Time again for the Spring Awards Dinner.

Date:   Thursday, April 18

Time:   Gather at 6:00 for drinks, Dinner at 6:30

Attire:   Jacket (or tie) required (not necessarily both)

Location:   The Variety Club, 1648 Sycamore View Road

 Catered Dinner:

Pork tenderloin, potato casserole, green beans, salad, cheesecake

All Tigers and their guests are welcome:

Current dues paid members n/c

Old boys and Tiger guests $20.00 per.

Please be prepared to pay at the door

RSVP – Contact Coach Cole to reserve your seat if you are going to come.  (Yes, that’s what RSVP means.  Ha!)

Dinner will culminate with the presentation of the spring awards and election of officers for 2013-2014 academic year

March 30, 2013.   I guess a Mooseman can beat a Tiger… under water.  Didn’t know I would need to know that, but it is true.  It was proven out last week.

The Tigers hosted MTSU in the middle of a monsoon.  There were several puddles on the pitch that could have drowned a man if he were caught on the bottom of a ruck.  Where the grass was missing in the middle of the pitch was a mud pit.  It was even difficult to kick off the ball because of the water.  There was no drop kick, it was a mop kick.

Well enough bitching.  MTSU was just bigger than we were.  The game was a replay of the way they beat us in Murfreesboro.  Big man up the middle…  Over and over again.

We had a great game plan that we could not use because execution of a speed game on a day with impossible ball handling was asking a too much. Both teams struggled to keep the ball off the deck.  It was just too slick.  I saw probably 30 balls fly forward after the tackle just because of the grease ball.  Tough to hold soap when you are going down hard.

And… we hit them hard all day.  The Tigers got behind early, but never quit smacking the Moosemen around.  I know there are several with knots on their heads because I could hear Jamie Perry out there knocking heads with them.

Though we lost the match, we did not give up.  We were frustrated with the score, but not with our effort.  The boys worked their butts off in this match against the best team in SIRC North.  Nothing to be ashamed of here.  In a few years, it will be a different story.  The future looks bright.

Kudos to James Rodriguez who traveled to Memphis to call the match.  He did a remarkable job creating some semblance of a game called “rugby” in Memorial Lake.  Thanks James.

Now for the commercial…  If you have a Kroger Plus card, link it to Tiger Rugby and we get free money.  Please link your Kroger card today.  Thanks.

March 23, 2013. The Tigers hosted the Storm on a warming spring day.  We had suffered through some terrible weather this winter and were glad to have a nice day to play. The pitch was putting on grass, the ground was soft… a beautiful day to play some rugby.  John Sullivan came out to call the match and enjoy the festivities.

All in all it was an enjoyable day for the Tigers. This was a friendly and everyone got to play.  The final score was 38-24, but this score did not reflect the dominance of the Tigers.  We spent most of the day in their half knocking on the door.  The storm had a few breaks late in the match to make it respectable, but they were never a threat.

The match was fun to watch and the Tigers were clearly enjoying themselves.  Scott Smith got on the board first with a nice fill in from his fullback spot.  He hit the gap so fast that they didn’t see it coming. He romped for 50 meters to score under the posts.  John Elmore slotted the conversion and we were off to the races.

John scored second by working his way to the try line from the fly half spot.  He broke through the line on third phase ball that was nicely rucked by the forwards.  Weaving through the defense, he continually looked for the pass.  The defense took the bait and John cut inside for his points.  Nice try John.  JC Russell put up the conversion.

Josiah Shipley scored the third try by running through people.  He is so strong in his upper body that he is hard to take down.  He spends much of the day muscling the ball away from the opposition and turning the field.  For his try, he stole the ball and outran the defense in a 40 meter run.

Brandon Worley stood at the flanker spot and had a blast with the freedom to fly across the pitch.  He scored his try by blowing over the top of players.  He is tough to stop when he has a full head of steam.  Kyle Baker kicked the conversion to start his points for the day.

Thomas Strickland has had a good year, and he is so stinking fast that he is almost impossible to catch if you give him a step.  He finally got the ball on the wing and was gone.  He dotted the ball under the posts.  Kyle converted.

The most impressive try for the day was a collaborative effort between Chris Lemons and Ian Curry.  Chris had the ball on the 8 driving toward the posts but knew he was going to get stopped before he could get in, so he flipped over on his back and popped the ball up to Ian who dove over Chris to score the try.  It was fantastic to see the future of Tiger Rugby handling the ball with such precision and grace.

We say all the time that the “future is bright”.  We know it is bright because when we get all of our players on the pitch we look great.  As the season winds down, this match was perfect to remind us who we were in the world of rugby.  We can play this game and we are pretty good when we have all of our horses… or Tigers.

If you have a Kroger Plus card, link it to Tiger Rugby and we get free money.  Please link your Kroger card today.  Thanks.