This past Saturday Austin Blacks travelled to Houston to play HARC in the opening League match for the 2011 season. HARC are the defending Texas Rugby Union Div.1 Champions and have beaten the Blacks in four successive meetings.
First half
HARC received the opening kickoff and maintained possession for most of the initial 5 minutes. Though they were repeatedly driven back by hard tackles and aggressive counter-rucking they were aided by the referee’s whistle (6 penalties against Austin in the first 5 min). Eventually HARC was able to take a shot at goal and take the lead at 3-0. However, the Blacks came storming back with three unanswered trys in the next 20 minutes – one by evergreen prop Mark Brewerton at 11 min, Captain and #8 Troy Mussey at 16 min, and winger Ryan Little at 27 min plus two conversions by scrum-half Zak Triplett. At 32 min HARC answered with a penalty followed quickly by another try by Blacks fly-half Levi Kereti. With less than a minute left in the half, Austin held a commanding 24-6 lead but, against the run of play, HARC broke through for a converted try to narrow the half-time lead to 24-13. Austin had dominated HARC in the first forty and had already secured the 4–try bonus point. But head coach Lach Ferguson sternly reminded them that there was still 40 min remaining.
Second half
At 48 min Zak added a penalty kick and followed up 4 minutes later with a try to take the lead to 32-13. But HARC came storming back with two trys and a conversion to narrow the lead to seven and look to salvage a bonus-point. However, enter super-sub, Aaron Seaney. Seaney blistered the HARC defense with an 80 meter sprint to touch down between the posts. Zak converted and the final score was Blacks-39, HARC-25. Troy Mussey was named by HARC as Blacks Man of the Match.
The 2nd team match between Blacks and HARC followed with Austin dominating and eventually running out 52-24 winners. It was more points than Asst. coach Todd Oosterhouse would have liked to have conceded but he was encouraged with the commitment of the squad – Austin traveled with 40 players. A couple of new players stood out in their first outing in the “Black and Gold” jerseys. Second-row Ty Terrazone featured as a late substitute in the Blacks match and exploded with three trys in the second match. Three other new players also scored trys: prop-Aaron Callaghan, Inside center-Tim Mason, and winger-Martwain Johnston. Outside center-Nick Whitelonis and winger-Aaron Seaney also added trys and Fullback-Michael Taylor kicked 6 of 8 conversions.
Austin Area High School also rugby pick up a 20-5 win over Alamo Heights on Friday night to leave Austin RC undefeated on the opening weekend.
Next up for Austin is a home weekend at Burr Field this coming Saturday, Jan.22.
1:30 Div.3 Blacks-2 vs. West Houston
3:00 Div.1 Blacks vs. Shreveport
St. Edwards also hosts Steven F. Austin and UT Grads host Huns-2 at Burr Field on Saturday.
