Rowers 2nds Beat Brit Lions at Brockton to go 14-0

The Rowing Club Super 2s started off slowly on Saturday, going down 14-0 to the visiting Brit Lions, before finding their stride and coming back for a 46-19 home win.
The Lions made it clear right away that un-defeated was un-impressive, attacking hard out of the back line and taking advantage of a disorganized, bewildered Rowers defence to go up 2 tries in the opening minutes. Flyhalf Duncan James, playing on yet another leg of his extended recurring farewell tour, had an uncharacteristic missed tackle in the Rowers end that ended up giving up a quick try to the Lions, putting the hosts down 7-0 before they broke a sweat.
And the Lions were just getting started. Their speedy back line looked good early, sucking the Rowers’ defense one way, then using quick hands back the other way to score un-touched. 14-0 after 15 minutes, and the Rowers were wondering what was happening. Back to back missed penalty kicks by the Lions gave the Rowers a moment to breathe, regroup, and decide whether or not they came to play rugby.

Scrum half Kent Abbott immediately led by example, running a high-paced attack that made the Rowers 2nds look more like themselves. The rugby was still prone to mistakes, particularly balls lost in contact, but the side found some pace and aggression that made it clear they were back in it. Fullback and Captain “Disco” Stu Holland rallied the defense with an enormous tackle in the Rowers own end that led to a turnover and gave the Rowers attack a chance to happen. Prop forward Ben Johnstone had a decisive carry across midfield that got the attention of the home sideline. Having recalled the importance of ball security at the breakdown, the forward pack gave Abbott an opportunity to produce quicker ball, get it to the backs in space, and mount an attack. They didn’t disappoint.
The Rowers got on the board after Holland made yards on a big carry up the sideline to start a rolling attack from the back line that featured several broken tackles and textbook offloads out of contact, notably out of Steve “The Godfather” MacGilvary, who fed Holland out of the tackle so that Holland could finish what he started and make it 14-5, 14-7 after James hit is first conversion of the day.
James added another penalty kick immediately after to make it 14-10, and began playing like a man out for redemption. James was able to complete an impressive offload off the deck to flanker Connor Hines, after put down by a hard tackle. James would finish the day having missed only one conversion in a high-motor 80 minutes that would have probably eclipsed the missed tackle if it hadn’t been mentioned twice in this blog post.
Finally awake in the 25th minute, the Rowers were able to mount a multi-phase drive that pounded away at the Lions defense with short, hard phases and ended with Abbott finding the endzone for a try. The conversion made it 14-17 and the Rowers went into the half looking like a team who came to play.
At halftime, Coach Richard Bice was unimpressed with the halftime lead, and made it clear that he would no longer abide “turnstile” tackles.
The Lions weren’t just going to roll over. Their speedy back 3 were able to find the corner on the outside to open the 2nd half, re-taking the lead 14-19. But it wouldn’t last. Holland scored his second try of the day in the corner off a quick tap that caught the visitors sleeping.
From there, the defense got organized. The Lions fought hard and gained yards, but were kept out of the endzone while the Rowers mounted a comeback. New starting hooker Lendl Masipoc and substitute winger Cole Bogue both contributed hard tackles and excellent positioning to a second half defense that certainly looked a lot more like what Coach Bice had expected for his birthday (just this past Thursday. We were unable to confirm his actual age). Most of the final point differential was achieved in the final 20 minutes, as the visitors were finally worn out.
Defense and ball security were the clear difference between the Rowers that we saw in the 2nd half and the ones we saw in the first. Hard tackles were knocking the ball loose in contact, and giving the 2s a chance to mount exciting counter-attacks off of turnover ball and feel a lot more like themselves.
“Godfather” MacGilvary, after being congratulated on his 2 tries that are going to look good in the game video, remarked that, “Grabbing an offload and running it in is easy. It’s hard putting your shoulder in to a tackle.”

The 2nds will try to remain undefeated March 17th, away at Bayside RFC.
Images by Rowers Sideline Photographer Sharon Holland