Kansas City vs. Boulder  

By Wayne Nicholsen     

October 10, 2005     

Seymour Park- Kansas City, MO                                        

Kansas City played host to the Boulder side.  It would be both clubs second D-1 Northern Region match and Boulder came away with an important win.  The game played at Seymour Park was an important fixture for both squads, but more critical for Boulder after they dropped their opening DI match to Omaha.

The game started like a chess match with both packs testing each other's defense on the fringes of the rucks, scrums and lineouts, while the backs became part of an early tactical kicking game. The score was unlocked when fly half Leif Gibson slotted a 40-meter penalty 10 minutes in.  Shortly afterward Deron Dempsey broke through the Kansas City defense and fed his support who linked three passes together before winger Charles Olomu scored in the corner to break the game open. With a successful conversion by Gibson the score shot to 10-0.

With momentum turning to the visiting team, Boulder again notched together several phases midway through the half with their forwards running off the backline and adding a second try by Dan Hamilton. Conversion successful, Boulder led 17-0.  KC returned to the game by adding a fine try of our own shortly after. Coming from a set piece, City ran darting forward picks before eventually breaking the Boulder defense and Dustin Marks touching down.  Jimmy’s Conversion was good, 17-7.

With the game now in reach and momentum swinging in the favor of the home team, Boulder was fortunate enough to add perhaps their best try of the day with a series of phases between forwards and backs. Charles Olomu ended the movement with a wonderful line break and well timed switch pass that opened the gates and allowed Olomu to center and score under the posts. Gibson added the conversion on the half time whistle and the scoreline was 24-7.

The second half started off very similar to the first with Boulder getting off to a quick start scoring 10 unanswered points and pushing the score to 34-7.  With not much hope of a victory City actually started to turn it on mostly through the centers.  Gary Tapusoa was instrumental in the large majority of these breaks.  Gary scored before Marks added his second to make the final 34-19.   Leif Gibson was given the honors of man of the match for his consistent form at fly half and Wayne Nicholsen was given the same for his side for consistently making Leif pay for his consistency.

City will have to perform exceptionally well to prepare for their last league match next spring against the historically best side in the Northern league.