WUCC - Day One

We knew from the first time we read the schedule that 15th seeds Phoenix (Ottawa) and 10th seeds Colony (Sydney) was going to be a tough start. We began against the Canadians at 8:30am, and began well - trading through the half and feeling solid. Their D wasn’t bothering our offence too much and we’d turned them in most of the D points. Their approach to the game in general was noticeably more physical, often over stepping the mark with late hits, discussion-free contests and some aggro sideline talk, but it didn’t really bother us. We took half 9-8 and were receiving the pull, confident and ready to take the game to them once more. However, the Phoenix team that turned up in the second half was a different beast entirely to that of the opening half – they were fired up, made some huge bids, rattled our O and shut down our reset entirely. Two quick turns and scores and the game was swinging their way. We made a few errors that proved costly and as our heads dropped their confidence grew. They closed out strongly to win 17-11.

MVP: Niall Harbourne - a few big layout blocks, some huge grabs and an all round star performance saw the cpatin take the honours in the first game.

                                           Derryk 'Jokes' Boyd in action vs. Phoenix

Unfortunately the Colony game was a much different affair. They bullied us around the mark and were strong and clever on defence. Their offence was aggressive and they used fast cuts from shallow to create space deep. We struggled to contain them on D and our O was constantly pressurised. A 4 point lead became a 6 point lead and despite a rally after half-time we never really got going in the game and ended up losing 17-7. It was a frustrating loss, but one dealt out to us rather than served up by us. The Aussies play a hard and fair game and we’ll be cheering them on in the latter stages. Here’s hoping they can cause some upsets and beat their seeding. I for one fancy them as quarter-finalists.

MVP: Dominick Smyth - seldom put a foot worng in a tough game for the O line and a lot of thankless hard work on D. Great perfromance.

 

Dom taking a grab vs. Colony

 

DU & Colony after the game