On a rainy damp day, luckily the rain was light, these two arch rivals met for yet another game. Since! December 2003 we have played 7 times. Daytona won that game in 2003 ironically in the Florida cup semi-finals, where in the finals we beat Tampa Krewe who we again play this year in the finals. 2004 Jax had our number with 3 wins and knocking us out of the playoffs in both the spring and fall seasons. This year it was a different story, Daytona won all three matches this year, today with a 29-9 victory. Once again it was a true team effort to hold the Jax machine out of the try zone for the third time this year. Our man of the match was Lexi Bairstow our do it all Fly Half/Fullback who had 2 scores on the day and 2 extra points. He also showed up to the! field with a surprise, our new performance jerseys, which helped get us going on a dreary day.

The game started off very intense with some hard running and tackling from both sides. After some determined pressure Lexi attempted a chip and chase deep in Jax territory and just missed scoring. Daytona quickly fielded the ensuing 22 meter drop kick and got the ball out left where we had numbers and Scott Sivak was able to score on the outside with no conversion Daytona 5 Jax 0. After some more pressure and a penalty on Jax about 5 meters out near the right sideline we tried our new penalty play. We quickly ran most of our team to the left side of the field and left our scrum half James Brown with only one person supporting him, which opened up a gap for him to squeeze thru after Jax tried to cover the players with out the ball for an unconverted score Daytona 10 Jax 0. Deep in Jax territory again a line out play moved to ball towards the middle of the field when Daytona reversed the ball to the weak side of the field and Lexi slashed thru for his first score Daytona 15 Jax 0. Jax did not let up and turned up the pressure for the last ten minutes of the first half and the first ten minutes of the second half. Both teams had been warned for killing the ball at the break down, unfortunately we were the team to be caught next. The ref gave Jeremiah Gibbs a yellow card which put us a man down for 10 minutes, Jax was also a! ble to use the infraction and score 3 points on their made penalty kick. The Half finished 15-3, and Jax got fired up during halftime and came out attacking hard and was soon awarded another penalty which, they convert with another penalty kick Daytona 15 Jax 6. No sooner had Jeremiah returned to field when Scott was called for killing the ball and was also given a yellow card and 10 minutes off the field, they then converted this with another penalty kick Daytona 15 Jax 9. We were able to hold on for the next 10 minutes a man down and not give up any more points. After Scott’s return our momentum started to build again. Jax’s Defense also started getting more aggresive when Lexi placed a nice high kick over the Jax defenders that Brian Richard! son was able to get to and tap the ball back in the air to first time 15’s rugby player Perry Baker. Perry caught it and weaved in for a score and Lexi converted the kick Daytona 22 Jax 9. Perry later had the run of the day when he just barely got tripped up after spinning, juking, and slashing through what seemed the whole Jax team. Daytona once again had the momentum and we kept the pressure up. Lexi was able to score off a quick penalty play against the defense that had not yet organized that he was able to zig and zag thru he also converted that kick Daytona 29 Jax 9. With less than ten Minutes to go both teams made some substitutions, Daytona sub Marshall Newell later made a great play and had what seemed a! sure score after a long run. But it seemed weird to me the Marshall was slowing down the farther he got, and was soon caught. After the match I asked him what happened that such a fresh player could not finish the run, Marshall with the quote of the day said “my new shorts were too tight I could not run in them”.

I would like to thank all the Daytona ladies that manned the concession booth, Leigh Ann, Becky, Kaitlyn, and Mandy. I would also like to thank all the spectators and friends that cheered us on to victory. Lastly I wou! ld like to thank the team for all the hard work you have put in this year, 4 more practices and one more game to go for the Florida Cup Final December 3rd during the USA Rugby National All-star Championship weekend in Kissimmee FL. Daytona has 4 players participating during the All-star weekend James Brown, Craig Howitt, Brian Richardson, and Scott Sivak congratulations guys.

2005 Florida Cup Champions
2005 National Championship Final Four
2005 South Territorial Champions
2005 Florida State Champions
2003 Florida Cup Champions