Around the Nation in D1A and NCR D1
Around the Nation in D1A and NCR D1
Let's take a quick look at Men's D1 games around the nation.
Rugby East
Queens, Life, Kutztown, and St. Bonaventure all won.
Queens put together a solid showing in defeating a Belmont Abbey that is more difficult to play than their record indicates. For the Royals that puts them at 3-0 in the conference with four tough games to come.
Life moved to 3-0 with a 55-15 win over Mary Washington. A week after almost losing to Mount St. Mary's the Running Eagles came out on fire. A couple of personnel changes and a different attitude seemed to do the trick. Life was aggressive in their attack and moves the ball with confidence. Several multiple-offload sequences led to tries and Bradley Crane had a very good day running the attack.
Kutztown ran out to a 36-0 lead at halftime against Southern Virginia and cruised to a 46-12 victory.
St. Bonaventure saw center Eddie Nelson block a clearance kick and score 10 minutes into their game with Walsh. That was Bonnies' lone try of the day, but it was enough. Walsh scrumhalf Remy Thomson battled his way over despite being grabbed by multiple defenders to tie it up. It stayed that way until almost midway through the second half when a scrum penalty allowed scrumhalf Matheo Lorenzato to slot a long-range shot at goal.
Walsh got over with Nathaniel Greenfield scoring in the corner after some quick passing to make it 10-8 with about nine minutes to go. But a few minutes later a Walsh penalty allowed Lorenzato to put the ball over to win it 11-10. Both teams had prime scoring opportunities where they were unable to convert.
Life improves to 3-0 and so does Queens. Bonnies is now 2-1 as is Kutztown. Life plays Navy (also 3-0) in two weeks.
Big 10
Big 10 action took a turn with Notre Dame beating Ohio State 40-39 in Columbus.
In a back-and-forth game, UND scored on a breakaway on the final play of the match. That made it 38-39 with the kick to come. The conversion was good, and the game ended with a dramatic victory for the Fighting Irish.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, recorded a 40-11 victory over Michigan State. This was the Badgers' second straight road win in the Wolverine State and while it was a bit of sloppy game, Wisconsin is now 4-0 (not counting their warmup game vs Wisconsin Rugby Club). They have a week off now before facing Illinois and then Indiana.
"We had good pace on attack and solid defense but committed some penalties and handling errors," said Wisconsin flanker and captain Titus Henkels. "We were able to get a lot of young players some varsity minutes to end the game as well which was great."
Illinois put Purdue to the sword 67-7.
Big Rivers
Wheeling beat Thomas More 26-20 in a game where the Saints starved the Cardinals of possession and put themselves in with a good chance to win the game.
Thomas More's scrum was very solid and their plan to control ball and starve the likes of Aaron Jume and Joe Iye of scoring chances was a smart one.
"What I really liked from our guys was their testicular fortitude," said Thomas More Head Coach John Fox. "Their tenacity in staying with it was great to see."
Wheeling's electric attack did enough as the Cardinals improved to 2-0 in conference play.
Rio Grande got a forfeit win over Trine while Principia beat Marian 22-15.
Wheeling lead the Big Rivers East now with a 2-0 record while Thomas More is 1-1 with a game to play against Rio Grande. Trine reportedly forfeited this week so Wheeling should be favored against them, putting (most likely) Wheeling and Thomas More in the top two in that division.
Meanwhile, in the Big Rivers West, Principia and Aquinas are both now 1-0. Aquinas put in a very creditable performance in a non-conference loss to Davenport 15-7. Still lurking is Iowa Central, at 1-1, and Marian's two losses were both close so they are not out of it.
Of the seven conference games in the Big Rivers, three have been decided by a try or less.
Liberty D1
AIC won big for the second week in a row, taking down Harvard 50-5 to move to 5-0 in-conference. Dartmouth, meanwhile, kept pace at 4-1 with a 41-10 win over Fairfield. Dartmouth did well to punish Fairfield mistakes and did a number of those little things that simply require effort and attention to detail to turn the tide. They scrummed well, they pressured kicks, they cleared out cleanly, and ran in support on transition.
Siena won well over Fordham 46-8 and with that moved to 2-2 with Fairfield. Brown, which had a bye, is 4-0, so currently AIC leads the conference, followed by Brown and Dartmouth.
Non-Conference Action
UCLA traveled to Indiana for their season opener and won 26-10. This game was the annual Indiana rugby game played at Memorial Stadium, the school's football venue. UCLA Head Coach Harry Bennett said this was much more than an exhibition game.
They took their front-line squad led by Logan Turner and Will Sherman.
"To play in a Big 10 stadium against a top brand program demands respect," he said.
As we mentioned, Davenport beat Aquinas in a close one. Lindenwood took on Iowa Central and won big. Southern Nazarene shut out Drury 39-0.
In the Shea Cup, Navy defeated Air Force in solid fashion 79-14. Last week's D1A player of the week Drew Baublitz scored four tries while Adam Mertens and AJ Young notched two.
"We are satisfied with our performance," said Navy DOR Gavin Hickie. "We tried a couple of new combinations which worked out. We also had a look at some of our young guys who stepped up and played well. The players deserve a lot of credit for two big wins over our service academy opponents these past two weeks. Our Midshipmen have been simply outstanding."
