Sub-18 Cup Runneth Over

Micah Marques Mira on splendid form

Sub-18s demolish Montemor to reach quarter finals. View images and read match report here.

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Click here to view Peter Fay's images from the game: http://goo.gl/TVx6h

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Match Report by Damian Steele

Some expert spectators compared the performance to the legendary 1991 Wallabies, while others likened it to the modern era All Blacks who have comprehensively dominated world rugby for the past decade.  Funnily enough, no one mentioned the 2003 World Cup winning English side, but that is probably because tries were the weapon of choice rather than drop goals or penalties.  Whatever comparisons were drawn, there was no arguing that the Sub 18´s 60 points to 10 Cup victory against Montemor on Sunday afternoon was a breathtaking performance for the ages.

Despite unfortunately losing Borat (Martim Cruz) in the first minute of the game, the boys showed their intent to play ball in hand and were rewarded with their first try on the fourth phase of the match - a long range strike after good go forward from the forwards, involving effective running lines and offloading between forwards and backs alike. So, the plot was set very early and would play out as expected for the duration of the 70 minutes.

The front row of Sam Heger, Mathieu Rodrigues and Tobias Tirei were immense.  The scrum was as dominant as a fat kid on a cup cake and these boys constantly went forward and did the dirty work, which allowed the show ponies with two numbers on their back to run amok.  

Borat spectacularly caught the kick off, then he was gone.....again :(  The show went on though and our resident Palm Tree (Ricardo Alves) and Spider (Andre Gomes) owned the lineout and tackled, ran and offloaded like inside backs.  We also had two unique situations from these boys today, with Palm Tree receiving his first yellow card (for his 57th late tackle of the season*) and Spider not dropping one ball* (let alone 7).

Ben Hubert and Jaime Almeida did what they do, tackle, ruck, tackle, ruck, catch-run-offload, tackle, ruck, tackle, ruck.  Tom Vilar propelled his body around the field like an out of control missile, and when he hit his targets it was a thing of beauty.  For the St Julian´s players and spectators that was, not the Montemor players or the referee who at one point gave a penalty for "tackling too hard"*.  

Our resident leprachaun (Evin Fay) provided quality service for the pretty boys on the back of quality go forward from the pigs, and threw his coat hanger like shoulders into any Montemor player that carried the ball near him.  The Forrest Gump (Tomas Reid) of yesteryear returned from hiding, and showed all the skills that have earnt him his place in the Sub 19 Portugal 7´s squad (round of applause please).  He passed, ran and kicked effectively, tackled like battering ram beating down a drawbridge made of paper mache, and scored, 1 or 5 tries* and had a hand in 17 others*. 

Tomas Silva enjoyed his first outing in three months and his added size and strength from 3 months in the gym* and a late onset of puberty, were a definite asset as he terrorised Montemor in attack and defence.  Our pocket rockets Andreia Razvan and Thomas Pimenta were like rats on speed as they constantly slipped through the Montemor defence, and Santiago Oriol beat 17 defenders every time he touched the ball*.  Santi also had a successful stint at flyhalf in the latter stages, including several left-to-right passes, which were as rare as hairs on Sam Heger´s top lip this time last year.

While everyone contributed extremely well, one man was without a doubt the star of the show.  Micah Mira made 9740metres with the ball in his hands*, gave 93 effective offloads* (some of which were misbehaviour of the highest order and suggest Fijian heritage as opposed to South African as is claimed), scored 12 tries*, set up 14 tries* and tackled anyone that ran near him.  It was a very impressive performance from Micah, who dominated the field just as Mr Thomas Rains use to do at Inside Centre for the Lisbon Casuals.  Rumour has it that Mr Rains has already contacted Micah to learn how to catch, pass, offload, score tries, and run with straight legs.

The following players also contributed greatly to today´s result from the bench: Antoine Collard, Tomas Avillez Pereira, Sebastian Bader, Charlie Frost, Alisdair Glasgow and Ricardo Urollis, and Manuel Jorge, Diogo Silva and Antonio Rodrigues supported wonderfully from the bleachers, after having stand out matches in the friendly earlier in the day.  

As good as today´s result was for the Sub 18´s, leading Club President Mr Mount to state, "To be honest, it was the greatest display of running rugby in the history of the universe.  It was a pleasure to watch and Mr Steele, Mr Ferris, and all the Sub 18 squad should be being paid thousands of euros a day to provide entertainment like that"*, there's more work to be done.

This week the boys will be back at training, working their gas tanks off in preparation for next Sunday´s Championship match against Cascais.  They´ve set their standards high, but are determined to maintain that level over the ensuing Cup and Championship matches.

* - Information may not be entirely accurate, but there´s also the strong possibility that it is.

Score - St Julian´s 60 - Montemor 10

Tries - Lots to everyone

Conversions - Not that many

Man of the Match - Micah Mira