Our annual friendly with Justice Rugby was this Sunday.
Vancouver Police Justice Rugby Club ‘hosted’ us at our home field on a beautiful sunny day. We played old boys rules with Justice arriving with 2 coloured shorts, red and yellow. We had our usual Red Menaces to counter. In the spirit of good social rugby we donated Irving, Fernando and even after being threatened by Kristine, Evan went to play with the boys in blue. Game was officiated by Dustin at the lastminute, much thanks to him for stepping up.
Game Synopsis (thanks to Mark Porter)
Twilighters led off with the opening kick, continuing to couple of quick early line outs and then some well handled phases. Moose in the fog of battle took out the Justice red shorts with what could only be described as a body-check to the sidelines. This earned Justice a scrum but a turnover to lead to a Jeke try. (Arguable perhaps that there should have been a penalty try to Justice after the bumper car action from Moose)
Quickly after the restart, Al drew a penalty that was given by Justice gave the opportunity to Preston a chance to break through with solid passing through the backs to give Deryck our second Try.
Shortly after, we saw the first run down the wing by Rummy who passed off to Irish and unfortunately the ball knocked on. Justice kicked out to touch for a line-out. Twits won the line-out with clean ball out the backs to give Luke our third try.
TWILIGHTERS 3 – JUSTICE 0
The start of the next quarter both sides put some phases with the forwards carrying well. But after a cheeky and perhaps unfair chip over the top of the Justice players BUT our fair and just Ref, Dustin called it back for a scrum and a Justice put in.
The period saw excellent carry by both sides, including some turnovers on both sides. Then another penalty given by Justice was kicked out for a line-out by the Twits. The ball in went long bit picked up by Lance and passed to Jeke for yet another try
The last minutes of play in the first half was dominated by a break out from Teddy who ran down the pitch and looked like he was going to set TJ with a Try – but somehow it was knocked on. (TJ claims the ball was passed too hard ! ) Nonetheless the ball came out to the Twits, with a great bit of footwork by our Hook, from the scrum and Lance broke the Justice line supported by Lauren who touched the ball down one more time for our side.
The Second Half was more display of the benefits of how we practice. Almost from the start the back line was well utilized and Rummy got in for another touch line ramble. A pass back to Lance led another grounding of the ball in Justice end zone.
The play was dominated by good pressure from Justice with multiple phases pushing into Twilighter territory as deep as the 10 yard line/ However an eventual turn over with a solid kick up field putting the Twits back in Justice property.
More back and forth and good defence by our forwards eventually led to one more turnover where Jeke picked up and passed to Deryck for a second run down on the outside resulting in another try
The end of the quarter had Rummy in the mix once again as he ran down the wing and offloaded to Luke to get yet another try.
TWILIGHTERS 7 JUSTICE 0
Last Quarter (Third?)
PeeWee with a sudden show of compassion decided to NOT switch up Forwards and Backs and stick to the game plan. The last 15 minutes saw some good territory possession by Justice even though Irish broke through and we looked like we would score again.. Justice handcuffed that effort with there no.5 and no.7 detaining our effort. This looked as though Justice would end with a try to close the match, but a perfect intercept by Lance led to the final Try being awarded to the Twits.
FINAL: TWILIGHTERS 8 JUSTICE 0
TEAM MAN OF THE MATCH and the coveted Belt, went to Rummy for his astonishing play.
Justice was also impressed with Rob Rumley and gave him the nod for Back MOM. Irish was their pick for the forwards.