SMRC Men Paste Santa Barbara Rugby “Grunions”

On a beautiful California rugby day, the Dolphins played their second preseason game and for the second week in a row put 7 tries on the board. Facing the Santa Barbara Grunions
at Webster Middle School, the home side used 35 players in a winning effort.

Phil Howard set the pace scoring 3 first half tries and kicking a conversion to lead the squad with 17 points. Flyhalf, Brian O’Shea was 5 of 6 with the boot scoring 10 points. Other try scorers were Loa Milford, Spenser May, Padraig Cremin, and Johnny Jackson.

While there are lots of areas that still need work, it was definitely a good home opener for the team. One particular area of concern was penalties, particularly on defense, where the Dolphins eared a total of five cards and played at least a man down for nearly the entire match.

Next Saturday the Santa Monica Rugby returns to the pitch in the annual “Toilet Bowl” match up against the Huntington Beach Unicorns. The match-up will follow the youth programs annual demonstration and registration day at Webster Middle School.