Tuesday 27 August 2013

Bordeaux Bound!

What a weekend! There were ups and downs but by the end we had punched our tickets to Europeans.

Game 1 vs EMO 2 (5 v 12): Ka-Pow! win 15-3

Our first game of the weekend was a relatively easy one to get our systems working and our defence sharp. We finished this game relatively unchallenged leaving ourselves a bit of a gap before our second game.

Game 2 vs Brighton City (5 v 4): Ka-Pow! lose 15-13

This game was tough from start to finish, Brighton had a great start to the game against us and our defence, despite getting plenty of turns, wasn’t able to convert enough to earn us the lead at any point. We went on a run towards the end of the game with aims of the big upset in the final moments, and despite having the disc with an opportunity to take the game to sudden death, we dropped the disc in the endzone and Brighton converted clinically to take the win and the Semi finals spot. Looking at the Brighton roster, it was the strongest it has been all season, and they had really sharpened their Hexagon offence and tightened their zone defences, but we definitely came out of this game thinking we could have won.

Game 3 vs Devon (5 v 8): Ka-Pow! lose 15-13

Devon took a break to start the game and got loud. They kept their energy up for the entire game, their offence was efficient and their defence kept the pressure on us. Again, towards the end we made a run at them in an attempt to steal the game at the final whistle, but again we came up slightly short.

Devon have a habit of riding the waves of their energy and emotion and when they're on the crest of the wave and everything is going right they are a great team, and this weekend they used this to take 4th and a spot at Euros.

This would mean that our route for Euros qualification would require us to take either 5th or 6th and would mean we would start Saturday with a game to stay in the top 8 of the tournament.

Game 4 vs Fire 2 (8 v 9): Ka-Pow! win 15-5

We started the game down, with wind and rain and Fire 2 going up early. Fire 2 had got the better of us on more than one occasion this year and we knew that if we didn’t tighten up this game could get away from us. We had switched lines up at the end of Saturday and mid way through the first half things began to click for all the lines. The D-lines started to absolutely shut down Fire’s options and the O-Line began to look fluid and efficient. Despite this game starting close we would eventually take the victory with a comfortable score.

Game 5 vs EMO 1 (6 v 8): Ka-Pow! win 15-12

This was the game to go. The winner would qualify for Europeans. EMO started strongly getting an early break and scoring deep on almost every O point they had, despite pressured catches and throws. Being down a break at 7-7 and starting on defence, we put out a big line who were able to get the block and punch it in to take the half. We were happy, we were loud, but we knew that it was only half a job. EMO proved they were not going anywhere by taking their offence point coming out of half and breaking our O line again. Points were then traded until 11-11 when Nick Roberts made the play of the tournament, getting a massive layout catch block on a huck to Rich Gale (edit: the Huck was to Dave Povey not Rich Gale). He hit the ground hard and had to go off injured, but that play provided the spark for our team for the rest of the game. We converted that point to break back and take a lead which we would hold for the rest of the game. Suddenly our D line was stifling to a level where we got a block on each of the remaining points and converted all but 1. I got 2 layout blocks in those points and Ka-Pow! were fired up. When we scored the final point the sidelines erupted and we charged the field, knowing our aim for the season was realised. This game was season defining, and was probably some of the best ultimate we have played.

Game 6 vs Fire 1 (5 v 6): Ka-Pow! lose 14-5

At the end of the EMO 1 game everyone had a smile on their face, but we agreed that we would go hard in our last game. It felt like it would be a great precursor to Euros, not just for the competition, but also to improve our seeding.
Unfortunately, by the time we had all sat down and spoken to plenty of people about our win and watched half the open final the energy was gone. We warmed up and drilled, but the drills weren’t the best quality. We went into the game and started ok, but were dragged into a game filled with calls and heated discussion. Our sideline wasn’t as loud as it had been in previous games and Fire were able to capitalise on our mistakes and get the disc back even when we got blocks.
The game was a downer, but after it finished we agreed that there was nothing we could do about it now and that we would learn from it and move on.
Spirits were still high from our qualification and we later learned that we had won the Spirit of the game award as well which was fantastic.

Overall, this weekend was incredible. There were ups and downs, but qualification left everyone with massive grins on their faces. We know we’ve still got plenty to do before Europeans, but I for one am definitely looking forward to the trainings almost as much as Euros itself.

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