Middlebury College Rugby Club

In the Northeast final Middlebury lost to UVM by 4 points.  Middlebury comes back from 3 – 14 to lead by 1 point with 20 minutes left.  With 10 minutes left UVM scores a good try spreading the ball wide from a turnover midfield just inside the Middlebury half.

Both teams had played tough games the day before in miserable weather, Middlebury beating Stony Brook 11 – 0, UVM coming back in the final quarter to beat New England Champs UMass-Amherst 15 – 10.  Beautiful weather for the NRU final and both teams coaches met an hour before the original kick-off time to discuss delaying the game to get a better, playable field.  The 3rd clash of these Northeast titans is delayed for 1 1/2 hours.

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One of the two UMass-Amherst’s field is unplayable so kick-off is being delayed till 1:30 PM (after the DI women’s collegiate Northeast final).

The 3rd installment in the Vermont teams’ rugby saga: once again Middlebury will play their northern neighbors UVM in this 2009 – 2010 DII men’s collegiate rugby calendar.  Middlebury has won both of the last 2 encounters by close margins: 20 – 14 in their regular season game and 16 – 10 in the New England Championship Semifinal – both games were played at Middlebury. This game will be for the Northeast Championship, one of the 3 titles Middlebury picked up last year.  Having already lost the New England Championship to UMass-Amherst, Middlebury will be eager to add some silverware to their cupboard before going onto the national tournament.  Both teams have already qualified for the the national championship “sweet 16s” in the spring but the winner of this game will earn the higher seed and, theoretically, the “easier” road to the national championship (but seedings are often proved wrong especially at the national level).  The weather is set to be warmer and drier than it was yesterday, which will allow for some better flowing rubgy but the field is likely to still be muddy, saturated and pretty torn up after the rain and games yesterday.  Kick-off is at 1:30 PM EST.

UMass-Amherst will play Stony Brook in a 3rd place play-off at 10 AM – this game is crucial for both sides as the winner will earn the 3rd northeast spot in the national championship “sweet 16″.

In the New England Championship Final Middlebury lost to UMass by 34 points to 3.

UMass scores early in the first half and shows absolute dominance in the scrum, which continued throughout the game – the Midd pack were only able to win 1 or 2 of their own scrums let alone compete on UMass’ scrums.  Middlebury responds with a penalty kick and with less than a minute left in the second half the score is 3 – 5 to UMass – anyone’s game…but the Middlebury defense falls asleep in the dying seconds of the half and lets a fast UMass backline run from one end of the field to the other and then use their powerful forwards to punch home the converted try: 3 – 10 at halftime.  That late 1st half try swung the control of the game wholly in UMass’ favor.

Poor tackling from Middlebury in the second half and strong running from the UMass team saw the floodgates open and Middlebury struggled to stay in the game.  The Middlebury players fought all game and despite the loss their are some positives to take away…many lessons to learn.

As difficult as this loss is The MCRC has to move on and move on quickly as they will be playing a knock-out game this coming Saturday in the North East Quarterfinal against Hamilton followed by the North East Semis & Finals the following weekend.  A loss this coming Saturday will be the end to their season and goodbye to a 4th consecutive Nationals run in the Spring – the next two weeks will be a true test of Middlebury’s character.

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This weekend Middlebury will host Boston University, UMass-Amherst & UVM in the New England Rugby Division II Collegiate Men’s Championship.  On Saturday Middlebury takes on UVM at 11 AM followed by #2 seed BU against the #3 seed UMass at 1 PM – both games will be held at the Middlebury College Rugby Field and look to be crackers!

On Sunday the losers of Saturday’s games will play each other in the 3rd place play-off at 11 AM followed by the Championship final at 1 PM.  These games will be played at the Tree Farm Facility in Essex Junction (click here for directions)  as the Middlebury field is likely to take a pounding from the rain and Saturday’s games.

All 4 teams will progress to the North East Quarterfinals and a chance at one of the 3 North East spots in the National tournament in the spring. This weekend will determine who gets home advantage for those quarterfinal games and who has to make the long trips to New York to take on the other North East teams.  And of equal importance the New England Champions will be crowned!  Middlebury has won 7 of the last 8 New England Championships; Yale broke the streak in 2004.

Unfortunately, we were misinformed.  The highlights show was only for DI men’s and women’s – not DII.  Oh well.

Friday, May 1 at 1 PM The MCRC takes on Georgetown in the Division II National Championship Semi-Final.  The winner will go on to play either Wisconsin or Miami of Ohio (the other semi-finalists) on Saturday at 3 PM.  All games will be played at Stanford University’s Steuber Stadium in Palo Alto, CA.

Check out the eRugbyNews article highlighting Middlebury’s qualification for the Div II men’s final four.  Dynamic winger, Ed Cahill ’09 is pictured (and yes tackling players in the air is illegal, though this hit on Eddie was called a “50-50″ ball).  Comments from an interview with forwards captain Trey Stewart ’09 are also included – my favorite quote from the 8th man:

“As a team we don’t have guys who stand out, we’re a rugby team,” [Stewart] said. “We’re very unselfish with the ball, we hit the guys that are open, we’re always looking for the space and the guy who is in space. It doesn’t matter who it is, because everyone on our team has skills and works hard.” [April 20, 2009 - eRugbyNews.com]

Way to sum up the MCRC Trey!  The full article is available here.

The MCRC is going to California for the Division II National Championship final four!!

We overcame a talented USF team 32 – 17 – again the scoreline makes this very close game look a lot easier than it was.  The halftime score was 12 – 3 to Middlebury and soon after the half USF cut the lead down to two points with a converted try, our defense falling asleep in their own 22 and the USF winger taking full advantage.  Credit to USF: the most dynamic team we have faced all year.

Great kicking from Ari Silverman ’09 (12 points total) kept our lead and flyhalf Nick Fager put the final nail in the coffin with a 50 yard dash with 3 minutes left in the game and USF threatening.

On May 1st we will play Georgetown in Palo Alto, CA.  Funnily enough a former Middlebury rugger (Sahir Iqbal ’08) is an assistant coach at Georgetown.

Thank you all for your support and look out for more info from the game soon.

Sunday, April 19 at 11:30 AM, the #3 seed MCRC takes on #6 seed University of South Floridain the Division II National Championship Quarterfinal.

Captain Max Levine ’09 returns to the starting line-up as does hooker Chris Mutty ’09.5; freshman Rowan Kelner is back in the fray (on the bench for this game) after a shoulder injury kept him sidelined.  8th man William Trey Stewart III ‘09 leads the forwards.

Starting Lineup: Carr, Mutty, Vandergrift, Tormey, Chow, Bills, Berriman, Stewart (c), Sirkia, Fager, Cahill, Silverman, Levine (c), Paddock, Leanos
Bench: Gosney, Pappa, Harasimowicz, Marshall, Kelner, Harrison, Kalan

The scoreline makes the game look a lot easier than it was.  Middlebury overcame a big, hard hitting Humboldt State 37 to 13 earlier today and thus qualify for the quarterfinal tomorrow against University of South Florida.

Middlebury led from start to finish but Humboldt always threatened…this was easily the hardest team we have played all season and the ref was not paying us any favors.

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