ZEPHYRS

RENO 39 – East Palo Alto 32 Referee: Don Pattalock

AR’s: C. Lusiani, K. Hudson (S. Lau @45)

This was one great match. Both teams play a similar style of rugby; straight ahead and never backing down. The first half was all EPA, all possession, all pressure and all the points. It was a classic one sided affair with Reno struggling to gain possession and defending virtually the entire half. Reno did get one try against the run of play with a stolen ball in a tackle that went 70m the other way. Off an EPA error, Reno was awarded a 5m scrum. The first put-in was contested and ultimately came out the channel. On the reset, Reno feed the scrum and was appropriately sanctioned for feeding. One of the spectators then commented loudly that he hadn’t seen a feeding call since 1948. The half ended with another EPA converted try at 29-7.

The second half started with EPA pushing deep into Reno’s end and scoring a penalty. From there, Reno went through a metamorphosis and started to play dominating rugby. Minor mistakes by EPA, like kick-offs directly into touch (2), fed the Reno attack that was relentless for the last 30 minutes of the game. Reno scored 5 trys, converted 2 and kicked one penalty to win the match 39-32. Quite a game. Both teams exhibited great sportsmanship and played extremely hard.

Seconds: Reno 10 – EAST PALO ALTO 22 Referee: Craig Lusiani

A time-shortened match due to similar personnel planning in both the aside and beside matches.

The first half was played cleanly and equally with half time score of 5 to 5.

The second half had the Zephyrs competing well in set pieces but suffering from a lack of speed. The Razorbacks used their speed to move the ball wide and produce several long runs resulting in tries under the posts.