The vagaries of NCAA-level rugby mean that you can get one big result, but what about backing that up week-to-week? Conversely, you can take it on the chin one week, but how do you rebound?
Unfortunately, one of those things has reared up to prevent us seeing the other. As we outlined during our report on their victory last week, Long Island University won a game, but suffered several injuries. They ended the game with 13 players. This week they were slated to play Quinnipiac, a team that lost fairly convincingly to Harvard and was looking to show how they can bounce back.
But LIU still has those injuries and the game won't be played because the Sharks are so understrength. This is a quick lesson for colleges in what a roster size looks like. You need 35-50 players, not 25, because injuries happen.
So that's that. There is more action in NIRA this week.
AIC, which is a very good DII team, will test itself at Harvard this Friday. Several of Harvard's strongest players last week were 1st- or 2nd-year players. So they have those players back and certainly are more powerful for it. This is a big kickoff for AIC which plays a bit of a mixture of DI and DII teams through October. The YellowJackets have work to do but they have a pretty impressive group of freshmen from seven states and four countries outside the USA.
(Including the player far right in this interview)
Harvard is favored, but this will be a very good learning experience and test for AIC. GRR will be there in person, by the way.
Navy will look to rebound from a loss to a 2022 DII finalist with game against a 2021 DII finalist, West Chester.
Another team with a breakout win in Sacred Heart will want to back that up as they host Brown. This is a huge game for the Pioneers because they could put themselves right in the conversation with a win after beating Army quite well. Michelle Reed was happy not only about her team's performance but the depth.
"We would change and sub players, but the product never changed from them, and that is what we want to see. No matter who goes out there, it should be the rugby that we play every time."
Brown was deadly last week but against a Princeton team that is still building. This is a sterner test for Brown ... and a key game for both.
