American football: Monarchs rue encounter with Rhein's Rubley

The London Monarchs, who began the World League season with a promising win over the Frankfurt Galaxy last week, were bought firmly down to earth when they were beaten 28-6 by the Rhein Fire in Dusseldorf yesterday.

It was a disappointing day for the British sides as the the Scottish Claymores lost 20-7 at home to the Barcelona Dragons.

London's game was dominated by defences but opened up in the second half thanks to the Fire quarterback TJ Rubley, who threw three touchdown passes. By contrast London's play caller, Stan White, failed to establish his authority on the affair, completing eight passes for a paltry 74 yards before being replaced in the third quarter by Preston Jones.

The Monarchs have never lost to the Fire in four previous outings, but once Rubley, allocated by the NFL's Denver Broncos broke the deadlock with a seven-yard pass to Michael Dritlein early in the third quarter the issue was never in doubt.

Rubley followed up with scoring passes to Bill Schroeder and David Rhodes as the Londoners found themselves outplayed on both sides of the ball.

Jones, London's starting quarterback last season, restored a measure of hope with eight minutes remaining when he fired a 38-yard pass to Alan Allen, but there was to be no escape. The Fire unleashed the running back Ontiwaun Carter, who added a further touchdown on a one yard run to seal the victory.

At Murrayfield, Jon Kitna threw two touchdown passes as the Dragons became the only unbeaten side in the league. Kitna, allocated by the Seattle Seahawks, hit 16 of 27 passes for 254 yards before a crowd of 14,877. It was his second consecutive game without an interception.

The only points for the defending champions came with four minutes remaining thanks to a 12-yard run by Yo Murphy.