Like a scene from Hollywood, the finale to the summer touch rugby season saw dreary weather conditions.
A sudden and dramatic electrical storm around the South Sound Rugby Club supercharged a glorious Finals Day. In the first semi-final Appleby lined up against a Genesis Five Nations team that had been unbeaten all season and were odds-on favourites to win the Division 1 title.
As the teams faced off it may not have been “Mission Impossible” for Appleby but it certainly looked like “Mission Extremely Difficult”. At the end of an even first half the scores were tied at 2-2. Then the heavens opened and, after an extended delay, the second half belonged to the Apples. Three unanswered tries gave them a stunning 5-2 win. The mighty Five Nations had been toppled.
On the day it was nothing more than Appleby deserved. Fast and clinical in moving the ball up field, they asked questions that the Five Nations defence could not answer.
In the second semi-final, Maples1 took on PWC. Maples1 had stumbled through their last three games of the season. The electricity in the clouds matched the voltage on the pitch. It was a display of clinical finishing and excellent defence that saw Maples1 win 6-1 with three tries a-piece for returning captain Marty Livingston and Jyoti Choi.
Thus the Division 1 Final pitched last year’s Champions Maples1 against Appleby. Although the rain had stopped the pitch presented a lot of surface water and it was a hard slog to get any kind of running rugby on show. Early scores in a one-off game are vital and Marty Livingston provided just that with an incisive break from just inside the Appleby half to touch down with a dive. Further first half tries by Jyoti Choi, Mark Fagan and Emily Davies stretched the Maples1 lead.
Appleby weren’t going to give up without a fight as they had scored two tries of their own. The crowd became increasingly vocal and when Michelle Bailey got another for Appleby to make it 3-5 they dared to dream of a dramatic comeback. However, Maples1 have been champions for the last two years due to an ability to apply pressure, take their chances and protect a lead with great defence. In the face of a resurgent Appleby team, Maples1 increased their lead with three more tries to register a great 8-3 victory as Jyoti Choi earned Most Valuable Player with a personal haul of four tries.
Elsewhere the Trident Titans took on Happyfish Ticklers in the opening Division 2 semi-final. The Titans would record an emphatic 10-0 victory thanks to Brad Stephenson and James Waters (three tries apiece).
KPMG1 played Maples2 in the second semi-final. They had beaten them twice before and were confident of a repeat performance in this game. However, Maples2 raised their game and gave KPMG1 a real fright. Marc Randall and Rebecca Palmer answered tries from KPMG’s Ben Blair and JS De Jager making the scores tied at 2-2 at the final whistle. In touch rugby tied games are decided by a system known as “The Drop-Off” where players are removed from the game at one-minute intervals until someone scores. The first score wins – Sudden Death! As players were removed the gaps increased and eventually, with just four players on each side, Gerhard Albertyn made the decisive break to score and put KPMG1 in the final.
Division 2 has been the most exciting division this year and the final didn’t disappoint. The Trident Titans and KPMG1 went at it and eventually the Titans had a try threat all over their team as James Waters (three), Lisa Bird (two), Riley Mullen (two) and Ashley Puschman (one) all registered scores. Interspersed between these were tries for KPMG1 by Neil Montgomery (two), Michael Sumares (two), JS De Jager (one), Phillip Fourie (one) and Ben Blair (one). Add them up and you get a final score of 8-7 for a Titans victory.
The Division 3 play-offs preceded the rains as Deloitte beat Rawlinson and Hunter 5-3 in the first semi-final. Riley Mullen, Deloitte’s top scorer this season, chipped in with a smartly taken hat-trick. In the second semi-final Credit Suisse took on a KPMG2 side which had beaten them twice in the regular season, but Suisse went into the game equally confident having been the only team to beat league winners Deloitte all season.
Not surprisingly, the game was very tight and in spite of tries by Martin Steyn, Dave O’Driscoll and Neil Montgomery for KPMG2, Dave Bailey masterminded a 4-3 victory for Credit-Suisse in overtime.
The Final pitched Credit Suisse against Deloitte. Suisse were hoping that lightning would indeed strike twice and that they would beat Deloitte for the second time in two weeks. The Suissers were without their talisman Ben MacDonald and they never really looked like troubling Deloitte, who eventually ran out 9-4 winners. Riley Mullen finished off a great day with a five-try haul while Dean Curtis (three) and Neal Ainscow (one) added the extras.
As the day came to a close trophies and beers were handed out to the champions, a fitting reward for another great season of touch rugby. Later in the week the players attended the end of season dinner where they paid tribute to the individuals whose performances stood out during the season.
Statistics for the season show a total of 1549 tries were scored by 242 different players in 349 games. Neal Ainscow of Dart had 31 tries, most across all three divisions. Michelle Bailey of Credit-Suisse was the highest-scoring lady with 14 tries. Stuart Geddes of Appleby had the most tries in a game with six on two occasions. Etienne Duvenage of PWC ran through the entire Maples1 defence to score the fastest try of the season in 3.6 seconds.
Thanks go to Jacques Scott, Six Senses Eco Tours, Cayman Islands Rugby Club, Cayman Distributors, Fat Fish Adventures, Kirk Freeport, Happyfish, Agua Restaurant and Lounge and The Reef Resort for donating wonderful prizes. Special mention goes to Travel Pros, who provided an amazing prize of a flight and three-night stay at Pico Bonito, Honduras with a rafting trip, lunch and massage at The Yoga Retreat (the lucky winner was James Grant of Ernst and Young).
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