Blacksburg Rugby

Saturday, 22 March 2008

Thanks to the planning and hospitality of Dan River RFC, Blacksburg enjoyed a beautiful rugby-filled day at Dan River's one-day "RuggerRoast" tournament event. Given that a number of Blacksburg's regular starters from recent matches were not available for the trip, Blacksburg made the trip with a lean side (17 players) but made the most of the opportunity to get all traveling players a lot of match time.

In their first match of the day, BRFC was able to overcome some ordinary handling early on to best the hosts 60-14. Given that there were only four sides at the event, that win put Blacksburg in the tourney's grand final against Roanoke RFC, who won their earlier match against Southern Pines. Although Blacksburg scraped together only a 12-7 lead at the interval, things opened up for the BRFC crew in the second stanza and a strong second half saw them through to a 27-7 win. Fullback Scott Tison and Wing Noah Thrope snatched up man of the match recognition for keen play in attack and defense, including some scintillating open-play tries. Certainly, though, the big triumph of the day was the opportunity for Blacksburg to get every available player at least a full match on the day while also exploring a few positional combinations not previously seen.

Many thanks to Dan River RFC for their great work as hosts, as well as to all of the other tourney participants for a tremendous Saturday.