The FAA Ground Stop around the nation has played havoc with some college rugby games, but overall in the NCR D1AA playoffs the trouble was mitigated by the fact that many teams drove.
However, Iona's flight to Indianapolis was indeed canceled and after some work to try to rebook the Gaels' game with Bowling Green had to be called off for Saturday. The good news was, thanks in part to the Athletic Director's office at Iona, the Gaels will be able to drive out to North Canton, Ohio on Sunday for the match with the Falcons.
Bowling Green had hoped to have that came at BGSU or at Rugby World in Avon Lake, Ohio, both rugby-specific, grass fields. However, Walsh University will host as that venue can be ready without any additional work, has locker rooms, and, crucially, is close enough to New Rochelle, NY that it won't test a bus driver's daily limit of hours driving.
All of that seems to be taken care of, but there were games on Saturday. Here's what happened.
Bowling Green or Iona will face Kentucky next week. The Wildcats won convincingly over Missouri 77-0. For Mizzou, this was a huge turnaround season where they went from winning just one game to being second in their conference. Young and still learning, Missouri have not seen an opponent that is as quick or polished as Kentucky.
The Wildcats, for their part, came in a little beat up with injuries, but the players filling in performed well.
Kentucky ran their big runners up the middle and that tested the Mizzou defense. Lock Elliot Smyth burst through early and set up scrumhalf Will Weeks. A series of quick passes and snappy offloads led to another try and defensive pressure produced another.
Even when Kentucky lost center Luke Keough to injury in the 25th minute they just kept rolling. Johnny Dardis scored on a well-taken grubber and regather and in about 28 minutes it was 28-0.
No. 8 Exra Blackman was an imposing runner and thundered over on a penalty tap move. Wing Nate Ingalls sped in to make it 40-0 at halftime. Dardis at that point was 5-for-6 on conversions by that point.
The tries kept coming, as did the conversions. Missouri battled hard but could not get into scoring position.
Overall Kentucky just kept the foot on the gas and didn't slip into me-first rugby, winning 77-0.
"When we make a lot of changes in the second half we can stall, but we kept going," said Kentucky Head Coach Sam Enari. "I am more happy with the shutout."
Enari heaped praise on Missouri, who did not wilt and kept making tackles under a ton of pressure. This was especially true for the deep three of Brian Fitzmaurice, Jr., Nicholas Hathcoat, and Bryce Rudolph. Mizzou tighthead Stephen Boateng was also a handful.
