Irish Canadian Rugby Club 40 - Balmy Beach 12
08 / 06 / 02
League

A 28 point second half carried Irish Canadians (3-0) past Balmy Beach (1-1) 40-12 in ORU Marshall Division action on Saturday at the Beach.

Playing in the morning as the make up match for the May 11 fiasco, both teams were missing six players to RCSL commitments, but managed to play an entertaining if somewhat disjointed match.

Irish led 12-7 at halftime after Tim Matthews and Jadon Schmidt scored against Sandy Frasers' early touch down for Beach. Mathews scored from a line out peel and Schmidt outpaced Beach cover to score in the corner after sustained pressure.

Beach prop Gord Young was red carded after he punched Irish flanker Matthews early in the second half, and the Irish slowly took control of the game.

Kyler Petrie kicked two consecutive penalties, followed by the first of two George Azar tries to put the Irish clear at 23-7; Beach flanker Aaron Mittler cut the lead to 23-12; but Azar, James O'Shea and Peter Smith all crossed in reply to the Beach tally to take the greens home.

"Obviously it took some time for the players to work their new positions out," noted Irish coach Mark Winokur.  "In the end, we appeared to have an edge in fitness and discipline.  It's a shame that the RCSL fixture disrupted both teams so much-but in the end, we will take the five points and are pleased with the result against one of the leagues more skilled sides."

The development side and thirds both suffered their first loss of the season, the development side going down 25-10 and the thirds 31-11.

"We will have to improve some areas as a club next week," noted Winokur ahead of next weeks visit to Fergus Highland.  With another RCSL fixture on the slate and Highland gunning for centre Mike Brown, it will be a challenging week ahead.

Game times next week in Fergus are noon, 1:30 and 3.