“First half started off with a blitz. We applied pressure and used up a RR, but failed our gfi which left the ball open to recovery by the slann. They recovered but missed the placement of our ST 5 lineman, who was able to block away the protection and open a 3d blitz on the ballcarrier - which burned another RR, but knocked the ball free. We picked up a few removals as well as the ref favored us greatly and this allowed us to stall out the half.

In the second half, we had no need to score - and so did not bother protecting the ball very much - instead sucking in the slann to give us extra juicy blocks. The plan only half worked as the armor of the slann was stout in the second half. We did get them to over-commit and use up their RRs early. We left the ball wide open to attack since they lacked the numbers to both hit the ball and recover/secure it. We were happy with a wide open melee as it allowed us to focus hitting on the few slann that could still turn the game around.

Late in the game, the slann did not have anyone in scoring position - and since we were up 1-0, scoring was no needed - just gravy. Still, the numbers and position advantage was plenty good that we used apoth on the KO on Aidan (whom we wanted to score with) - and it paid off as he scored and now gives us a ST 4 blodger to help get us past some upcoming orcs.

Thanks for the game - and have no doubt, if the score and number of players on the field was different in the second half - I would have played differently - but I play to the situation and the fact this was round 1 of a longer tournament.”