Ten-Try Academy Earns Comprehensive Victory Over New England

The Toronto Arrows Academy scored early and often in their 64-7 victory over the New England Independents at Crusaders Park on Saturday evening.

Flanker Dan Svoboda scored twice for the second consecutive match, while winger Collin Smibert, flanker Dylan Di Girolamo, fullback Brian Fitzpatrick, scrum-half Adam Doyle, winger JC Vinette, flanker Caleb Hickey, winger Tom Dunlop, and prop Omar Abu Alnaaj also crossed over for the Young Arrows. Fitzpatrick slotted seven conversions.

Buoyed by an imposing scrum and expansive attack, the Academy rarely took its foot off the pedal against a New England side that featured players with Major League Rugby experience.

 

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Smibert opened the scoring barely four minutes into the match, with quick hands down the attacking line springing the London, Ont. product. The winger evaded a couple of would-be tacklers before opening up space with a show-and-go to race in untouched for the first of 10 Arrows tries on the day.

The Young Arrows would have their second try just five minutes later, and it was the result of an outstanding solo effort on both sides of the ball. Following a New England lineout deep in the away side’s own territory, Svoboda laid a crushing tackle on the ball carrier just a metre off the try line; Di Girolamo was first to the breakdown, and in rapid-fire succession, the flanker ripped the ball out of the carrier’s hands, spotted a gap, and proceeded to dive into the in-goal area for a blink-of-an-eye score.

It was another supreme piece of individual skill that led to the Arrows’ third tally, this one coming just ahead of the water break. With big pressure from the home side leading to an Independents’ goalline drop-out, the kicked ball landed in the hands of Fitzpatrick, who dodged and weaved around defenders en route to a memorable 40-metre try.

Late tries from Doyle and Vinette — a crafty pick-five intercept, followed by a short-range pick-and-go — put the hosts ahead 31-0 leading into halftime.

It was more of the same coming out of the interval, with Svoboda and Hickey scoring near-identical bashing tries in the first five minutes of the second frame.

Academy debutant Dunlop got his name on the scoresheet moments before the second-half water break, receiving the ball along the left touchline and coolly darting in for the five-pointer on just his second touch of the match.

Three minutes later, local Oakville product Abu Alnaaj dotted down after receiving a remarkable offload from his club teammate David Scollon.

An Independents try from centre Richard Cabral, converted by 50-cap MLR veteran Holden Yungert, put the away side on the board, but the final word went to Svoboda, who barged across the whitewash on the final play of the match to secure his fourth try over his previous two Academy matches.

“With the heat and playing against a team with some MLR players, we never knew what to expect coming in, but I’m really happy with the boys’ performance,” said Academy Director and Head Coach Cory Hector. “We asked them to front-up physically to start, and I thought right from the start we were physical on both the tackle and the cleanout especially, and then we let our skills do the work.”

“We were able to play an expansive game, which resulted in a lot of tries, and we also played the game in the right areas, with our 10 and our 15 really helping us with their feet, so we often were launching in the right parts of the field.”

Hector noted how with a half-dozen matches in the Academy program’s inaugural campaign now complete and under the players’ belts, the team is really starting to jell.

“We’ve been consistent with our emphasis on skills across our regional training sites, and while we’ve rotated through some players for matches, we’ve had a very consistent nucleus of this team. That nucleus might change a little bit every other game, but for the most part we’ve got guys who have now played five, six games together, and I think that cohesion of a good group of guys really makes a difference. We’re able to rotate other guys in who can make positive impacts, allowing us to grow our player pool.”

Looking ahead, it’s short rest for the Young Arrows; the Academy will square off against Scottish Super 6 side Melrose at Sherwood Forest Park in Burlington on Thursday evening. The nine-time Scottish champions have produced several Scottish internationals, including Doddie Weir (two of his sons will be included in the touring squad), Craig Chalmers, Bryan Redpath, Jim Telfer, and, more recently, Kelly Brown.

“For our guys, it’ll be about getting their recovery done, but part of the benefit of this program is that sometimes in MLR you only get a five-day turnaround, so our Academy guys will get to experience that,” added Hector. “We’ll be bringing in some guys with MLR experience on Thursday, which will help raise some of the energy and enthusiasm of some of the guys who only get five days off, so I think we’ll be in good shape leading into the game.”

 

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Toronto Arrows Academy Score Report:

Tries: Dan Svoboda 2 (43, 80+4), Collin Smibert (4), Dylan Di Girolamo (9), Brian Fitzpatrick (18), Adam Doyle (28), JC Vinette (40), Caleb Hickey (45), Tom Dunlop (57), Omar Abu Alnaaj (60)
Conversions: Brian Fitzpatrick 7 (5, 29, 40+1, 44, 46, 61, 80+5)

New England Independents Score Report:

Tries: Richard Cabral (64)
Conversions: Holden Yungert (65)

Toronto Arrows Academy Lineup vs. New England Independents:

1. Aidan Vachon
2. David Scollon
3. Evan Roy
4. Tom Richards
5. Carter Smith
6. Dylan Di Girolamo
7. Dan Svoboda
8. Hank Stevenson
9. Adam Doyle
10. James Deacy
11. Collin Smibert
12. Liam McLaughlin (C)
13. Aidan McMullan
14. JC Vinette
15. Brian Fitzpatrick
16. Omar Abu Alnaaj
17. Jeremy Grimard
18. Caleb Hickey
20. Owen Cumming
21. Wyatt Brown
22. Josh Eustace
23. Tom Dunlop