Saturday, in a see-saw match the Raleigh Rattlesnakes U19 Club battled an experienced Triad Youth Rugby U19 Club to a 17-17 tie. The Carolina Youth Rugby league does not play overtime during regular season matches. Both teams will accrue 2 points each towards the league standings.
For anyone that attended, it was a great day of youth rugby for both sides and fun to watch. Raleigh again fielded a young team with 3 new players seeing time in their very first match.
This young Rattlesnake team will continue to improve as the season progresses and yesterday’s match was another notch in the experience belt for Raleigh youth rugby. There was plenty to take away from the match with regards to our aspects of play needing improvement as well as areas where we show a lot of promise
Thanks to those fans from both sides who showed up to support their respective teams. The numbers are starting to grow, of course, still not the numbers we would like to see so keep checking the schedule and we expect to see more faces out at the pitch on match days for the Rattlesnakes, Venom and Vipers.
Thanks also go to the match referee and Raleigh’s own Carl Brienzi for taking the time to explain to the young players of both sides the reason for the call as well as ensuring safe play techniques, namely in the scrum and tackling. Carl had his hands full with matches yesterday in Raleigh and at NCSU and we really appreciated having him out. With a shortage of referees to go around, it is not always easy finding a reliable, thorough referee who is also certified at the youth level. That might be why Carl is requested by name by many of our league teams. Our referees are as much a part of our game as our players. It is not an easy task, and we certainly salute all who “step up” in this endeavor and make our play possible. I speak for all of our Rattlesnake coaches and players in saying that your three cheers was well deserved.
The Rattlesnakes will be practicing this week and readying their play for the visiting and defending state champion Chapel Hill Highlanders this coming Saturday on March the 6th with a U19 kickoff time of 11:00am. There will be a U15 match afterwards with a scheduled kickoff time of 1:00pm.
Respectfully,
Rattlesnake Coaches