Aspetuck Rugby Makes Playoffs

Playing their last regular season game last Sunday, Aspetuck Valley Rugby took on the size and might of Amity Rugby in Orange CT. Nursing niggling injuries to a couple of critical Aspetuck power-house players, the visitors fielded a team blended of seniors to eight graders. Despite the miss-match of size and experience Aspetuck rallied to show the crowd of hard core supporters how rugby should be played.

From the opening kick-off Amity received the ball and quickly laid a home field advantage to set a run-away try. Successfully kicked, Amity was determined to rule the day, with a 7-0 lead. Aspetuck didn’t relent, quickly chasing down their own kickoff to recover possession. A strong forward pack quickly pounded their way to the line where Weston’s Tim Squance found a hole in the shocked defense and put the ball down on the visitors try line for a well-deserved 5 points. Still recovering from his efforts Squance set up for the conversion but whisked the outside upright to keep the lead in the hands of Amity at 7-5.

Now receiving the ball from the restart, Aspetuck used the same forward attack tactics to bring Southbury’s Luke Niedziela over the line, converted by Squance now giving Aspetuck the edge over Amity at 12-7.

The first half was a great display of aggressive rucking, (clearing the ball out of a tackle), from both sides as well as athletic displays of backline passing and running by Reddings Cory Kennedy, Chris Levine and Drew Sennett, all gaining tens of yards breaking tackle after tackle of struggling Amity defense.

The Aspetuck forward pack, once again led by the seasoned players of Ryan Robb, Tim Squance, Alan Burgess and David Lachs, brought their a-game to Orange, gaining much needed incremental yardage, pushing the game down the field enabling Wilton’s Ryan Robb to score his first of three tries he would score throughout the game. At the mid-way whistle, after a very physical first half, the score was 19-12 with Amity in the lead.

At the start of the second half Amity increased their lead with a quick try, yet failing to convert. Aspetuck answered back by pushing even harder to score two tries and one conversion to tie the game at 24-24. Despite many rough tackles by the home side, which were starting to lose some of their discipline, Aspetuck fought harder to break the dead-lock. Unfortunately it was the determined Amity who broke the tie scoring a runaway try to give them a 29-24 lead. Aspetuck didn’t let this faze them and came back stronger than ever to give Robb his second well deserved try of the game, which was converted by Squance to bring Aspetuck to a slim lead at 31-29.

Amity pushed back as hard as they could, but Aspetuck didn’t relax, they saw that it was a close game and turned up the defense another couple of notches on the determined gauge. Ryan scored his third try of the game with Tim kicking the ball cleanly through the uprights to a confident lead of 38-29. With the end of the game nearing Aspetuck began to fight, not necessarily to further their lead, but rather to hold possession and run out the ten remaining minutes on the clock. Seeing this tactic, Amity pushed harder for the next 8 minutes coming grass-blade close to scoring a couple of times, only to be held back on the line by the aggressive and determined Aspetuck forwards, leaving the frustrated home team without further score. 

With a nail-biting two minutes left in the half, Alex Stillman found an open lane in the attacking Amity side for an amazing intercept, hitting the space at speed for a clear and well rewarded try to the Easton 8th grader. Having just come into the game off the bench, replacement hooker Gianni Brannan, stepped in and kicked a perfect drop-kick conversion, capping of the win at 45-29.

With good tough playing from both sides, it was a rough game filled with plenty of big hits, but Aspetuck managed to outplay Amity sealing off their regular season with a great win in a game that was a pleasure to watch. Aspetuck now advances to the playoffs, Memorial Weekend.

For more information on Aspetuck Valley Rugby Club: www.AspetuckRugby.org