Rebellion take down the Knights in NY – Move to 3-0
On a hot humid day on Randall’s Island with temp’s reaching in the 90’s the Rhode Island Rebellion traveled down to New York to face the Knights for the first time in both club’s history.
The Knights had participated and been a founding club of the AMNRL from 1998 until its final season as a competition 2013 winning 4 championships. In 2015 the Knights joined the USA Rugby League along with the Wildcats, and Sharks which has given the Rebellion a chance to face these clubs for the first time in history.
The Rebellion a founding member of the USA Rugby League in 2011 and having been founded themselves in 2011, knew they had a tough job in front of them. All eyes would be watching to see if the Rebellion, who have been in the top quarter of the USARL standings over the past few years, would hold up against some of the best USA teams now that all teams are participating in the USA Rugby League.
As along with the Knights, several former top club’s from the AMNRL, that have been in existence many years longer than the RIR, have joined the competition. With the pressure on and the stage set, the Rebellion took the field.
The game started off quickly for the Rebellion as they capitalized off of a few mistakes by the Knights and by 20 minutes into the first half the Rebellion were sitting on top 14-4. The experience and mental toughness of the Knights led by coach Guillaume Cieutat would not let the score line dictate the Knights attitude. The Knights responded to Rebellion’s lead capitalizing off of mental mistakes, handling errors and ill thought out fancy play as the Knights jousted their way back to 14-14 at halftime.
The Rebellion re-grouped and focused on the basics in the second half. Despite the heat and humidity, the Rebellion in an effort to display their maturity and growth this season, approached the second half with calmness and poise focusing on the basics which allowed them to pull away from the Knights. Instead of trying to do too much each player focused on their job and executed their task. Strong defensive efforts followed by the team completing their offensive sets allowed the Rebellion to build pressure to put up 26 points in the second half. The Knight’s refusing to go away put in a few tries of their own. However in the end the Rebellion proved victorious over the Knight’s putting up 40 points to 26.
Franklin Noesis representing E-Cubed high school from the American Youth Rugby League Association’s Providence High School Competition, made his debut in the purple for RIR in this weekend’s win over the New York Knights.
Jonathan Gergler also made his debut for the RIR and participated in his first Rugby League game. He is another one of our Johnson & Wales Rugby Union students coming out to play for the Rhode Island Rebellion who have helped us get to our current 3-0 record.
The win has moved the Rebellion to 3-0 on the season, and into first place in the Northeast Division. The Rebellion are tied with the Philadelphia Fight for first place in the USA Rugby League. The win marks the first time the Rebellion have started a season 3-0.