13 brave Conquerors, along with the amazing Deng Lu went to Chongqing to play the Black and Whites. The final result was 12 - 24, with the Black and Whites coming out on top. However, this game was far and above our best performance yet. Tries for the Conquerors were scored by Jair and Peter Dobbs (an injury fill-in from the Chengdu team). I made our only conversion kick. Man of the Match (MVP) goes to Mike Weed for his relentless pursuit, fantastic fitness, consistent running, and outstanding work in the lineouts. Great work, Mike!
Summary:We played a 30-minute half, followed by 2 15-minute quarters on a day that turned out to be the most polluted Chengdu day in the last year. The Conquerors won the coin flip and decided to kick. Immediately, we put the pressure on Chengdu with our strong tackling and their general unease. The majority of the first half was played with the Conquerors on the offense. We had a few strong goal line attacks, all of which came up short. But Chengdu could not keep us away. Patty almost scored the first try of the game, but ran over the ball line before touching down. To his defense, the lines weren't very clear. Only a few minutes later, Jair turned the corner against the opposing scrumhalf and pushed in for a well-deserved try. With a missed conversion, the Conquerors were up 5-0. This was a proud moment - the first time the Conquerors have been ahead in a game in our short history. Chengdu was scared. The half ended, and many shouts of frustration were heard from the Chengdu side. In the first 15-minute quarter, the game started to get scrappy as tempers rose and guys got tired. We gave away many silly penalties that a better Chengdu team would have capitalized on. Casey switched to scrumhalf and used his size advantage against Jair to power past our guys for a try. Hard to stop a guy like him unless your shoulder is aimed at his knee. He missed the conversion kick and the score was tied. Shortly after the restart, Chengdu's speedy winger, Aaron got our backs on an overlap, turned the corner on Peter, and raced down the field for a 60 meter try. He is a dangerous athlete, and one mistake there led to the try. With the conversion, it was 12-5 very quickly, and the first quarter ended up with the Chongqing boys a bit down. Chongqing came out strong in the last quarter even stealing the kick-off. The game was back and forth for a few minutes until the Conquerors' defense failed them again. Approximately 10 Conquerors got sucked into a maul, which left Chengdu with quite the overlap, from which they easily scored. With a missed kick, the Conquerors were down 17-5. There wasn't much time remaining and the boys had to get it together soon. And get it together they did. Spurred by a big 50 meter run from Ting who turned the corner, the Conquerors were close to the opposing try zone. With a lineout 10 meters from the Chengdu try zone, Mike caught the throw-in, and passed right back down to me. I put my head down, Jonah pushed me from behind, and we came up short at the 1 meter line. 50+ year old Peter Dobbs, filing in for an injury on our side, grabbed the ball and jumped over the
Summary:We played a 30-minute half, followed by 2 15-minute quarters on a day that turned out to be the most polluted Chengdu day in the last year. The Conquerors won the coin flip and decided to kick. Immediately, we put the pressure on Chengdu with our strong tackling and their general unease. The majority of the first half was played with the Conquerors on the offense. We had a few strong goal line attacks, all of which came up short. But Chengdu could not keep us away. Patty almost scored the first try of the game, but ran over the ball line before touching down. To his defense, the lines weren't very clear. Only a few minutes later, Jair turned the corner against the opposing scrumhalf and pushed in for a well-deserved try. With a missed conversion, the Conquerors were up 5-0. This was a proud moment - the first time the Conquerors have been ahead in a game in our short history. Chengdu was scared. The half ended, and many shouts of frustration were heard from the Chengdu side. In the first 15-minute quarter, the game started to get scrappy as tempers rose and guys got tired. We gave away many silly penalties that a better Chengdu team would have capitalized on. Casey switched to scrumhalf and used his size advantage against Jair to power past our guys for a try. Hard to stop a guy like him unless your shoulder is aimed at his knee. He missed the conversion kick and the score was tied. Shortly after the restart, Chengdu's speedy winger, Aaron got our backs on an overlap, turned the corner on Peter, and raced down the field for a 60 meter try. He is a dangerous athlete, and one mistake there led to the try. With the conversion, it was 12-5 very quickly, and the first quarter ended up with the Chongqing boys a bit down. Chongqing came out strong in the last quarter even stealing the kick-off. The game was back and forth for a few minutes until the Conquerors' defense failed them again. Approximately 10 Conquerors got sucked into a maul, which left Chengdu with quite the overlap, from which they easily scored. With a missed kick, the Conquerors were down 17-5. There wasn't much time remaining and the boys had to get it together soon. And get it together they did. Spurred by a big 50 meter run from Ting who turned the corner, the Conquerors were close to the opposing try zone. With a lineout 10 meters from the Chengdu try zone, Mike caught the throw-in, and passed right back down to me. I put my head down, Jonah pushed me from behind, and we came up short at the 1 meter line. 50+ year old Peter Dobbs, filing in for an injury on our side, grabbed the ball and jumped over the