HAIL, PELICUS!

REFEREEING SEVENS COURSE?

Last summer we had about thirty sevens tournaments in NorCal, as many as four per Saturday. Certainly, interest has only grown in the interim.

If enough people are interested in taking the IRB Refereeing Sevens course, we can set one up for early June.

Please respond to Rob Hendrickson: RCHendrickson@duanemorris.com

PLAYOFFS IN PROGRESS

There are fewer games each weekend for the next three weeks, about twenty or so, but plenty of playoffs among these that could use Assistant Referees.

There are college playoffs games this weekend in Reno, Santa Rosa, and two in Santa Cruz. If you’d like to AR, contact the ref (listed on www.Pelicanrefs.com).

GOOD SHOWING IN TOKYO

The Eagles won the plate (5th place) in the Tokyo Sevens. They hadn’t finished that high since 2001.

Not only that, but in the course of the weekend they defeated both Fiji and Wales, who had played for the Cup in Hong Kong the week before.

Parity approaching at long last?

RUGBY GAMES

SFGG 62 – Olympic Club 6 Referee: Pete Smith

Reno 10 – VALLEJO 28 Referee: JC van Staden
Good weather, 65F and overcast, could not ask for better a better rugby day. With a couple of red cards both teams had a shaky start, but manage to pull things together for a decent outcome.

CALIFORNIA 51 – Univ. of Utah 29 Referee: George O’Neil
ARs: Rob Hendrickson, Bruce Carter

BRUCE BERNSTEIN’S BUSY
Trying to ref one match when I was not assigned & ended up doing 3:

Thursday 5:30 PM
BELLARMINE PREP HS

33 – SF/Golden Gate 22

Saturday 11:30 AM
Humboldt HS Girls 22 – BERKELEY 28

1:45 PM
Humboldt Mens Club (HOGS) 38 – REDWOOD EMPIRE 48
Very competitive, spirited 3rd Division contest tied 19 at half; close the rest of the way until Redwood’s flyhalf scored his 4th try–either team could have won at that point.
Redwood trying to peak for playoffs and HOGS looking to use as incentive for next season.

HAYWARD 29 – EPA 0 Referee: Bryant Byrnes
If Texans could see our version of Friday Night Lights, rugby would be the next big thing in the Lone Star State-especially this game. Two good teams of big boys going at it hammer and tong.

However, the night belonged to Hayward, who played an almost flawless first half and led at 35 minutes 24-0. They kept it pretty much in the pack and if EPA missed the first tackle-which it often did-huge territorial advantages were gained.

GOOD VARSITY GOLD MATCH MARCH 26

San Mateo 12 – SFGG 36 Referee: Tony Levitan
A fixture rescheduled to accommodate tight field scheduling at San Mateo High School, a beautiful Tuesday evening proved to be a quality setting for a hard-fought high school rugby match. The teams traded unconverted tries in the opening 10 minutes, each playing advantage to their full scoring advantage. Midway through the half, San Mateo grabbed its only lead of the evening with a converted try generated by strong, at times punishing, backline running, 12-5. After that score though, the remaining scoring was left to SFGG which added two converted tries before the half (19-12, SFGG) and then another 3 tries, one converted to push the final tally to 36-12, SFGG.

While the score may not show it, this observer wants to note how far he has seen San Mateo come since January’s KOT when they didn’t even know the offside laws in the backline. The match, as typical of these two teams, was marked with hard hitting, aggressive running, and creative open play.

TOURING SIDE

DE LA SALLE 29 – Xavier 17 Referee: John Coppinger
At De La Salle on Tuesday night, De La Salle slipped by Xavier of New York 29-17. Xavier fielded a mix of first and second side players after beating Jesuit a day or two before.

Xavier came out strong to take a 17-15 lead at half, with the De La Salle’s scores resulting from individual athleticism, rather than team rugby.

The score remained 17-15 late into the second half when some ball handling mistakes led to the winning De La Salle try on a play that resembled soccer more than rugby. De La Salle scored a late converted try that made the score flatter the home

side in a match that was extremely competitive and in doubt until the very end.

HAIL, PELICUS!

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