wing young Matt Breda was up against not-so-young Vince Granger for the final and showed well, Dan Bernazani played great – typical speedy breaks and Brett Schrack in his first rugby experience also played great in both offense and defense (both Matt and Brett scored through the day).

Anyway – great job guys and thanks to the supporters Chad and Dog as well as Matt, Brett and Warren’s families. Hope to see you all at training on Tuesday.