AMNRL West - Utah Avalanche vs North California Bears

[Dusters]

Utah Avalanche vs North California Bears

Saturday July 20, 1:00pm

For Pete's Sake Rugby Field (Northwest Community Park)
2750 West Steele
Santa Rosa, California

The newly established AMNRL team the North California Bears based out of Santa Rosa, California will host the Utah Avalanche on Saturday July 20 at 1:00pm. Utah's last game was in the Remembrance Cup final in Las Vegas against Australia's Coogee Dolphins where the Avalanche went down 14-4 in a very physical game. They will be looking to grab their first win of 2013 against the Bears who from all reports are a very talented football team.

If you're in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose or Sacramento then you definitely should take the short drive up to Santa Rosa to watch a great game of Rugby League.

 

[Boston13s]

Great to see a new team being launched in the US! Welcome from all at the Boston 13s!

 

[IowaRL]

Hope this game comes off, Utah seem to do a good job!

 

[Dusters]

HALFTIME
Utah Avalanche 18
North California Bears 4

 

[Dusters]

FULLTIME
North California Bears 34
Utah Avalanche 24

 

[deluded pom?]

Thanks for the updates Dusters.

 

[Sharks Forever]

The second leg of this match was played in Park City UT (home of the 2002 Winter Olympics and Sundance Film Festival) on Saturday. It ended up being a high-scoring 9s game, but still a good effort to get it organised. Advantage will always be to the home team with these long trips.

Park City put on a nice sunny day with just a light southerly wind to keep the temperature comfortable for the players.

The Avalanche boys who were really looking forward to make up for the loss in the first game against The Bears after they went down by 10 points.

This time around they had a reserve bench, but unfortunately numbers were an issue for The Bears and the game was shortened to 9 a side to allow the Bears to compete and have a couple of reserves. This working in the favor of the Bears, who are also a union team and familiar with 7’s rugby, started off the game scoring four unanswered tries in the first twelve minutes.

Finally, after not touching the ball since kicking it off, the Latu brothers scoring in the 15th & 18th minute both dotted down before the end of the first quarter putting The Avalanche on the board.

Josh Latu showed why he is Utah’s version of Benji Marshall constantly terrorizing The Bears defensive line with his foot work making numerous line breaks and picking up a hatrick of tries for the day.

The second quarter still saw The Bears out in front who ran in another three tries to The Avalanche’s two, but you could tell that the Utah boys were starting to settle down after a shaky start and feel that they were about to turn the game around.

Sure enough, in the third quarter The Avalanche ran in four unanswered tries and were playing some good footy, controlling the ball a lot better and really playing like a team with everybody contributing both on attack and in defense.

Another five tries in the last quarter taking their total to fifteen and a consolation try from The Bears saw The Avalanche victorious winners by 82-40.

All though everyone played well, Captain Josh Latu was player of the day with a great effort especially on attack and also taking care of most of the kicking duties.

Congratulations and well done to Bryant, Gareth and Chris on their first game of rugby league with both Gareth and Chris scoring tries and some solid hit ups from Bryant.

Next game to be confirmed, but for now it’s all attention on the huge September 7th game with USA West vs Canada West in Vancouver and a good number of Utah Avalanche players representing the western USA with a massive opportunity to be selected for The USA Tomahawks playing Canada late September and getting a spot in the world cup side!!

Final score 82 - 40
Try scorers:
Gareth – 1, Josh Latu – 3, John Latu – 1, Chris – 2, Chance – 3, Hinckley – 1, Ben – 1, Sione M – 2, Brian – 1. Total tries 15, total conversions 11.
Bears – total tries – 8, total conversions – 4.

1 - Lopeti Blake
2 - Lance Felleson
3 - Ben Mafaufaugalelei Ta'ala
4 - Chris Bowen
5 - Lisa Gareth Newport
6 - Josh Latu (Captain)
7 - John Latu
8 - Andrew Pahulu
9 - Jason McFarland
10 - Chance Williams
11 - Hinckley Randy Vaisigano
12 - Sione Vave
13 - Brian Jensen
14 - Sione V
15 - Lolani
16 - Singhe
17 - Bryant

Also this is the original match report from the CA game:

It was the first game of 2013 for western conference rugby league and not only was it the first time the Avalanche and the Bears met, it was the Bears first ever rugby league game.

The Bears, mainly made up of Fijian players normally play in the 15 man code and according to coach Anasa are ranked in the top three for USA. So it wasn’t going to be an easy task for the Avalanche boys playing against a talented side, not to mention a big talented side!

The Utah boys were originally only travelling with a seventeen man side and unfortunately due to injury and logistical challenges were reduced to thirteen players within twenty four hours of kick off. This didn’t prevent the boys from rolling up their sleeves and getting on with it and they started off scoring within the first two minutes of kick off after the Bears threw a two man cut out pass which was intercepted by winger John Latu who streaked away for a 50mtr run to score under the posts, try converted by Aaron Thompson, score 6-0.

A set penalty piece 20mtr’s out from the Bears line saw second rower Hinckley Vaisigano break through three defenders on his way to the try line, Thompson converted to take the lead out to 12-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Utah Avalanche started the second quarter off in similar form, this time it was prop forward Chance Williams’ turn to show his strength and speed with a great individual run from half way breaking three tackles to go all the way and score under the posts. Josh Latu added the extra two points to take the score out to 18-0. Then as fatigue started to creep in to the 13 man Avalanche side, so did poor handling errors and missed tackles which allowed the Bears on to the score board.

The conversion hit the uprights and the second quarter ended 18-4.

It was all one way traffic in the third quarter with the Utah boys only getting the ball for one set which was from the kick off.

The Bears started playing the style of football Fijians are known for and started to throw the ball around and poor defence from the Avalanche saw the Bears run in four tries – 18-10, 18-16, 22-18, 26-18..... The Bears getting better and better as the game went on.

The Bears started the fourth quarter in similar fashion scoring again to increase their lead to 30-18.

Captain Thompson put on a side step to score under the posts for Utah, hoping to spark his team to a comeback with time running out. Latu converted to bring the Avalanche within six points 30-24, but a tired team reduced to just eleven players with two injuries didn’t have enough gas in the tank and the home team went in again to finish the scoring, final score 34-24. Congratulations to a good Northern California Bears team.

It was a huge effort by the thirteen guys who did Utah proud and will only be better for it going in to the next game.

Stand out players were second rower Sione Vave in the forwards and Josh Latu in the backs.

A big thank you goes to coach Anasa of the Bears for hosting the game which was played in great sportsmanship and for the hospitality after the game.

Also thanks to Western conference coach Col Manners for making the trip up from Newport Beach to come and watch the game and help out with water and stats.

 

[deal.with.it]

well done for staging these matches

 

[deluded pom?]

Where are those match reports from SF?

 

[IowaRL]

Maybe we can have Utah to Iowa next year!

 

[Dusters]

Congratulations to the Bears and Avalanche boys in playing another game of Rugby League. The 12+ hours drive each way really shows how keen these boys are to play Rugby League.

IowaRL, the Utah boys would be keen on a home and away series next year.

 

[Sharks Forever]

Where are those match reports from SF?

It's from the Facebook group named "Utah Rugby League". It's a bit disorganised as there is a Page, a Group and a Friend. But Aaron (who is coaching + running Utah now) posts in the Group:

I'm not able to post a direct link to it as I don't have enough posts.

 

[deluded pom?]

Thanks anyway Sharkie.