NCR All-Stars Latest After Day 1

Endurance in the NCR Collegiate All-Star tournament was a key factor on Saturday and will be even more so on Sunday.

Teams that started well sometimes found themselves flagging a little late, and struggling teams certainly found game #3 difficult. Great Lakes Thunderbirds looked in control in their first two games, but so did the Southeast. The Bears showed off one of the more potent offenses on the day and also benefited somewhat from the was the schedule fell out. Great Lakes played at 9AM and 11AM and so when they met the Southeast at 1:30PM, this was their third game, while the Southeast had only played one game.

Wind, Familiarity Affects NCR All-Stars First Round Games

That game was a comfortable win against the Midwest and the Bears were able to sub out players when they had the game in hand. Upshot—Southeast was rested and confident, while Great Lakes was a little tired, and Southeast won 28-12.

Even so it was 12-12 with about 12 minutes left when the Southeast scored a couple of phases after a scrum, using their big carriers to punch through the line and power runner Doyle Hedgepeth crashed over. Great Lakes did have a chance with a lineout in the Southeast 22, but couldn't win it. And then moments later hooker Laurence Old was off free and clear to score. He was called back for a knock-on but it was a tough call—further review revealed that the ball had been tapped back by a Southeast defender, and Old had not knocked the ball forward.

From that scrum the Bears kicked deep, chased, got a penalty, and eventually after a series of crashes Noah Mills (The Citadel) sealed it. The Bears went on to beat New England White to go 3-0.

New England Red worked their combinations nicely and finished off their day with one of the biggest scores of the day (40-minute games remember) 29-12. Flyhalf Mike Weir has pulled the strings nicely despite having an uncharacteristic day goalkicking. The wind caused havoc with his kicks, but he didn't need them as New England scored five tries in their final match.

Pacific Coast played three very tight games. They saw New England come back to win their opener and seemed determined not to let that happen again and finished strong to win 17-14 and 15-14 to go 2-1.

Still, everyone is still in it as all eight teams are in the quarterfinals. So Sunday looks like this:

It is very possible that an 0-3 team can trip up a 3-0 team. Can Great Lakes put that one unfortunate call behind them? Is the fact that Pacific Coast worked through some close games show they are a tough group that learns and won't get rattled? Are New England Red or Southeast that strong?

What is clear is that the team that wins it all will likely win their quarterfinal by a lot, thus getting a chance to rest some players, and will be the team that has the best depth. By day's end, each team will have played 240 minutes of rugby in the space of 30 hours.