A tale of two pitches (in the same city).

The weekend of September 22nd dawned clear and cool, but nonetheless, it was a beautiful day of rugby. Due a quirk in the schedule (mostly the fault of the worst match secretary on this side of the iron curtain) both Barbarian sides were in Milwaukee, but not at the same field. If you never thought you could play in your own town, and still be the ‘away’ team, your dreams would have been dealt a cruel blow on this day.

The Barbarians D1 side started out the rematch against league leading Metropolis with some high energy and hard tackling. The Barbarians got on the board first with a penalty kick by Vince Kelly. The first half continued to be hard fought as Metro continually pounded and capitalized on Barbarian miscues. They put a couple scores on the board to make the halftime score 19-6.

Although opportunities were abound in the first half, the Barbarians could not get the ball into the try zone. The second half was much the same. Hard defense did not let down but handling errors, turnovers and Metro capitalizing on mistakes put Metro out ahead. The barbarians did manage to score an emotional try as time expired, never giving up in hard fought 36-13 defeat.

On the other side of town, ok.. ok.. it was Waukesha, maybe it was an away game, the Barbarians D3 side faced the crosstown rival Black and Blue Rugby Club.

With the excellent field conditions and an experienced backline, the Barbarians out matched and out played the Black & Blues with excellent skill play. The cohesion that comes from actually playing consecutive seasons together as a unit, began to shine through as the Barbarians took an early lead in the first half. The second half continued much the same, with the Barbarians matching the raw aggressive play of the Black & Blues with controlled smart rugby. Forwards and backs together capitalized on mistakes, made by the Black & Blues, stealing several scrums and lineouts. Largely, except for a few incidents near the end of the match, the Barbarians stuck to the game plan and turned in an impressive performance.