A thankfully dry day on Parker’s Piece hosted what has got to be one of the hardest and most controversial games of Ultimate in my time at DCU. As I turned up to watch Lions vs. Darkside, my first concern was where on earth I could fit an ultimate sized pitch into the worryingly crowded green space around us. Mercifully, a rugby training session finished at about 12.45 and allowed me to set up the pitch despite lacking a few cones (cheers to SD for donating some from his stash at home, and for pointing out that I’d set it up too small – my bad guys, classic ‘arts student who hasn’t used a ruler in about two years’ error).

Homerton showed up about ten to and, after a quick warm-up, the match got under way at 13.05. We came out strong, with pulls soaring, hucks raking up the pitch and suffocating their offense on turn. While each individual was playing their hardest what was really impressive and what almost brought a tear to my newly captained eye was how well we gelled as a team. Everyone knew their role and what it involved and we were so quick on turn that Homerton just could not keep up. Seriously, that first cutter – usually Fraser or Jon - was so alert and made sure that, as soon as stalling began, the handler had a legitimate cut screaming for it. Jon, Jess and Will also set the stack quickly and correctly and made sure that people knew where they were cutting into, while handling from NOwen, Will and SD was nice and chilly, but explosive when necessary. One thing which NOwen rightly identified that we could improve on here was resetting the stack after a completed throw. After that first completion, be it to first cutter or to a dump, that stall resets to zero so it is paramount that we reset the vert stack and have that early first cut again. We didn’t do this on a couple of points and it meant the field was often crowded and difficult to make decent cuts into.

When it was on, SD or NOwen boosted it to the deep threat in the endzone, which some might consider a pretty cheap play but in fairness it worked for us a lot and I do not feel that we should avoid a play that is working just on principle (and which is pretty easy to defend if you’re quicker on D or poach deep). Also it’s far from an easy thing to pull off, as the huck has to be massive and accurate and the cutter has to read it and run really hard to get on the end of it. I definitely felt that several of this week’s training drills regarding reading the disc made this play a viable option. Credit must also go to Fraser and Jon who kept chasing even if they were not going to be the one on the end of the huck: several times myself or someone else read it correctly, got the catch but was just outside the endzone and they were there more often than not, swooping in for the killer catch to nab the point.

We took about three points in a row until we conceded, but we managed to maintain this lead until the half – which we definitely took at 7-4, despite the later confusion. All credit to Homerton however (and particularly Tom Cozens) who changed up their play in order to cover our deep threats – usually taking the form of Cozens poaching way deep to nullify our boosting threats. This left one player, usually Julia or Joanna, really free and I was impressed with the amount of times they showed how dangerous it was to poach them, catching quick discs again and again and most importantly staying chilly and seeing their dumps. There were also some excellent catches from Tom Claxton and Claire Burgess during this passage of play, who more importantly stayed calm on the ensuing dump throws. We held on to our lead till time went and the ‘soft cap till 11’ period of play began.

Something went wrong here Eagles: a combination of general fatigue, injury on NOwen (self-inflicted, his right index finger lost in a fight with a Homerton leg while he was putting a disc...), Homerton picking their game up considerably and my inability to think of a way around their deep poach meant that they scored no less than six points on the trot. I will hold up my hand here and say that I had the ‘we only need one point to win it so let’s just do what we’re doing but harder’ blinkers on, meaning that our tactics remained largely the same for too long. After a couple of Homerton scores, I called a time out and brought everyone in to regroup. Props to SD for suggesting iso as an alternative at this point and for putting himself forward for the iso position: he ran extremely hard at the back end of the game to give us some real options on O. We couldn’t capitalise however, despite getting almost to their endzone on several occasions. It was messy in there Eagles and Homerton brought out some pretty hard D to keep us out – endzone discipline is something we are going to cover in training this week so come along if you can. Homerton brought the score up to 10-10.

There was some confusion as to whether this was the actual score here with players on both sides seeming unsure as to whether Homerton had won or if there was one more point. Eventually the tried and tested method of using ends to work out odds or evens meant that neither team was ahead at that point (we were at the end which meant the scores had to be evens meaning that the total score could only be equal or one team being two points ahead which was certainly not the case) meaning that there was definitely another point to play.

And what a sweet point it was: I don’t remember much about it (in fact my memory of the game as you may have noticed is slightly fuzzy with only the highlights standing out – put it down to being knackered right now) save for the iso (SD) working well to get free and then jacking it to me in the endzone. It felt vindicating to win DCU but I’d have preferred a cleaner victory. SD closely missed out on MVP which was awarded to me in the end. That meant a lot Eagles, appreciate it. There were several spirit issues, with some overly physical play and the last point contention souring the win a bit, which resulted in a low spirit score from us. I’d like to commend you for showing that indomitable spirit that I love and for refusing to lie down and accept a Homerton comeback. It was a hard match Eagles, but someone had to win it: I for one am very happy that it was us. We deserved it.

- Draves