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By Pat Clifton
The Glendale Raptors go for their third-straight Sweet 16 bid Saturday against Dallas inside the friendly confines of Infinity Park, but director of rugby for Glendale, Mark Bullock, isn’t expecting Dallas to be intimidated by the Glendale name or home pitch.
“We’re expecting a team that’s going to come up here that’s going to be all fired up about knocking us off,” he said. “We’re obviously expecting a tough game from them.” One man who could make it especially tough on the Raptors is Dallas wing Kelly Kolberg. “We’ve got to be really aware of Kelly Kolberg,” said Bullock. “He’s had some really barn burning try scoring sessions these last few games.”
For Glendale, the key to slowing down Kolberg will be keeping the ball out of his hands, and when he gets it, making sure there’s a lot of grass between him and five points.
“From our standpoint, we (have to) maintain and keep possession of the ball and keep territory,” said Bullock. “We’ve been working hard to improve our defense, and we’ll see how we go.”
Though Kolberg is a legitimate threat to score nearly anytime he touches the ball and Dallas has earned its way to this level of competition, they were a Shreveport conversion away from sitting at home this weekend instead of making the trip to Colorado. For that reason, and the fact Glendale hung 55 points on the Denver Barbos in their last league match, makes the Raptors the favorites this weekend.
When a team is a prohibitive favorite and is playing in their own comfy backyard, like Glendale, there’s always the chance they could rest on the hammock a little too long while the underdog visitors make off with the goods. This isn’t a scenario Bullock is worried about.
“We’ve had a significant turnover (this Spring), particularly in our backs, so we’ve got new guys who are keen to play and keen to improve themselves,” he said. “In addition to that, we’ve only been in existence for four years, so I wouldn’t say anything’s old hat. Our guys are fired up and excited about having the opportunity…Our training sessions this week have been pretty focused.”
Oh, and then there’s the possibility of the ole look-ahead factor. If Glendale beats Dallas, they’re likely to see Belmont Shore in the first round of nationals. Belmont Shore’s reputation precedes them, and their unblemished record and perfect 30 league points this season (meaning they bonus pointed in every game) shows they haven’t lowered their level of play after dropping to DI from the Super League this year.
“A year ago, we came into the round of 16 and we had Olympic Club, and they were considered to be the top team, and we were not quite in the same boat as they were,” said Bullock “We managed get up to play that game. (Glendale beat Olympic 8-7.) If we get to the round of 16 in Austin and we have Belmont Shore, because they’re favored I’m sure to beat East Palo Alto, we’ll prepare ourselves and look forward to playing them.”
A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to Dallas RFC as DARC
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