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Show y v v Muckers, Haggis clash in tournament tuneup by David Mueller In what could be called a tuneup for the season finale (this weekend's Thirteenth Annual Park City Rugby Challenge Cup), the Park City Muckers arranged a third 1983 encounter with Haggis Touring Side on Labor Day. The match was played in Woods Cross and the result on the scoreboard wasn't much different than the two previous meetings between the local rivals this year: Haggis 20, Park City 10. Haggis had prevailed early in the season, 10-0 and again on the Fourth of July, 28-13. The contest was played under a scrimmage format; free substitution was allowed between the three 20-minute periods. This allowed each club to shift players into different positions for experience that may prove valuable in this week's tournament. The first period was controlled con-trolled by Park City, playing with surprising intensity against the larger and more experienced Haggis club. C.R. Downing keyed an effort ef-fort in the Park City forward pack which kept possession of the ball and moved play repeatedly into the Haggis end. Unfortunately the Muckers missed several chances to score and the 20 minutes ended with the tally still at 0-0. Haggis was given the benefit of a Mucker mistake right at the outset of the second period. Off a backline handling error, Pisa Finai broke through on his first run of the day; The Muckers got a break when Finai's pass for a sure try was knocked-on by a teammate, but on the ensuing scrum, Dave Sundquist failed to win his own hook and Ray Mar-cetta Mar-cetta put over the first try of the afternoon for the Haggis. Marcetta converted for a 6-0 Haggis advantage. The Muckers roared back upfield, led by some creative scrum half play by John Sundquist. But Haggis' defense stiffened near its own goal and the Muckers had to reach down for some reserve to gain their first try of the match. Doug Shewmaker eventually touched down on a scrum pushover after the two forward for-ward eights had packed against each other for the third time. Ken Tedford's difficult goal from a wide angle deadlocked the contest at6-6. At the outset of the third period the Haggis rallied behind the return of veteran Fred Hobbs. With Hobbs taking control of the middle of the lineout, Haggis had its best possession of the day and seTIlsTtecHineTnto a senes of movements that had been stifled by the Muckers until this juncture. Haggis put three unanswered unan-swered tries into the Mucker in-goal, two by flanker Larry Eldrocker and one by Finai ' to run the count to 20-6. The Muckers managed a late-match try to round out the scoring. A burst on the blind side by winger Jack Gchirman set up Buddy Macchia for the Park City tally but once again the Muckers came up short, 20-10. 20-10. Mucker Muddlings Park City's chances for a good showing in this week's Challenge Cup seem to binge on the club breaking through an intensity barrier that has troubled them all season. The side has taken inexperienced inex-perienced players and veterans alike and played some segments of good rugby. But reflected in their 3-10-2 record is a tendency to let down and allow the opponent op-ponent to score points in insurmountable in-surmountable bunches. It has become apparent that this 1983 Mucker edition is , capable, but loses sight of its goals at some very peculiar times on field. For the locals to perform at championship level this weekend, they are going to have to go very deep into the well indeed. |