| The History of the West Coast Tigers |
| The History of the West Coast Tigers |
The first ever game was a friendly played at home against the Stirling Broncos which we won 19-18 after we scored on the last play of the game and scored the two-point conversion on an audibled play.
The second game was part of the pre-match entertainment at the Claymores' - Barcelona game, though entertaining is not a very accurate description. Our shirts had still not arrived at this time and as most players were more interested in the game afterwards, we went down 35 - 0.
The next two pre-season games gave us nothing more than a roasting from our coaches.
The opening games of our season were played at Scotstoun, Glasgow, against Glasgow surprisingly enough, and Fort William. We beat Fort William (30 - 14) and managed to hold on against Glasgow (21 - 18) despite an offensive demise in the fourth quarter. The next games were at home with East Kilbride and Glasgow providing the opposition. While we managed to beat the Lions again (24 - 6), we had a much tougher time against the Pirates. The final score was 12 - 19, although it was a vast improvement in performance since the exhibition game.
When we arrived at East Kilbride we found out that Fort William had folded and we were awarded the win. The coaching staff decided to play a full game with clock stoppages which looking back on they admitted was probably not such a good idea. The final score was 86 - 0 to the Pirates, and the fault, I believe, lies solely at the feet of the players. Before the game our starting QB tells me that he doesn't have a clue about our new offense, and we find out in the first quarter that the slot back doesn't know what his position is never mind where to line up! Comments could be made about the refereeing such as rules made up during the game, but the outcome had already been decided.
The semi-final was played at Dundee, the first meeting between the two teams. Up to half time we were very much in the game if not leading but ended up losing 51-20. Despite missing a starting safety, outside linebacker and defensive tackle, and half the team playing both ways, our performance was as good as a win in light of the previous week's debacle.
The 3rd/4th place playoff was played at Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh where we met the West Lothian Chargers. In a bad-tempered, rain drenched game, I think the final score was 12/13/14 - 6 in favour of West Lothian, although the official score was strangely given as 18 - 6.
We'd made it through our first season with an even overall record and played what I still consider to be our best games : Stirling in the first ever game, East Kilbride at home, and Dundee in the playoffs.
At the re-start the numbers and weather were slightly better allowing some kind of coaching to take place. Changes were needed on the o-line as Martin Gilbey was probably going to be too old when the season started (we had to wait and see) and I was already ineligible. This coupled with the fact that one starting DT who was a backup on the offensive line was unlikely to return, made the season ahead already look pretty bleak. Too many players came and then left before the season began to list them all, few even played in any of the pre-season friendlies.
The coaching staff decided that all OL, DL, and LBs would rotate (as was supposed to happen last year), in fact just about ever player played both sides of the ball during the course of the season.
Week 1 was a trip up to East Kilbride to play last season's runners-up, the Pirates. At this point we were reasonably confident that this year we would still be in it at the 4th quarter (as opposed to being out of it in the 2nd last year). So, there was Stuart (injured) and me in Jim's car slowing around the countryside when the car decided it didn't want to go to East Kilbride and left us on a hill near some fields and a house. Not only did this leave the rest of the team with only one coach (Davie, as Chris would be reffing), we also had all the balls, flags and water bottles. We lost.
Weeks 2 and 3 were at home (Kilmarnock rugby club now) against Glasgow and Lothian, which we should have won comfortably but half-time arse about and the now legendary second half slump saw to that. We did win though.
On the Saturday before week 4, one flying elbow, and a burst retina later left center Andrew Corney out of the next day's game, out for the season, and according to doctors, out for the rest of his career. We travelled to Stirling (and arrived at about 11) where the game was to kick off at 12. So, 1:05 it was then. The skills of blocking and tackling were discarded and the game flowed from end to end, sideline to sideline etc.. The only bright spots was when Ally Kirkwood was ejected for touching the official (oo-er), Chris, and Smith's 85 yard interception return for a TD.
The big game against Dundee was now upon us although it was switched with the away game so now we were at home. This schedule alteration did not help us later on but I'll get to that later. As with the rest of the league it appeared that Dundee had lost players as well. I felt we were better defensively but our 3-back offense was still not as smooth as it should have been. An amazing 8! sacks from Ian Rolfe was probably what kept us in the game at times, though the containment was at it's usual transparent level. Two plays come to mind from this game. 1. the interception return for a TD where QB Michael McManus rushed out to tackle the defender only to miss the flag, while the rest of the offense participated in an amazing rendition of "we are the rock-men, watch us stay still while they score" (also played by the defense on occasion). 2. Jim deciding to go for 2 after our last TD, only for Hammy to throw a flag on it for offside against us, leaving us with a 15 yard play to win it or lose all we had played for so far. Surprisingly enough we didn't score, though mumblings of "... going for 2 ...", "... draw ...", and "... shh he's coming ..." were blown around the trees.
Home against East Kilbride was next up, leaving me in charge of the defense, stats, and down marker (joy!). The choice of sideline didn't help as we were joined by the thousands of spiders living in the trees behind us. Even if you discount Smith's 71 yard TD reverse, we still finished with a rushing average of 5.2 so 31 passing attempts (including a record 5 interceptions) just doesn't seem right to me somehow, but what does a defensive assistant know.
Once again I was in charge of the defense though no down marker as Glasgow didn't have one (or chains). Justin was out for this game leaving us short on the o-line/d-line/LB positions and Stuart getting the point of the ball right in his lens didn't help much. Despicable pass coverage from the defensive backs, NO pass rush, and allegations of blocking with the HEAD! achieved a 37 - 0 scoreline in the Lions' favour. Our biggest play was when Ian hit a monster 82 yard punt which rolled just inside their endzone unfortunately. Right at the end of the game Davie told the offense to take a knee to run out the clock on our last drive to avoid any more injuries. This however is actually a secret code which when it reaches the brains of our players invokes the previously unknown qualities of desire, spirit, and determination giving us our biggest gain of the day, and an 80yd TD run negated by the trying-not-to-be-biased-towards-us-but-in-fact-being biased-towards-our-opponents Chris who threw a flag on a block which I thought was alright, but I would say that wouldn't I.
Right. Stirling at home. I was prepared, all new defense set-up only to find that 3 players had decided that they couldn't play one more game, they had to go and train with their new Uni team which they were going to play for another 3 or 4 years. Two not showing up to training and the other one guaranteeing me he would be at the game I would have said they were finished with the team. But I'm not in charge of these things. The amazing secret defense held Stirling's rushing to only 66 yards (quite possibly for the first time ever) nearly 200 (!) less than our previous meeting. Us 7 them 6.
The game against Dundee was in serious doubt as we were nearly unable to field a team due to injuries, and morons. The players decided that they wanted to play so the bus journey began. Walshee managed to miss the train to Irvine so we went with 10 players. Davie decided that we were going long on our first play. After they picked me up I watched as Mick's pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. At half-time we were down 20 - 6 having scored on Mick's 69yd bootleg. I tried to change to a 3-3 but this just seemed to make things worse, Dundee running away with a 38 - 6 final score. Hats go off to Scott Couper for reffing the game though, and ejecting a Dundee player for punching our receiver in the mouth because he was being blocked. Go back to golf mate.
Another long trip up to Livingstone to play the Chargers ended in Chris refusing to have anything to do with the team anymore (though he calmed down later), and us with a record low 3 first downs and ZERO passing yards. Obscure refereeing (more made up rules) and no-one on the sideline gave me time to wonder why the hell I still try. Ian had a 17 tackles, breaking his old record of 13.
The 5th/6th place play-off (don't ask why) was played at Meadowbank stadium once again against Loathian. One old and one new player arrived at a great time (better than nothing) but star defender and punter Ian couldn't come. I really thought we could have won this game, if we had an offense that is. We scored on Walshee's int return and gave away a safety for the second week in a row (we should have just punted on first down), eventually losing 9 - 6.