SLOW START PROVES COSTLY AT NATIONAL TOURNAMENT
The Barbo 7s learned the hard way that starting slow can be deadly. This proved to be the case Saturday morning as they lost two close matches and saw their championship chances vanish quickly.
The first match against the Detroit Tradesman was a score for score battle. The Barbos put together nice phases of play, which led to two first half tries from Julian DeRaffele. But it was indecisive defensive errors that allow Detroit to match the score with two tries of their own. After the men in Green & White went down to six men from a defensive yellow card, Detroit grabbed the lead with a 3rd score pushing the score to 19-12 with just a minute on the clock.
Denver went to work, building the phases and looking for seams in defense. In the final seconds Dave Hightower made a run on the outside, only to be caught by a bit of jersey. He offloaded on the inside to Ian Wormer who also had eyes for the line, only to be tackled from behind and turned over in the ruck. Detroit won the match with a goal line stand.
In the second match, the intensity only increased as the Barbos faced last years champions Northern Virginia (NOVA). The match started with strong defense from both sides. As possession swapped between teams, it wasn’t until Julian DeRaffele drove through a defensive counter ruck allowing Arnaud Agasse to score. The conversion was missed, but the Barbos had a 5-0 lead.
NOVA punched back and scored to put it 7-5, and then the Barbos ran into discipline trouble. After a penalty, a “not back 10” tackle occurred resulting in a yellow card. Then another “not back 10” tackle occurred resulting in an additional yellow card. The Barbos were down to 5 men and all hope seemed lost. Luckily, Luke Neely grabbed the reins, winning a penalty and slowing down the match. A second penalty on NOVA allowed Neely to kick to the corner and drip more time off the cards. On the final play, the Barbos got their men out of the sin bind for a final 7 v 7 phase.
It was not meant to be as the men and Green & White knocked on possession. Full time, NOVA 7-5.
The remainder of the tournament featured more of the same … tight, one score games that could fall either way. Unfortunately for Denver, not enough coin flip moments went our way Saturday morning. After two defeats, the path towards the championship was done before it started.
The team ended 3-3 in the tournament and showed great flashes on Sunday. Luke Neely (pictured above) and Julian DeRaffele were the standouts who played a lions share of the minutes and continually found themselves in the right spots, making the right plays. A special thanks to all of the players, coaches, personnel staff, and fans who have supported this team all summer and through many summers past. We will continue to pursue the highest level of club 7s each summer, and hope to develop many more collegiate athletes in the summers to come.
But wait, there’s more 7s!
The core of the Barbo 7s team will be featured next weekend at RugbyTown 7s for the Denver 7s Selects. Taku Musingwini and Marco LaPierre will feature for the NCR All-Stars, and we will all be treated with a head to head match of these teams. See you all at Rugbytown next weekend, August 21st - 23rd.
As Always, Bleed Green