Bombers Win 2004 USA Western
Rugby Union Championship
W37-0 vs Boulder / W25-24 vs Austin

Saturday, May 01, 2004

 
May 1, 2004 - Ft. Worth, TX. ---
The St. Louis Bombers claimed another WRFU Division 1 championship by defeating Boulder 37-0 in a semi-final and then dispatching Austin 25-24 at the WRFU's Final Four. This championship is the third in the last four years for the Bombers. The championship puts the Bombers into the USA Division 1, "Sweet 16" for the fourth consecutive year, and will again be the #1 seed in the USA CR#2. St. Louis travels to Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 15 & 16 with hopes of two more victories and a trip to the Final Four.

Bombers 37 - Boulder 0

Conditions were not the best. Friday night thunderstorms dumped two inches of rain on Ft. Worth's pitches by kickoff time, and a cold, gusty 30 MPH wind howled from the north. The Bombers faced a big Boulder forward pack led by #8 Matt Mirrell which was backed by the big boot of their flyhalf Lief Gibson. Bomber captain John McBride won the coin flip and wisely elected to play into the fierce wind to start. Boulder made several early ventures deep into the Bomber's end, only to be stopped by a very stingy defense. St. Louis reeled their game in going upstream, eating away valuable possession minutes. Bomber wing Steve Bosse scored the only points of the first half after a multi-phase build up from the strong St. Louis forwards. Halftime: St. Louis 5 Boulder 0.

The second half was all one way traffic in favor of the Bombers. The relentless pounding delivered by the Bomber forwards had softened up the opponents and set the table for several easy tries. Locks Hayden Mexted and Phil Reed each smashed through the dead legged defense of Boulder for tries, as did Mexted's replacement Dan Troger. Center Brian Meyer also scored and flyhalf Rene Monette turned pressure into points with 12 points off of his boot. Young hooker Dan Hartwig made several huge runs to add to Boulder's woes.

St. Louis coach Ron Laszewski commented: "We put up 37 points against a good side on a day when the ball more closely resembled a wet bar of soap. But, I'm more impressed with the shutout. The commitment from our squad to repeatedly and fearlessly tackle anything that moves, and to do it in a very organized fashion is a big key to our success."

Bombers 25 - Austin 24

It's an 80 minute game. The Bombers played an outstanding middle 60 minutes to claim their third WRFU title in the last four years with a 25-24 victory over arch-rivals Austin. Austin's opening and closing ten minutes were tremendous- but it just wasn't enough as St. Louis defeated Austin to claim yet another WRFU crown. The Bombers have now defeated Austin for the fourth time out of the last five meetings between the West's two best clubs- with all five matches played in Texas.

Austin started strong and capitalized on a couple Bomber mistakes by pinning the defending champs deep in their own end. Austin quickly displayed their strategy by going to the maul early and often on this sunny, dry and calm day. The well educated Bomber pack had an answer for Austin's drives and thwarted several pushover attempts. Austin's pressure finally paid off as hooker Mark Brewerton's try from the driving maul made it 5-0 Austin, ten minutes in. The match then settled into a battle of two styles: Austin's wipers kicks into the corners followed by a slow and patient maul- versus the Bomber's punishing runs and quick use of the ball. The Bombers got their game going and exploited several gaps in Austin's defense created by moving the ball around park. Flyhalf Rene Monette slithered through from 20 meters out and converted his own try to put St. Louis in front 7-5. A similar pattern produced a 40 meter try from fullback Chris Schlereth, 14-5 Bombers. A clearing kick deep into Austin's end from Bomber lock Hayden Mexted caught Austin off guard and the pressure resulted in an easy 3 points by Monette just before halftime, Bombers 17-5.

Bomber scrumhalf Brian Lay started the second half scoring with a kick and chase try after Austin failed to cleanly catch a kick, 22-5 St. Louis. With about 15 minutes remaining, Austin finally got close enough to the Bomber line to push across another maul and hooker Glen Burnett scored, 22-10 St. Louis. Monette immediately answered with a penalty goal for St. Louis to up the score to 25-10 with about ten minutes to play. Austin, to their credit, didn't pack up and go home, despite being down three scores with less than ten minutes to go. Austin's Nick Nespeca and Mike Graham added late scores, but this only made it slightly less painful for Austin as referee Graham Bullen's final whistle saw St. Louis hoist the championship cup once again.