RECENT MATCHES
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Inter-Squad Scrimmage
The rugby season's first live game play opened on September 1st in an inter-squad purple and gold scrimmage. The game followed an earlier skills camp run by New Orleans RFC coaches Jerry Malina and Gary Giepert, both of whom were involved in the successful Louisiana U-19 development program which has twice captured the national championship trophy in Aurora, Colorado for the past two years. A little over 35 players attended the camp, a solid showing considering the number of players on holiday visiting their families for the Labor Day weekend
The two teams were split into two evenly matched teams; both starting teams consisted mainly of returning players from last season as well as a few rookies with experience at the high school level. Players new to the game were brought into the game as it drew on.
Fr The game began with both sides looking to open the game up by spreading the ball wide and attacking space. While the game was hindered with a few ball-handling mistakes due to off season rustiness, both teams showed enterprise to attack from different areas of the field and in many a different method. The purple side was soon rewarded after some steady pressure and good forward punching as senior Matt Goorley put it underneath the posts in the first half. Following the opening try the gold side began to apply the pressure with some good counterattacks and solid runs from the backline; senior center Jarret Falcon looked dangerous as he broke tackles to put the gold side in the purple 22. Despite a long spells of territorial advantage, however, the gold side�s set piece struggled to secure clean possession to amount a successful attack on the purple defense and it wasn�t until late in the first half when speedy wing Theo Pierre intercepted a tipped skip pass to dot it down for the gold.
As the second half began the game began to take a more disorganized theme as players with only a week's experience were gradually integrated into both sides; however a number of new players were keen to show their athletic abilities with some aggressive tackling and hard running. Despite some quick poaching from the gold loose forwards to deprive the purple side of possession, purple�s dominance of the set piece finally paid off when, following a lost gold scrum in their own 22, the purple side was able to score a try in the corner when sophomore wing Andrew Larkin scooped up a grubber and placed it on the try-line. The try would be the last of the game as neither side threatened again.
