DRFC Men Match Summaries vs. Lancaster 4/11/2015

Good day on the road yesterday as we traveled to Lancaster down a few starters.  We slept walked through the first 20 minutes and we were very lucky to not give up any points.  Their scrum destroyed ours in the first half which put us under a ton of pressure.  They were very big but also very slow which led to all of our tries out wide.  Felt good to put our speed on full display again after last week’s disappointment.  Our defense was good at times and slow to set at other times.  Our penalty count was sky high and for no good reason at all.  Lining up offside was the biggest problem.  They could have possessed the ball for 10 phases in a row, gained about 20-30 meters of territory and still had no chance of scoring.  We need to realize this and be happy to play defense.  No team that we will come against will have the discipline to possess the ball that long without kicking it away or turning it over.  They had the slope and the wind in the second half but we were able to hold them out for the most part.  We had a good goal line stand and good counter rocking to turn the ball over deep in our own territory.  It is critical that we cut down on the unforced mental errors if we are going to be successful in the playoffs.

B-Side /Old Boys turned out to be a success even though we had a to file a Missing Persons Report in search of Doylestown Old Boys.  We had 6 Old Boys with 2 being men’s club coaches.  Lancaster had about 25 Old Boys.  Thanks to the Old Boys who did play but that is just not enough to represent the Ancient Dragons.  We played well though and our young B-Side mixed well with the experience of the Old Boys.  We faced a half time deficit due in part to heavy wind and mild slope in the same direction.  We stormed back to take the lead twice.  Our last lead was with 5 minutes left but credit to Lancaster as they put in a strong attack at the death to steal the victory.

We are at Richmond next Saturday for first round of playoffs.  I know we will be successful if we all get to practice this week and we all travel to Richmond.  Coach McCandless said to me after the match, “I think all of our silly mistakes are the result of us not practicing enough together and not conditioning enough together.”  See you Tuesday to start fixing our silly mistakes.