Rugby Georgia started its 2nd half of the spring 15s season after The Phoenix and Barbarians returned from the Carolina Ruggerfest and others returned from a weekend in Vegas as members of the USA South Panther’s 7s squads. 

Going into the weekend the Phoenix were undefeated and in first place, followed by the Titans, Trojans and Barbarians.

Phoenix/Trojans

The highlight of the weekend was Round 2 of the heated but always entertaining Phoenix/Trojans rivalry.  The first place Phoenix traveled to Marietta’s Noonday Park coming off a 3-1 effort in Charlotte the previous weekend.  As always the intensity was high as the teams battled back and forth. The Phoenix Ollie Kennett converted a penalty kick in the 4th minute of the match to put the Phoenix on the board first.  In the 8th minute Trojans fly-half Freddie Purdy connected on his first of five successful penalty kicks to notch the score at 3-3. In the 10th minute the Phoenix struck on a play that was a work of rugby art. Brandon Crabtree of Phoenix won the lineout, tapping the ball to scrumhalf Nikko Koumandarakis, who pitched the ball to Mitch Blair.  He dished the ball to fleet Chris Bagby, who found the gap in the Trojans backline, made the last defender commit, and passed it Ollie Kennett who then passed the ball to Adrian Faz for the try.  The conversion was successful and the Phoenix had a 10-3 lead. Freddie Purdy kicked two additional penalty kicks to cut the lead to a point before halftime.

The second half was dominated by the Trojans, who spent most of the time in the Phoenix end of the field.  However tight defense and some costly turnovers kept the score unchanged until Purdy slotted his 4th penalty kick in the 57th minute to give the Trojans a 12-10 lead.  In the 60th minute with the Phoenix advancing, Trojans captain Shea O’Hanlon picked off an errant Phoenix pass and raced 70 meters for the try and a 19-10 lead.  However, the Phoenix were relentless and flanker Bennett Erickson scored in the 67th to close the gap to 19-17.  The Trojans' Purdy scored his final penalty kick as time expired to give the Trojans a 22-17 victory.  Purdy accounted for 17 of the Trojan’s 22 points and was named Man of the Match.   If the two meet again this season it will be for the state championship.

Barbarians/Titans

In other action the Titans beat the Barbarians 62-0.  The Titans were led by Sean O’Driscoll with 3 tries.

In the JV level, Phoenix defeated the Trojans 34-5, led by Logann Cridick, Ari Lorentz, and Erik Cooper. The Barbarians defeated the Titans 10-5 as Captain Joey Britt scored a try in this epic defensive struggle.