Malcolm Double Leads WJU over WVAThe Wheeling Jesuit Rugby team turned in a solid performance Saturday to beat West Virginia 24-5 in a non-conference game. Collegiate All-American Peter Malcolm scored two tries on the day. The first came off a driving maul, which ended when the junior loose forward peeled off and powered through three defenders to scored in the corner. On his second try, Malcolm broke from 40 meters out through multiple defenders, made for the corner, and then eluded one more defender to score under the posts. Junior lock Zachery Reichenbach got WJU off to a good start 20 minutes in when he broke through for 60 meters and offloaded it to Malcolm. The USA U20 player took the ball to within ten meters, and after a penalty was called freshman High School All-American Cecil Rich was stopped just short of the line.
Why Iona's Win Is Worth a Look
In November of 2013, St. Bonaventure defeated Iona 90-5 in an Empire Conference league game.
Ten months later the tables were turned to the tune of 97 points, as Iona beat Bonnies 36-24. What in the world could have produced such a turnaround. Now, it’s worth noting that Saturday’s game was a non-conference game, because Iona has moved to Rugby East. It’s not even a non-conference game that counts in the ACRC seedings, as that game will happen later on in the fall.
DII Men College Latest
Several conferences in Men's DII college were in action this weekend. Here's a look at what happened:
East Carolina survived a thriller against Appalachian State 35-31 in the Southern Conference, while Furman was also in a tight one in the same conference, edging Coastal Carolina 25-24. College of Charleston and Elon were both winners, also.
John Via scored two tries for Old Dominion in a very convincing 34-7 defeat of Radford in the Cardinals Conference. James Madison was even more convincing in their rout of Longwood.
The MARC got started and defending conference champs Notre Dame College defeated Villanova 46-3, scoring seven tries.
In the Potomac, Georgetown and Salisbury got off to strong starts, while in the Tri State Fairfield moved to 2-0, with 134 points scored in two games, and NJIT and Molloy are also 2-0.
SWC Round Robin Roundup
The University of North Texas won all three games in the Southwestern Rugby Conference (SWC) pre-season tournament Saturday.
The event was more of a practice run for all six teams involved, with liberal use of squads to get maximum playing time for everyone. Each team played two 40-minute pool games, and then a 40-minute final - #1 v #1, #2 v #2, and #3 v #3. North Texas looked strong in a shutout of Stephen F. Austin and a defeat of Texas State in Group 2.
Meanwhile in Group 1, Texas A&M beat Houston and Rice fairly comfortably. In the final game, UNT edged A&M 5-3.
Texas State beat University of Houston 19-14 to take third, while Stephen F. Austin defeated hosts Rice 40-5 for 5th.
Huge Drama as BSGU Beats OSU
Bowling Green defeated Ohio State 31-29 Saturday in a dramatic non-conference face-off in Columbus, Ohio.
BGSU needed a late try to win the game, and club president Frank Viancourt said that the tense nature of the clash was exactly what his team wants.
“This is the type of game we’ve been looking for,” said Viancourt. “It was a really tough game. We want to be able to go into the end of the season knowing how good we are, and to do that we have to play tough opponents.”
The game was back-and-forth all afternoon.
“We gave them some pretty easy tries off our mistakes,” said Viancourt, who was one of the five BGSU try-scorers on the day. “We’d turn the ball over and, credit to Ohio State, they’d make us pay immediately.”
ECRC Conference Latest
The top three teams from 2013 in the East Coast Collegiate Conference all won their opening games in the 2014 season.
AIC defeated Northeastern 46-5. Middlebury beat Albany 25-14, and Boston College handed UMass a 31-3 defeat.
AIC looked very convincing as they unleashed their high-powered offense, and the wet weather in the Northeast didn’t hurt them on their turf field. Kurtis Werner opened the scoring with a try for the Yellow Jackets, and Christian Adams added one to make it 12-0 with Bryce Neff’s conversion. More tries followed, as Adrian Ray, and Gavin Score touched down, followed by another from Werner and another from Ray. JIhad Khabir capped off the tries as AIC put everyone on notice.
Empire Conference Latest
The US Merchant Marine Academy started well in the Empire Conference with a 31-15 defeat of SUNY Brockport in Brockport.
Dan Ardis scored two tries for Kings Point and John Wesley and Leroid Jones added tries while Wesley kicked three conversions and a penalty for a personal hail of 14. The Mariners move to 1-0 in the conference.
Also 1-0 is SUNY Binghamton, which defeated Fordham 25-5. Binghamton hosts Kings Point next week.
And also moving to 1-0 was Stony Brook, which defeated a tenacious Colgate side 24-16. PJ Abelein scored two tries for the Sea Wolves, who host Syracuse next week.
Ivy League Kicks Off
Columbia and Yale emerged victorious in the opening games of the Men's Ivy League season this weekend.
Wet weather made for low-scoring matches, but perhaps added to the drama.
Columbia took an early 10-0 lead over Brown thanks to a penalty kick from Peter Calello and a try from Ben Keitt, which he scored after Columbia was awarded a free kick off a scrum. Calello converted.
Brown replied with a try but a Calello penalty made it 13-7 at halftime. Brown's second try made it a one-point match 13-12, but with time waning Keitt zipped over from short range to put the game away 18-12.
DI College Weekend RoundupHere’s a roundup of the latest in Men’s DI College Rugby from this weekend: Army handed Cornell a convincing 49-0 defeat in a non-conference clash in Ithaca, NY. David Huff scored three tries in quick succession in the second half, while Thomas Del Pino scored two in the first period. Logan Pearace, Collum Magee, and Benjamin Foley all scored a try, while Pearce added three conversions and a penalty. Army looks ahead to Penn State next week at West Point. For their part, Penn State were impressive in a 30-6 defeat of Davenport in Michigan in a non-conference game. Also in non-conference, Wheeling Jesuit beat West Virginia 24-5, while Indiana handled Kentucky 33-7.
NSCRO Heats Up
Throughout New England and off further South the National Small College Rugby Association games have started.
Small colleges are moving their way toward a national championship, giving the smaller-enrollment schools a pathway to glory.
This weekend, in the Cardinals Conference, Lord Fairfax Community College leads the league with a 1-0 record, having already beaten Virginia Commonwealth.
LFCC takes on Hampton-Sydney this weekend, while Chrisopher Newport visits Richmond, Duke visits VCU, JMU’s development team plays at Roanoke College, and Lynchburg visits Emore & Henry.
It’s an even larger slate of games in New England:
DI Men College Weekend PreviewIt’s a nicely busy weekend in DI Men’s College Rugby.
Clemson v Virginia Highlights ACRL Opening WeekendEyes should turn intently on the Atlantic Coast Rugby League (ACRL) this year as several teams are working hard to raise their fortunes. Clemson, the defending champions, are probably as good as they were last year, or possibly better. Always a team with a lot of energy and support behind it, Clemson has struggled with consistency. But with Justin Hickey now at the helm for some years, the Tigers should be strong every year. With the addition of some high-profile payers, Maryland, which finished 2nd in the league last season, are poised to be stronger. And Virginia, which finished 4-2 last season, were competitive in their losses to Clemson and Maryland.
Buffalo Steps Up a Level in Opener v KU
The Rugby East league season starts with weekend with just one match, as Buffalo travels to Kutztown.
Kutztown is considered, at the moment, possibly the strongest team in the ACRC and among the top six or seven teams in the country. Their sweep of two powerful Ontario colleges last weekend did nothing to dispel that idea.
But that's what University of Buffalo Head Coach Mike Hodgins wants. UB moved from the Empire Conference, where they were 4-5 in 2013, to the Rugby East for just this kind of game.
"We want to be challenged and play at the best level possible," said Hodgins. "You don't get better unless you play better games."
SWC Starts Up With Tourney
The Southwest Conference kicks off this weekend with a pre-season tournament. All six teams will be in attendance, playing three shortened, 40-minute games.
In Pool A, Texas A&M, Houston, and host Rice face off. In Pool B is Texas State, Stephen F. Austin, and North Texas.
Each team plays the other two in the pool for two 40-minute games, and then the teams are ranked 1-2-3 in their pool. A#1 plays B#1, and so forth.
“This is a very good way for us to start the season,” said A&M Director of Rugby Craig Coates, whose team will play in the SWC and also in the DIA Red River Conference. “We will give all of our payers game time, which is what it’s about.”
The regular SWC season starts October 4.
Fixing Eligibility Rules Not So EasyUSA Rugby has made a move that was an attempt to make things fairer - change the rules for graduate students who have college rugby eligibility left so that they can play even if they switch from one undergraduate school to a different school for post-grad study. That seems fair, doesn’t it? In fact, the rule change also helps military students and those who leave school for pregnancy, religious mission, or hardship. Such a person can spend his freshman year at State U., then join the Navy, serve for four years, while also still pursuing a degree. He comes back, gets his degree, and enrolls in graduate school somewhere else.
