As Metropolis rugby club’s bus turned right onto I94 to head straight home, I hope they recognized that they had been in a quality game. It would have been a pleasure to have shown Metropolis our graciousness and hospitality in defeat, had they decided to attend the aftermatch. They did have a long drive home , one that must have felt better due to their efforts in the final minute of the game.
Metropolis with this win will move into second place in the west and are still in the hunt for that Midwest 2nd seed for the nationals.
The game began perfectly for Metro and they lead after a quick try in the 3rd minute and began to apply large pressure on the harlequins defense. 5 minutes in the crowd was rewarded when the home team finally had any opportunity to penetrate into the metros half and were rewarded with a penalty within 10 meters of the tryline. The quins opted as they did last week to take the scrum and push it in. Phillepe Leka went over for the try and even the game.
The rest of the half saw an advantage for reasons to metro at the rucks and breakdowns. Strong defense kept the score to 14-7 and then at the end of the half Dom Singleton in an individual effort intercepted a play and went 70 meters for a try and the half finished 14 all.
The second half saw metro come out firing for some more open continuous play and having success in offloading in the tackle while the harlequins looked to gain some control at the breakdown. 20 minutes to go metro had 2 more unconverted tries and a 10 point cushion and may have felt they had control of the match. Pressure at the break downs and a good team build up was finished off by some entertaining passing by the quins back three that saw Cyprian Shimenga go over in the corner, with Phillippe Leka’s conversion 21-24. Metro came back to put the hammer in the coffin with a quick drive down the field for another unconverted try to extend their lead out to 8 points with 10 to go.
For a spectator the whole game should have been an enjoyable experience of watching fast entertaining rugby, the next nine minutes of play from the Quinns were some of the team’s best. The cohesion and interaction of the team lead to some well structured phases of play that saw Collins Akwanyi put on his dancing shoes and reward all of the Quins pressure with an unconverted try. Nice effort but the Quins were not finished, we had not come to division one to be a make-up game , we had come to win. That mindset saw the lead finally swing to the harlequins when Mark Fine went over for an unconverted try to change the score to 31-29.
From the kick off the harlequins secured the ball and ran some tight phases to run down the remaining minutes on the clock. With time up the ball was turned over and metro took full advantage and scored the final try of the game right between the posts. 31-36 final score.
