Austin Ranch tonight

Back to Austin Ranch tonight (map here)

Pay your dues so that we can afford the lights more often!

Fort Worth blanks DARC: 39-0

Unfortunately, I missed all but the last minutes of this battle. The referee's assessment agreed with what I heard: competitive first half, but then Fort Worth's backs exploited openings in DARC's defense.

In the B side game, Veteran Cookie painfully sacrificed the integrity of a rib or two at the bottom of a pile. On the brighter side, some of new members were able to get a little playing time and handle the ball a couple of times. The infection is spreading.

Granny Needs An MRI

Coach Swick's hometown is in a competition to win an MRI machine, and you can help! Go to the Clay County Medical Center website then follow the link to WinAnMRI.com and watch the video called "Granny Gets An MRI," starring Swick's cousin Tyse. Then vote for it to win!

ZULU!

Saturday, for whatever reason, Jesse seemed to think that someone should have been running a Zulu. However, no first time tries were scored and we don't reset each season. So, not wanting a teammate to feel disappointed, I dug a couple of pictures up off the hard drive. Enjoy!

Reds win, Boks win, Practice at HighPoint, Host Fort Worth on Saturday

The Division II Reds A-side defeated DARC's A-side 54-10. Same story in the B-side's, 43-0. But the B side game saw the return of several of the old guard, including former Captain Zack, who donated a little blood and stitches to the effort. Well done!

Boks win.

So, the Boks won the cup, but they couldn't score a try. "But I thought England had that try?" you ask.

I asked Referee Mark Woods about this.

It is quite simple really, as Cueto dove for the goal-line the tackler
caused his boot into contact with the touch-line. Even though his boot
only barely contacted the line this contact took Cueto into touch and
did so before he grounded the ball. Since the ball is in touch when
the ball carrier touches the touch-line or anything beyond it, the ball
was in touch before the try was scored. Since the referee was playing
advanatge at the time he came back for the penalty (going over the top
by Burger) which Wilkinson scored. If advantage was not being played
it would have been a 5m line-out to England.

The interesting thing is Law 22 (g):

Player in touch or touch-in-goal. If an attacking player is in
touch or in touch-in-goal, the player can score a try by grounding
the ball in the opponents’ in-goal provided the player is not
carrying the ball.

This is what I was misremembering when I thought it was a try too. If Cueto had not been carrying the ball, with his foot touching the line, he could have grounded the ball for a try. Here's the PDF of the law in question, and it has a picture as well.

Note for 2011: we WILL have an organized cup final watching festivity and there will be NO games scheduled.

Practice at Highpoint Park on Thursday!

Practice under the lights! It costs us money, so let's make the most out of it. Pay your dues! Donate if you can! And show up prepared to run, tackle, pass, etc.

Go to the Northwest most area of the park and look for rugby players!


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Hosting Fort Worth on Saturday

Saturday we host Fort Worth for our second 'cup' match, i.e., this game counts, even though there is no cup per se. Fort Worth was a division two team that stepped down to division three. Let's get out as much support for the boys as we can.

There's a new Tanguay in town!

Dakota Reese Tanguay has joined us a few weeks early (just like a Tanguay to jump the gun). 5.2 lbs, 18 inches. Mother Pam is doing well, but staying in hospital for a couple of days. Father Dave is looking ahead to several years without a full night's sleep.

Congratulations and healthy wishes to the growing Clan Tanguay.

The curse of the gang lives on (I think only JT and Frank have broken it?).

Dallas Rugby Derby Saturday!

Saturday, October 20, is the First Annual Dallas Rugby Derby - three games

• 09:30 AM: Dallas Diablos v. Reds 3XV
• 11:00 AM: Reds v. DARC
• 12:30 AM: Reds 2XV v. DARC 2XV

Yes, that means DARC B Side has a full game against the Reds B side. Old boys, it's time to kick the dried mud off the boots and stock up on tiger balm. We need to get our 2nd 15 out there - we can't expect the young-uns on the first side to play two games at this level. So if you haven't been around for a while, now is the perfect time to get your one-game-a-year in.

Make some calls.

And bring some water.

And some roller derby girls if you got 'em.

Victory in Denton!

It has been a long time coming. DARC's various lineups haven't managed to beat Denton in a few years, but Saturday, the score was all DARC's: 55-0 (9 tries, 5 conversions). With 10 or 15 minutes remaining, Denton conceded the game in favor of ginving some inexperienced newcomers the opportunity for some on-the-pitch learning. DARC happily agreed and got newbies August and Tommy on to the pitch.

DARC's fitness was the difference in this game, though that fitness still has a long way to improve. Getting to the ruck's first made all the difference, as Denton showed a few times that they could still steal a ruck against even numbers. There were some proper wrap-the-leg tackles by DARC players old and new, unfortunately, I don't need to take off my shoes to count them all. The lineouts went very well, and the scrum held strong the entire day, and was even able to drive well several times. Our backs were able to move the ball well and open the field up, wisely keeping within range of their supporting forwards.

There were a lot of trys, I'm sure I don't remember them all: Josh, Gonzo, Rashaad, Mark, Chris. Conversions were made Voss and Jesse. - I'll post a follow up from Jason.

Update: Referee Greg Puklicz has posted his write up of the game here.

Zee returns to DARC!
Fresh from the world cup, DARC winger Zee has returned and was played - at the position of touch judge! And I think he's got what it takes to judge touch at the international level!
(Picture coming soon).

Savage Referees
It was news to me, but Savage has joined the Society of Texas Rugby Referees. That's two we've lost to the Yellow Roses. He was on hand to ref the following game: SFA vs. UNT.

Denton Kickoff 1 PM!

Players to report at field by 11:30 AM. YOU WILL BRING WATER!



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Let's get our supporters out there too. This is our first match of the regular season! We need to start it right.

Zee Secret Is Out

International new's coverage of Zee is out.

• London Times
• Rugby Dump
• Bucks Free Press
• from The Good News (A Zimbabwe paper)
• USA Rugby (well, obviously)
• The BBC
• Wikipedia
  

The rumors are that the Saracens and another British club have already approached him, and apparently, at least one French club as well. (I'd have linked to the Saracens' site but it makes a damn awful bullet-firing racket noise).

Practice at Austin Ranch

We'll be moving practice to Austin Ranch so we can run the lights.


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New Hardware Collected in Fort Worth

With the weather changing between sunny and cloudy, a slight drizzle, and FieldTurf that kept all the heat in, DARC competed in the Fort Worth 15's Rugby Tournament in the Open Division.

The first game was against our divisional foes from Arlington. The Mavericks brought out a very experienced side and the only 300+ pound hooker in the tournament. The youth of DARC led to some solid play in set pieces and mauls. At full time, DARC had managed 5 unconverted tries and claimed their first victory. One thing that was noticeable was that the DARC players were playing the whistle while the Arlington 15 were trying to officiate the match. It showed great focus and lead to positive gains on the field.

A change in the schedule pitted DARC against the Austin Huns in the second game. The first half was close as DARC couldn't get organized and showed some bad ball handling that killed drives. In the second half, DARC refocused and landed in the try zone enough to win the game and advance to the Open Division Championship.

The finals were against Alliance and a very fast outside center who had lead Alliance all day. A quick try by Alliance put DARC down 5. The Alliance speedster would soon follow with his first of 3 trys in the half. DARC managed one try on a penalty about ten meters out directly in front of the posts. Fly-half Jon Savage called for posts, while captain Russell Sanders told the ref he was taking the tap. This may not have been by design, but Alliance relaxed on the try line long enough for Russell to tap the ball, pop it to Kenny Mayon, who blasted his way to the try zone. Half time score was Alliance 24, DARC 7.

DARC started the second half with some good play, letting the ball do the work as they played smart, field position rugby. The comeback began with speedster Rashad breaking into a long run around the outside for the score. A few minutes later, Rashad would break another long run and even went the extra step to center the ball for the conversion. Alliance's center stepped back onto the field (thinking the game was in hand, he wasn't in at the start of the 2nd half) in an effort to stop DARC. Rashad was clearly gassed after a long day of rugby and DARC needed one more score. With time running out, DARC moved the ball to the man known as "Red" who broke through the Alliance defense and outran an obviously spent Alliance center for the score with a minute left to play. Voss kicked his 4th conversion and DARC finished the comeback with a 28-24 victory.

All in all, a great day of rugby for DARC and everyone who came out to play. Teased for not getting into the try zone, Gonzo had a great day running between the 22s. Trys came from a lot of sources including Josh, Cardel, Sam, Drew, Kenny, and Rashad (and anyone I missed).

We we're visited by several former Plano players who are now playing for various colleges and still enjoying the game. We lost several players after the second game, but those who stayed found that extra bit of energy to finish things right. It was a great way to begin cup season.

Cowtown Tournament Saturday!

The Cowtown Tournament is Saturday! Be there NO LATER THAN 10 AM!

We will be playing Arlington and Fort Worth in that order. These are both opponents we will face in the regular season, twice. So this is an early opportunity to assess them, and ourselves. We will then have a third game against an opponent to be determined.

Maps To Gateway Park

BRING WATER! We'll be out there all day!
And don't forget your mouth pieces.

Also, bring your wallet. There is usually a rugby supplies vendor there selling things you can use like socks, a jersey to practice in, a copy of the laws, etc.

"We're witnessing the birth of an amazing young talent."

Sadly, the videos of the best try in the cup thus far have been taken down from youtube. However, I might have a copy. Hypothetically.





Rugbydump.com has his try against Samoa.

Here's an shot from earlier in his career.

Hiding in the shade in the middle:
Here he is before his 'cup' trim.

Zee scores on Boks!

Zeeeee! Zeeeee! Zeeeee! This is one I'll need to get the video for.


Do we require Zulus for first world cup tries?

From the Rugby World Cup site:

Receiving a lofted pass from USA captain Mike Hercus and with speed king Habana lining him up on approach, Ngwenya put the foot down and beat Habana on the outside before sweeping around to plant the ball under the posts.

"I would never have run on the outside of anybody so these games must be giving me confidence," said Ngwenya, whose email address is "rugbyspeedo".

And from the BBC:

Todd Clever intercepted five metres from his own line and produced a big hand-off to get rid of Butch James before feeding supporting second row Alec Parker.

He found Hercus in support and the fly-half looped out a sumptuous pass to right winger Ngwenya, who had half the length of the pitch to go and Habana to beat.

Habana offered him the outside and, after some dancing footwork to get the South African star off balance, Ngwenya took him on before scorching over in the corner and running round under the posts.

First he beats Habana on the outside, then he knocks heads with him and sends him off for blood (from the BBC again).

The USA sent the ball left and Wyles crashed over, and it became a bad couple of minutes for South Africa as they lost Habana after he over-enthusiastically chased the restart and clashed heads with Ngwenya.