Week 2:
Norsca Frostskalds (Smakemupagus/Norse), The Forked Pies (Hermes/Halfling)
After a tough run in week 1, several players are still on the Injury reserve, and The Frostskalds needed two emergency reserves to fill a full squad today.
Both sides are pretty green, without much veterancy it is no surprise the game was largely dictated by the Norse Ulfwereners and the Halfling Treemen.
The Norse side wins the toss and to receive, forming up a light skirmishing box and keeping far away from the deadly Treemen. The Ulfwereners were sent around the flanks to skirmish and disrupt the halfling defenders. The luck of the "dodge" was not with the Halflings in the first half, as they were tracked down repeatedly by the frenzying wolves. Even worse an unlucky dodge failure at an awkward time left a wide hole in the defensive line, which the northmen exploited to set up the score on turn 5.
When the Halfling possession late in the first half, they pay back some big hits, knocking out the Norse ball-handling thrower and putting the Frostskalds down to 10 men for the remainder of the game.
The momentum continued to swing toward the Halflings as they started with the ball and the initiative in the second half. Setting up a strong line behind the Treemen, they induced the Norse to overpursue, then took advantage with a redirection to the other flank. A Dauntless Norse runner helped knock down a Treeman to get just enough breathing space for his mates to scramble to catch up to the play. In this half, however, the Halflings remembered how to dodge and for two straight turns the Halfling blockers slippedthrough creases in the defense to support their ballcarrier. The Norse line finally stiffened just 4 yards out from the try, where an Ulfwerener needed both of his frenzied attacks (plus a re-roll) to finally force the ballcarrier out of bounds. With a bit of lucky bounce on the recovery, and the Trees rooted on the far side of the pitch, the Frostskalds were able to put a second score across on turn 16.
Final:
Norsca Frostskalds (2 - 0) Forked Pies
Bonus shout out to the sharp eye'd goblin ref, keeping those Halfling rogues in line.