DRFC Men vs Philadelphia Whitmarsh Match Report – 9-9-2017

Doylestown Men’s Rugby Club began their quest for the D2 Mac Championship with a dominant first regular season performance on September 9, 2017 at the home of the Dragons, Maennerchor Rugby Field.

The men’s club has come a long way in the last year and this first game of the season was seen as a true benchmark to measure the teams’ growth. Having lost two close games last season to eventual league champions, Philadelphia Whitmarsh, the Dragons were not going to come into this match up taking anyone lightly. Suffice it to say, no one will again make that mistake with the Dragons.

Play kicked off with Doylestown sending the ball into the wind against Philly. After a quick hit and subsequent Philly knock on, the dangerous Dragons were on the move deep in Philly’s half. Not two breakdowns later Philly was too eager and found themselves called for offsides after making contact with flyhalf, Dylan Hamilton.

Hamilton made them pay with a well slotted penalty kick to take the lead 3-0.

The following kickoff resulted in a Philly knock on and after a solid scrum by the Doylestown pack the backs were set loose down field. Well worked passes by both Steve and Dave Kornock as well as Dylan Hamilton set up some beautiful play swinging back and forth. The pack was handling the dirty work in the middle and the space was opening up. The play was capped off by inside center Steve Kornock hurdling a defender on his way into the try zone and touching down in the corner.

8-0 Doylestown- 5 minutes in.

Another restart, another bit of premature contact in the air. While the referee saw fit to award Doylestown the scrum the first time, this time it would result in an early yellow card.

Advantage Dragons.

After winning a 5 meter scrum in opposing territory through great ball in hand rugby, accurate kicking, and well timed turnover, the Dragons swung it out only to be held up under the posts. This is where it started to get chippy. The ref spoke with both teams and the Dragons went back to the penalty advantage 5 meters out.

Two crashes inside, then they swung it wide, Two crashes back inside and then back the other way.

Try Dylan Pellegrino. Conversion Dylan Hamilton.

Doylestown 15-0. 13 minutes in.

After a strong take on the kickoff by 8 man, Eric French, the Dragons turned up the throttle. French got back involved seconds later with another punishing run and the long series was capped off my a great ability to stay on his feet and stay inbounds by Dave Kornock and a beautiful tough try by Scott Neff from a Steve Kornock offload.

Dylan Hamilton with another conversion.

22-0 Doylestown.

Philadelphia settled in a bit in the next ten minutes and allowed the over aggressive Doylestown defensive to play their way into a handful of penalties. Slowly Philly marched down the field and eventually got on the scoreboard with a 26th minute penalty conversion.

22-3 Doylestown.

Doylestown quickly answered back with an unconverted Eric French try in the corner.

27-3.

After withstanding a well organized Philly attack for almost ten minutes the Dragons came through unscathed. In this period they maintained their poise and discipline and it paid off not long after with a beautiful run by Dave Kornock around the outside followed by a bit of play off the foot by Max Compo that led to a great pick up and put down for 5 by outside center Michael Bondar.

32-3.

Seconds later, offload by Dylan Hamilton, Dave Kornock with the try. Conversion good.

39-3. The Halftime whistle blows and the game is being dominated in practically every phase by the men from Doylestown. What a difference a year makes.

Doylestown started on the front foot and made the score 46-3 very quickly after great kick fielding by Kevin Hockings resulting in a Matt Frederick try from a gorgeous Dave Kornock offload.

Around 9 minutes into the first half Philly scored their first try of the game. After a series of penalties the referee was forced to card Steve Kornock after repeated team infractions. The Dragons would be down a man for ten minutes.

46-10 Doylestown.

After a second Doylestown yellow following a string of penalties Philly was able to touch down again just outside the posts. The conversion was no good but Doylestown were starting to feel the weight and learn to play with it on their shoulders.

46-15 Doylestown.

As seems to be tradition the Dragons struck back quickly this time with a knifing run through the defense by Dylan Hamilton from 30 meters out. He converted his own score.

52-15.

In the next period Philly Whitmarsh touched down twice. Both unconverted. The Dragons were struggling with penalties but were staying alive. They utilized all of their substitutions and were able to give a lot of run to the reserves.

52-25 Doylestown.

To finish the game off the Dragons proved they weren’t finished. Chris Bone dotted down for a converted score as did Steve Kornock.

Final score: 67-25. Statement made.

A-side man of the match: Eric French

The Doylestown second XV played a round robin tournament against both Villanova and UPenn. It was a huge success and great rugby was played throughout.

B-side man of the match: Ryan Donahue (in his first rugby action ever!)

Up the Dragons!

Come out and support us next week as we take on newly promoted North Penn.

Game Film: https://youtu.be/6uBjNveL-wI