First of all, I'd like to send out our best wishes to Tony who is in Singapore recovering from surgery. Tony injured his ankle quite badly on a goal line stand, in which the Komodo held strong. Tony is a great player and we pray for his swift recovery and look forward to his possible return.
WE ARE JAKARTA CHAMPS!!!! (again) It wasn't always pretty but we got it Done! Well done Komodai. It was a little difficult making sure everyone got a chance to play, most of us did - my apologies to those that did not - I myself only played about 15 min.
After a great warm up led by player/coach McCarthy, the Komodo were pumped to build some chemistry before the Jak 10's. Although this was a final, we were not planning to have to actually try to compete as last year's final was a blow out. The plan was to tryout as many different line-ups as we could by getting everyone in the game at different positions. What we did not count on was that the Bantengs came out with fire in their bellys - they came out strong and were resolute in their quest to pull off the upset. Switching players led to miscommunication between the Komodo players, which in turn gave the Bantengs the advantage. By the half, we were up 3 tries to 1. I scored the 1st in the corner that has become
like my 2nd home over the last couple of weeks (see FB photos), I plan to setup a warung their to serve vodka-joss shots after tries. The try by Brownie was one of my favorites (it was definitely not Dicko's) as a 'homage' to the Bantengs, after a Roko like try dive Brownie threw the ball as far as he could in the air and screamed at the top of his lungs incoherently. The try was setup by Will and Tom's heroic run and support that claimed about 70 meters of the pitch. Champagne stuff boys. Dicko, I must admit had a difficult task at keeping Banteng and Komodo from an all out brawl - with each hit and every word that came out of players mouths the tension rose on the verge of erupting. After seeing a Banteng (15) spit in the face of my favorite hooker, I almost lost it myself (their is a time and place for that).
After the half, the Komodo opened strong, scoring 2 back to back tries. The Bantengs scored a try and then we had a brief intermission as Captain and Packleader had to deal with near mutiny in the ranks. The Banteng seemed to feed off the Komodo in-fighting, they saw an opportunity for upset arising. "AYU BANTENG, AYU BANTENG," was about all you could hear off the stands. Their were calls from several players to put the Komodo 1st XV back on the field - but deep down we all knew that wouldn't be a challenge, things were better like this. The defense fought hard, it bent (way too much), but did not break. In the end we won 6 tries to 3. We should commend the Banteng team for their drastic improvement from last year, and the growth of Indonesian Rugby on the whole.
Skipper's Ratings:
Frano - 7.5 - Fitness still needs some work, but his presence on the field and experience in our scrum cannot be overlooked.
Ed - 9 - Smashing number 15 for a try-saving tackle, Glorious! Was all over the field on both attack and defense.
Rob - 7 - Kept the guys from erupting, and displayed great leadership
Burger - 8 - Played very well, but lost his cool a few time - can you blame him though...
Tom - 9 - Didn't know how he would hold up in his return debut, but true to his word his
shoulder is stronger than tungsten, the former captain showed a lot of heart. It is good to have him back
Tall Tom - 8 - Shaking off a little rust, Tom was not quite the all star of game 1, however, he was great in support and we expect him to continue his great play this Saturday at the 10's
Will - 8.5 - Will plays with a nonstop motor,
always after the ball, had a great chip and chase.
Tony - 10 - All class Tony acted like he was SAS with his injury at the sheer weight of Bobby's fall, calmly asking for the stretcher and for someone to hold his foot so that it would not fall off. (see facebook photos and you can see how it happened).
Brownie - 9 - Inspiring tries, and running skills with ball in hand.
McCarthy - 8 - Leadership, heart, power, fitness, determination, the guy has it all; however, we forced him to sit out the 2nd half to rest his hamstrings.
Jeff - 8.5 - Great runs, great hits, the Fijian night train lives up to his name.
Daly - 7 - not one of Daly's best games, but not a lot for him to do either
Morita - 7.5 - had a nice try, but lapses in defense led to Banteng tries
Samurai 11 - 7 - Steady play, but miscommunication and lack of opportunity led to standard play
Bob - 8 - Always the field general, or admiral i should say in his case, Bob's foremost talent is the ability to organize the backs.
Jonathan - 8 - to do with his performance at the bar after
Ian - 9 - read above
Dan the Beer Man - 10 - read above
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