Costa Ruggers battle League Champs in final match!
The Mira Costa Rugby team wrapped up their 2020 campaign by taking on an extremely formidable opponent in the St. Augustine Saints. The Saints came into the match undefeated and despite an extremely gutsy performance by the Mustangs, St. Augustine kept their unblemished mark. The Saints played almost the entire first half in Costa territory and rarely gave up possession. At half the score was 0-42 and they only question left was how bad the score would be. Nevertheless, in true Rugby Culture the Saints emptied their bench and the second half was evenly played, spirited and fun to watch.
The Costa boys (whose starting 15 included 4 Freshman, 5 Sophomores and 5 Junior) were able to compete against the younger Saints players as the Mustangs went on the attack. Costa drove deep into Saint territory where Fullback Van Graw fielded a St. A punt from deep in their own Try Zone. Graw took the punt at the 35 meter mark and made an amazing run to return it for a Costa Try. Fyl-half Giuseppe Meola, converted for the Mustangs. Not long after it was Team Captain, Scrum-half Christian Hunter who took a penalty from 8 meters out and found pay dirt. Meola converted. The final was 14-64 in what could have easily been a lot worse except for the great sportsmanship displayed by the St. Augustine Saints. Costa ends a difficult year at 2-6. This was disappointing for their 5 lone seniors, however the future appears very bright as the Mustangs will return a slew of excellent players for next year’s 2021 campaign. We thank our seniors for their hard work and wish them the best as they move on to higher education. We also look forward to our 7s season which starts this weekend. |