Chicago Riot 19 Lincoln Park RFC 21 (Half-time: 7-14)

Not every fixture arrives with weeks of planning behind it, and this one arrived with barely a day's notice at all. When Riot's scheduled opponents pulled out, it was Lincoln Park who stepped in to save the afternoon, an act of good neighbourliness that meant the call for players went out on Friday evening rather than the usual run of preparation. What resulted was a hurriedly assembled Park side, patched together from whoever could make it, several of them making their debut and several more finding themselves in shirts they do not normally wear. That a team put together in such fashion should come away with the win, in a match shortened to accommodate the short notice, says a good deal about the depth quietly building at the club.

Nowhere was the improvisation more visible than in the back row, where Callovini — a winger by trade and reputation — was pressed into service as a scavenging wing-forward, a sight rare enough to draw comment from anyone who has watched him patrol the touchline in more conventional fashion. He was far from the only one asked to learn a new job on the fly, but he was perhaps the most eye-catching example of a side simply getting on with it.

A bright start, undone by the final pass

Park had the better of the opening exchanges, twice working their way to the Riot line only to see the chance undone by a knock-on at the crucial moment — the kind of small errors that a settled, well-drilled side might have avoided, but entirely forgivable in a team fielding so many new combinations for the first time. The pressure was real even if the points did not immediately follow.

Irazusdabarrena announces himself

Among the debutants, it was the new Spanish winger Irazusdabarrena who caught the eye most. Whatever had impressed the coaching staff in training was there for all to see in the match itself — composure under the high ball that belied his lack of experience in Park colours, and a clever change of footwork that repeatedly bought him half a yard of space behind the defensive line. It was the sort of debut that suggests he will not be a stranger to the team sheet for long.

Park's first try, and the one that levelled the scores, came from a well-timed inside pass out of the same wing channel, Irazusdabarrena sending Olander through a gap with precisely the sort of delivery that turns pressure into points.

Loomis and Suladze set the physical tone

If the backs supplied the invention, it was Loomis and Suladze — lock and No. 8 respectively — who supplied the engine room. Both put in a series of low, chop tackles that repeatedly halted Riot's momentum before it could build, and it was from exactly this kind of defensive work that Park's best try of the day was born. A superb counter-ruck from Suladze won back possession that looked lost, and from there Loomis simply took off, covering a full seventy yards to score under the posts — a remarkable finish for a forward, and one that will live longer in the memory than most of the afternoon's other scores.

Loomis was not finished. Early in the second half he added a second, this time finishing off a sniping break from West, who had one of the more unusual afternoons of anyone on the pitch — spending the bulk of the match at flanker before reverting, late on, to his more accustomed post at scrumhalf to help close the game out. Versatility, on a day when the entire selection was built on it, seemed almost fitting.

A narrow finish

Riot did not go quietly, finding two second-half tries of their own to make a real contest of the closing stages. But it was the position of their final score, out wide on the left touchline, that ultimately settled the outcome — the conversion from the difficult angle drifting just short, and with it any hope of snatching the game at the death.

Alcantara channels the Mighty Mouse

Elsewhere among the improvised selection, one performance in particular stood out. Filling in at loosehead prop, Alcantara did his best impression of Ian "Mighty Mouse" McLauchlan, putting in a shift well beyond what his usual position on the team sheet might suggest — all effort and no complaint, exactly what an afternoon like this demanded.

The verdict

A patched-together Lincoln Park side, assembled at less than 48 hours' notice, would have been forgiven a difficult afternoon. Instead they left with a win, several promising debuts, and the sort of warm-up that a club could not have scripted better. Sterner tests await when the league campaign begins in earnest next week, but on this evidence, there is plenty for the coaches to be encouraged by.