A work in progress.
That’s the best way to describe the Bow Valley Grizzlies Rugby Club so far this season.
The talent is there, the desire and work ethic are there, even the results have been going in their favour, but things can always get better.
After scraping through their opening win against the Calgary Irish (37-26 on May 7), the Grizz went two-for-two with a 37-13 home bagging of the Lethbridge Rugby Club on May 14 at Mitford Pond.
“Things were a lot crisper today,” said Grizzlies player/coach Tyler Hawes. “We had some good continuity and in the second half we broke it open when we started playing our rugby and got away from being scrappy.
“We were attacking the edges, and it ended up paying dividends.”
Coming back from an early 2-0 deficit, the Grizz took a lead they never relinquished as Hamish Wrafter streaked through for their first try of the game.
Cameron Ian Birch kicked in the afterburners, leaving the Lethbridge defence stunned, adding to his team’s lead as the sides broke for half-time with the home squad leading 13-3.
Second-half tries by Wrafter, Joey Clarke, and the bulldozer that is Anthony Battistone ensured the Grizz’s beautiful Saturday afternoon was never in any danger of being spoiled.
“(Lethbridge) was a strong side that played tough rugby,” Hawes said. “I think we play a little more heads-up style and look at where the space is.
“We exploited that. They made their tackles so we had to go around them, we couldn’t get anything going up through the middle.”
After missing several key players in their opening game, and not having gotten all of their troops out to practice, this looked like a more compact unit operating on the same wavelength then the team which took to the field against the Irish.
“It was nice to get all the guys out to training,” Battistone said. “We’ve finally gotten some of our tactics sorted out, and you can see that in our phase and set plays.
“In the space of two games there’s been a massive improvement, we’re not playing open, on the fly rugby now.”
However, one thing the Grizz coach wasn’t overly keen on was the number of penalties his team took in the first-half.
“When you’ve got two guys in the bin it’s pretty hard to play 13 versus 15,” Hawes said. “We’ve got to be smarter and play to the referee. You have to get away from silly penalties, and that will come.
“(The guys) played some good rugby at times, and it showed on the scoreboard. If we can keep improving on that, things will go our way.”
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