DAY 4 - LAS VEGAS

Game day!

By Utah Warriors Rugby

January 25^th, 2020

"Nothing ever becomes real 'til it is experienced." ― John Keats

The easy way in and out of every game is to take it by storm, but wheres the fun in that? There is something to be said about the battle on the rugby field, bringing a team together in hopes of executing a system, figuring out your opponent on the fly but even more so leaving the rugby pitch as a team. Sometimes the biggest battles in the game of rugby is what you have to work with after a match. That's where the tire hits the rubber, adjustments are made, strategies refined and you build together as a team for the next battle down the road. That's what this four day mini camp in Las Vegas was all about and regardless of what the outcome on day 4 was, it's where our battle begins for Warriors Nation.

Game day against the men from Toronto was a chance to gain experience as individuals and as a team as a whole.

COMPOSED

“The composure of an army is the anger of a nation.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Steady was the course as the bus took us from the hotel to the rugby pitch. The eagerness to get there has been months in the making. What Toronto Arrows had in store for us didn't matter, it's what we brought with us that mattered most. We arrive, we prep, we get our minds right and we execute the job we came to do.

GAME TIME

This was our first official hit out together as a team. What we've been systematically implementing over the past months were put to the task. This was an opportunity for everyone to prove their worth as individuals contributing to the bigger picture. It was a time to learn, adjust and improvise within our system.

As the game progressed

The match was setup as two halves with 20 minute quarters. This gave us a chance to give all our combinations a chance to get some game time.

Toronto put up a good side against us. To maximize exposure we rotated around 30 players in, so as far as a program goes it was a fantastic day of rugby! We learnt a few good lessons as we came up against a well drilled Toronto side, in the first period we entered the Toronto 22 numerous times and didn't come away with points.

"The awesome thing is that we are putting ourselves in a position to score, we just have to take advantage of them if we want to be competitive in a very strong league. All in all the Vegas mini camp was fantastic for us as a group, we have a lot of new faces and came together as a team." – Shaun Davies, Utah Warriors Assistant Coach

The last 40 minutes of our Toronto Arrows scrimmage was great to watch as we had a very young team out there running against Toronto's best. As testament to what we're putting together for the long run.

"It was great to see our domestic recruitment efforts paying off with the showing by our young Warrior Selects players. Credit to Chris and his staff for developing these players at such an incredible rate and the players themselves for buying into learning new things." - Brandon Sparks, Director of Rugby Operations

TAKE AWAYS

Patience

Whilst we dominated both territory and possession in the first 40 minutes we failed to capitalize by scoring tries. We showed patches of good rugby and when we stuck to the systems we proved we can be very effective and dominate. The first 40 minutes concluded that we needed to stick to our structures more consistently and be far more patient when it comes to converting opportunities.

Defense is Key

Our defense system worked when implemented consistently. The second 40 minutes revealed that when we drove our opponents out out of our 22 back into their side of the field in a series of 4 defensive cycles. Several players putting in multiple big defensive tackles notably Dom Toluolo, Jurie Van Vuuran.

"Overall we showed that if we stick to the things we have been working on during the off season we can be a very effective team both in attack and defense. We clearly need to be consistent. Individually we need to know what our own role is and effectively execute those roles." – Chris Latham, Utah Warriors Head Coach

KICK OFF IN 15 DAYS!

The days and weeks keep getting closer to our 2020 Major League Rugby season campaign kick off. Every bit of detail matters. It's only forward and upward from here. We're locked in and RELOADED for season 3 in Major League Rugby