Club News

San Diego, CA – It appears that the Santa Monica Women’s Rugby team has returned to form after a tough match-up last weekend against the hosting San Diego Surfers. After slogging it out in the rain, Santa Monica came away with a terrific victory and put the Surfers away, 22-10.

With the weather forecast proclaiming a 90% chance of thunderstorms, it looked like Saturday wasn’t going to be a rugby day after all for the Santa Monica Women’s team. But alas, the Rugby gods intervened and with a late go-ahead the women’s team headed to San Diego to play the reigning DI National Champs.

From the very first whistle, it was evident that the game was going to be tough. The late go-ahead resulted in a tardy arrival to the pitch and, consequently, the Lady Phins only had 20 minutes to shake off the siesta, stretch out their cramped legs and prepare to challenge the Surfers. The Surfers’ starting line-up was peppered with some of their more inexperienced players, but they still eagerly took advantage of the Phins’ sluggish start. They were dominant in the opening minutes, maintaining possession, keeping the ball in their territory, and finally punching through the Santa Monica defense for the first try of the game. However, in spite of the Surfers early onslaught, the Lady Phins were still able to hold the Surfers to that single trip across the try-line in the first half out of sheer determination and will power.

The Surfers’ try marked a turning point in the Lady Phins’ level of play – a wake-up call the Phins needed to get their minds and bodies into the game. Then it was the Lady Phins turn to score and it was #8, Nikki “Q” Garcea, who found the line. Q was a standout in the game, earning herself Forward-of-the-Match honors. She was everywhere she was supposed to be - hitting low and hard on defense, cleaning out rucks and taking the ball into contact like the monster that she is.

After leveling the score, 5-5, the game turned into a welterweight bout, with flashes of brilliance here and there on either side of the ball. Referee Jason Scott made sure to let the ladies know when he thought something brilliant was taking place. He chanted a mantra with every secured ball, driving maul or dashing back (“That’s some nice rugby”). But despite both sides’ commendable play, it was Santa Monica who scored again in the first half. Karie “Truck” Orendorff crossed the line in true “Truck” style - crashing over the line, out on the wing. Truck’s score put the Lady Phins up 10-5 to end the first half.

The intensity on the pitch did not let up in the second; in fact, it developed from a test of capability and athleticism into a trial of mental toughness. It was clear that the team that who refused to give up would be triumphant and that neither team was going to concede easily. Santa Monica was first to score and extend their lead off a penalty as Surfer hands were in the ruck right before the try line. Five meters out, Lock Te Awhina Ho Chee took the tap and punched through defenders to score.

With the positive energy of a lead radiating through the team, it was time for the Santa Monica backline to shine. Flyhalf Emily Birdwhistell called an inside play and no one could stop Outside Center Whitney Vance when she came flying in. Taking the ball at the tremendous pace that we have come to expect from Whit (not to mention a beautiful angle) Whit made her usual appearance over the try-line, right between the up-rights. Chipping the conversion through the posts, Whit extended the Santa Monica lead, 22-5.

Waterlogged and full of bumps and bruises, both teams played hard until the final whistle. Minutes before the end of the game, the Surfers managed to get another try in and found a hole in the Santa Monica defense. The final result was a Santa Monica victory, 22-10.

The backlines for each team were, for the most part, evenly matched. The Surfers’ backline was lead by veteran Kristin Hartos who always kept the Phins on their toes with her brilliant boot and field awareness. Coming into the game in the second half, Surfers Fullback Casey Fields brought some more firepower to their back line and made her presence immediately felt whenever she had the ball in hand. However, every time Fields got into open space, she was forced to go head to head with Andrea “Burner” Staid. Burner played a solid game in the backfield, saving territory when Hartos would put the ball to space and making deadly open-field tackles when Fields broke through exhausted defenders. In forward play, due to a combination of blustering winds and their height advantage, the Surfers owned the lineout. But, when it came to the Scrum, it was Santa Monica’s ball all day. The Lady Phins pushed San Diego off the ball, wheeled the scrum and secured possession with every put-in to get ball to the backs.

This week the Lady Phins travel to San Diego again to play in the Champagne Classic. The tournament is going to be an excellent opportunity for the women to rub shoulders with some of the elite women’s rugby players in the nation. Their first match-up is against the powerful Berkley Blues and should be a nail-biter. Stay tuned.

Inductees into the Santa Monica Rugby Club’s “Hall of Fame” have been announced:

Dennis Murphy

Vic Lepisto

Jerry Kelleher

The three will be honored at the annual HOF banquet following Club Day festivities and the annual Old Boys Game on Saturday, March 13.

Complete details to follow.

The men’s Ganey Cup match with Los Angeles was canceled today due to inclement weather. Also canceled was the Old Boys match and a slate of Santa Monica Youth Rugby games.

In other news, the Santa Monica women won on the road against the San Diego Surfers today, 22-10. The Surfers were 2009 National Champions.

The Santa Monica Dolphins opened their Ganey Cup series with a convincing 55-5 win over hosts Santa Barbara Grunions. The game remained in the balance for the first 50 minutes before Santa Monica found its pace and pulled away.

The game started fast for the visitors as the Grunions failed to clear a kick from deep in their own territory. Pressure at the breakdown forced a loose ball that 8-man Junior Rigor sprung on for a try. The Dolphins would score again 15 minutes later as they managed to keep out of the ruck situation, distributing the ball through every player’s hands, and eventually capping a 60 meter sequence with Dominic Riebli dotting down in the corner. Padraig Cremin would add the extras plus a penalty kick later on. The rest of the half saw Santa Monica give away several penalties as indiscipline eventually forced referee Jason Harper to bin Riebli for leaving his feet at the tackle. The score stood at 15-0 at halftime.

Santa Barbara opened the second stanza strongly by turning a line-out on the Santa Monica 5-meter into a driving maul. The Grunions would touch down from there for their only points of the game. From that point forward, the Dolphins steadied themselves and controlled the flow of play, running in 6 tries to close out the match. Former Pepperdine standout Chris Upchurch made a strong impression in his debut as he made several dynamic runs, got in on the try scoring, and played solid defense from his wing position.

Said first year Coach Tim Lewis, “Chris has tremendous upside. He excelled at the collegiate level mostly due to his pure athletic ability. Once he rugby skills and game knowledge, he’ll be quite a player.”

“Overall, I’m happy with the outcome,” said Captain David Hughes, “though I wish we would’ve played better earlier on. We’ve got a new coach and we’re learning his system. The guys have really bought into the gameplan and I was most pleased to see that we stuck with it despite the lack of cohesion during the first half.”

Lewis echoed Hughes’ comments: “We’ve come pretty far in a short period of time but we have a very long way to go if we want to compete in this league. We definitely need to clean up our play at the breakdown and stay on our feet. We simply cannot give away that many penalties and expect to consistently win matches.”

Both teams continue Ganey Cup play next weekend as Santa Monica hosts cross-town rivals L.A. and Santa Barbara travels to Las Vegas.

Manager’s Comments:
Once we stopped giving away silly penalties, the tries came pretty easily. Other scorers for the day included Dave Hughes, Ken Aseme, Alistair Ross, Padraig Cremin, and Jason Davenport.

From an insider’s perspective, the game was never much in doubt. While we won easily, the game should’ve, for all intents and purposes, been out of reach much earlier than it was. That being stated, we did a good job of sticking to our gameplan and not just relying on our individual abilities to see us home.

The seconds match resembled more of a sevens game than fifteens. I don’t recall all the scoring, but it was plentiful. Santa Barbara seem to be down at the moment and struggled to field enough players for 2 matches. To their credit, they honored the twos match, having several players pull double duty. The highlights for SaMo Dolphins include Paul Baumer’s hidden talent as a reliable goal kicker and the fact that we brought 41 guys up for the match and were able to supply SB with players for their depleted ranks.

David Luke:
For those of you who followed the team for the 2005 championship run, you may remember our center, David “Lucky” Luke. He gained notoriety for his large swath of hair, happy-go-lucky attitude (hence the name), and ever present guitar. Well, Lucky rejoined us this year as assistant coach and he still has his guitar. During the post-match function, Lucky dawned his axe and we rattled off the standard “Sloop John B” along with his new addition, Englebert Humperdinck’s “Ten Guitars.” Apparently this song is a Kiwi classic and SaMo Dolphins have gone native.

The post-match represented the highlight of the day for me. To see the revelry and camaraderie amongst the players represents a welcome return to the Club we all love so much. I know that I’ve said it before, but being back and competing as a Club in SoCal D1 has really done wonders. While we had a good innings in the RSL…and may return there someday…SaMo Dolphins are better for coming back to our center and growing the Club.

Yard Sale:
We held a yard sale this morning to help raise funds for operations. Current players and Old Boys graciously donated their time and possessions to the effort and we earned enough to call it a success. Special thanks go out to Taylor Manavian, Zac Winter, and Alexis Rampaul for putting in the effort and to Robert Knowles for allowing us to use his yard as a bazaar.

This Week:
We have our home opener against LARC in round two of the Ganey Cup. Kick-off is Saturday, 1:30 at Webster Middle School. Please come out and show your support. I know that Adam Hammer has organized an OB’s match and we have all the youth sections playing. It’ll be a virtual rugby festival so please come out and support the Green Machine.

This Sunday we’re also hosting a Poker Tournament at the Waterfront Restaurant starting at 2pm. $40 for the initial buy-in and $20 to re-up. Dave Hughes has organized a great event and brought in some wonderful prizes.

New players:
Keegan Hestdalen just moved here from New York where he spent four years in the Marine Corps. He joins another newbie, Stephen Washington, as our jarhead representatives.

James Ross arrives tomorrow from New Zealand. James is Alistair Ross’s cousin and will man the pivot for us this season. James and Ali played together at Dolphin in Ireland last season. We’re excited to have these guys in the same backline and hope to see a lot of scoring combinations between them.