Blacks Cruise Past Quins and Corpus

It was just another day at the office for the two Austin Blacks squads as the D1 Blacks pummeled the Dallas Quins 88-5, while the D3 squad was able to rest and still pick up a bonus point victory winning by forfeit 28-0. I’ll let Austin club President Alan Sharpley sum it up in his own words below:

Saturday, March 19

There were only two Texas Rugby Union Div.1 matches yesterday with Austin travelling to Dallas to face the Harlequins. Harlequins Super League side was away against Utah Warriors and their home Div.1 side was a shadow of the team Blacks beat 20-6 in Austin on Feb.27. Austin put on a convincing display of running rugby dominating every phase of the game. Blacks winger, Aaron Seaney, opened the scoring in the 2^nd minute with a length-of the field strike on his first touch of the game. Seaney never broke stride as he sailed around the Harlequin defense to touch down between the posts. Fullback, Mike Taylor, converted and the score was 7-0, Blacks. Unfortunately, a few minutes later Seaney would take a knock on the thigh which slowed him down or he would have surely added further to his Div.1 league leading 11 trys. Nevertheless, Austin kept the scoreboard ticking over with five more trys in the half, three converted, to take a 38-0 half-time lead. Head coach, Lach Ferguson, emptied the bench trying some new combinations in the front row in preparation for the upcoming playoffs. Aaron “Bubba” Callaghan came in for Luis Navarro at tight-head prop, John Murrell moved from 2^nd row to replace Andrew Smith at loose-head prop, and Beau Tresidder made his debut at hooker replacing Alex Lamont and Nick Lane replaced Murrell in the second row. In addition, Ryan Little replaced Aaron Seaney on the wing as a precautionary move. The second half was much like the first with Austin scoring early and often. The Blacks scored eight tries in the second spell with Taylor converting five. On the day, Mike was a respectable 9 for 14 on conversion attempts in very windy conditions. Of special note was the play of two former Harlequins, Dave Goss at center and Andrew Smith at prop. Goss had two trys and Smith finished off a length of the field try from a Quins’ kickoff. The ball was kicked deep with hooker Alex Lamont receiving. Lamont took it up hard and off-loaded to hard-charging 2^nd row Will Martin who crashed through the defense for an additional 30 meters and fed Smith in support who outran the cover defense for 30 meters and the try. You couldn’t wipe the smile off Lachie’s face – Kickoff – #2 – #4 – #1 – try.

Lach singled out the work-rate of Will Martin throughout the match and the aggressiveness of Brian Petty (3 trys, one bowling over two tacklers). But he awarded “Man of the Match” to scrumhalf, Rick Medina, who schooled his opposite number who was also half his age.

1                     Andrew Smith (1 try)          replaced by John Murrell

2                     Alex Lamont                       replaced by Beau Tresidder

3                     Luis Navarro                      replaced by Aaron Callaghan

4                     John Murrell (1 try)             replaced by Nick Lane

5                     Will Martin (1 try)

6                     Robert “Meat” McKay

7                     Alex “Doc” Saroff (1 try)

8                     Harry Higgins (1 try)

9                     Rick Medina

10                 Zak Triplett (2 trys)

11                 Aaron Seaney (1 try)          replaced by Ryan Little (1 try)

12                 David Goss (2 trys)

13                 David Comerford

14                 Brian Petty (3 trys)

15                 Mike Taylor (9 conversions)

Austin Blacks – 88 (14 trys, 9 con)      Dallas Harlequins – 5 (1 try)

In the other Div.1 match on Saturday, Dallas Reds travelled to Shreveport and tied the score at 31 all with two minutes remaining. However, Shreveport kicked a penalty on the final whistle to win 34-31.

Austin Blacks-2 were set to host Corpus Christi at Burr Field yesterday but Corpus cancelled at the last minute to give Blacks-2 the forfeit win. Blacks-2 have won the Div.3 South and will host a Quarter-final against North#4 at Burr Field on April 9. More details will follow.

Next weekend Blacks travel back to Dallas to play the Reds at Lake Highlands Park, 2:00pm kickoff. Blacks-2 are off.

Alan Sharpley