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Saturday August 20, 2005 For the Hamilton Spectator write-up click here For a fourth consecutive weekend the Hamilton Hornets denied the opposition from scoring a single point. The Hornets faced St Catherines Tigers on Saturday in the semi-final of the Niagara Rugby Union (NRU) B division play-offs. Hamilton came out flying and scored two converted tries within the first 6 minutes of the match. The first try came two minutes into the game. Hamilton kicked off deep into the Tigers' end and pressured their opponents into two quick penalty infractions. The second penalty resulted in quick ball to the Hornets' backs with, outside centre, Peter Richardson setting up his full-back colleague, Steve Reise, who went over the try line. Scrum-half, Peter Van Zyl, converted the try. Two minutes later a perfectly weighted 40 metre kick from Peter Van Zyl came to rest just short of the Tigers' try line. The St Catherines full-back had no choice but to carry the ball into his own try zone and touch it down to award the Hornets' pack a 5 metre scrum. The forwards secured the ball in the resulting scrum and inside centre, Matt Barrett, literally ran over one defender before evading another tackle on his way to scoring. Van Zyl added the conversion. St Catherines then seemed to recover from the initial onslaught to keep the Hornets from scoring for the next 20 minutes. The third try came on 26 minutes when the Hornets' forwards turned over one of many Tigers' scrums on the day. Peter Van Zyl dug the ball out and released his stand-off who dummied to his centres before diving over the line. Shortly thereafter, a moment of frustration saw St Catherines reduced to 14 men when the referee yellow-carded a Tiger for slapping the ball out of the Hamilton scrum-half's hands, preventing him from taking a quick penalty. The Hornets immediately capitalized on the man advantage when Steve Reise, with extra space out wide, ran in a try all the way from his own 40-metre line. Van Zyl once again added the extra two points. Hamilton were unable to add any more points during their 10-minute advantage but managed one more try before half-time. This time the score came from the forwards alone who stole yet another St Catherines' scrum and marched the ball over from 5 metres out. Loose-head prop, Chris Lawson touched down for the 5 points and Peter Van Zyl added the conversion. Half Time Score: Hamilton 31 - St Catherines 0. It took the Hornets 10 minutes of the second half before they managed to break through a determined Tigers defence. Once again the Hornets' pack took another scrum against the head. Peter Van Zyl picked and went with the ball from the back of the scrum. He off-loaded to flanker, Jason Leek, who was stopped just short of the try line. 8-man Tyler Struyk secured quick ball at the breakdown and went in to score. Peter Van Zyl continued to have an outstanding day with the boot and added the extra points. Four minutes later, Van Zyl, taking a quick tap penalty, caught a tiring Tigers' side napping and went over to score in the corner. The conversion from the touchline, and into the wind proved too difficult for the scrum-half. A few minutes later, Steve Reise appeared on the wing of a backs play and went over for the score which Van Zyl converted. The Tigers again managed to put together a sustained period of dogged defence. This was broken when Peter Richardson found himself in the Tigers end with only one man to beat. Richardson chipped a clever ball over the defender's head and would likely have scored had the Tigers' player played the ball instead of tackling the man. Richardson took the resulting penalty quickly and worked a nice give and go with Van Zyl before crossing the try line under the posts for the try. A few minutes later, flanker, Jack Burta made an excellent 30-metre run to set up an attacking platform for the backs. The ball was worked out wide and Steve Reise went over under the posts for his fourth and the last try of the match. Peter Van Zyl then converted his 7th of the 10 Hornets' tries as the referee blew his whistle to bring to an end another convincing Hornets' win. Hamilton have outscored their opponents by a score of 162 - 0 in their last four matches and now await the winner of the Cambridge - Waterloo semi-final to see which side they will meet in the championship final next Saturday. Final Score: Hamilton 64 - St Catherines 0 Match report by: The Hamilton Hornets always welcome new Junior and Senior members. Call the club house at 905.575.3133
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