After an early penalty kick for 3 from Russel, DARC wasn't able to put a scoring attack together.  Some dropped passes and slow-ish support were the main problems.  But the Mad Dogs were able to score one and convert it.

Second half did not start well.  DARC started pressuring with several phases near the Midland 22, but a Mad Dog forward pinched a nice ball and was through the line, catching the DARC defense, especially the our fast wings, off-guard and flat-footed.  He chugged 70 m in for a try, which was converted.

Finally, down 14-3, with 20 minutes remaining, DARC got fired up.  A break through run from Voss up the far side put us in Midland territory.  A few other good drives from others, including Sam up the far side put us knocking on their door.  The forwards drove in close, pounding the far corner in several phases, then spinning it out to the backs where Russell got straight through and dotted it down politlely for 5, and then converted it.

After taking the kick again, DARC attacked the nearside with a couple of great runs.  A few ruck phrases and Drew shook loose to get close to the line and offloaded under pressure to Kyle who scored it.  Timmy took the conversion to give us the lead: 17 to 14.

But there was still a good 10 minutes left in the game, and Midland pressured hard.  I think the remainder of the game was played in our half with the DARC defense stepping up and preventing the Mad Dogs from getting clean and unpressured ball to their backs.  Their powerful wing nearly broke through on the near side, Rashaad tried to tackle him three times but was unable to take him to deck without help, but slowing him down allowed other defenders to get there and shut that run down.

Besides finally focusing and putting good attacks together, the best thing DARC did was shut up.  The referee was tolerating no talk from players and punished Midland repeatedly for it.