What the First Round of D1A Playoffs Told Us

04.11.2023College Men

The message from the first round of D1A Rugby is that, yes, there are some teams knocking on the door, but there is also a long way to go for others.

Life vs Texas A&M

This was, and no surprise here, a lopsided game. A&M has enjoyed a solid season in the Red River but all of the issues we have discussed about the differences between a really well-run college club program and a school-supported program were on display here.

In the Georgia rain the Running Eagles were strong in the scrum and in contact, and quick to move the ball. They certainly can play with confidence. A massive scrum set up a run for Matt Carrion. A long-range snip weak by Ishma-eel Safodien made it 14-0, and a thundering short range carry by Adam Chadwick made it 21-0.

A&M came close to scoring a couple of times and worked hard, but this is the time of the season when the frequency of trainings and the other daily training support Life starts to really show.

Life 82 A&M 0

Army vs Davenport

On the other side of the spectrum was Davenport at Army. This was thought to be an upset special and it almost was.

"It was a back and forth game from the first minute to the last. We played a full 80 minutes and gave last year's national champions more than what they bargained for,” said Davenport Head Coach Dustin Steedman.

Certainly every time Army scored Davenport seemed to have an answer. In the end, Army had the final say. With time almost up Davenport’s Sean Nolan kicked a penalty goal to make it 34-33 for the Panthers. But there was just barely enough time for one more surge, one more penalty, and Jonny Haley slotted it to win the game 36-34.

Army 36
Tries: Delai, Bardak, Oglesbee, Pattinson, Liskey
Convs: Haley 4
Pens: Haley

Davenport 34
Tries: Howard, van der Westhuizen 2, Casey, Kurti
Pens: Nolan 3

While Army moves on to the next round, we have been talking a lot about how much Davenport has improved and indeed they showed it this past weekend.

Cal vs Cal Poly

Cal Poly is building toward something but this was once again a case of a very well-run college club team up against a school-supported powerhouse. The powerhouse won 82-15.

The thing about a team like Cal Poly playing a team like Cal is that things can go wrong in bunches. The Mustangs competed hard and it was 10-3 midway through the first half. But in the next seven minutes Cal scored three converted tries and put the game away. They then put the foot on the next in the opening minutes of the second half with three tries. By the 53rd minute it was 53-3.

Now, Cal Poly did battle back and did score two tries, but it was that accuracy in claiming opportunities, one after another after another, that saw Cal through comfortably.

BYU vs Arizona

The Arizona Wildcats were also looking to take the next step, a la Davenport. But behind three tries from wing Austin Olvera and two from fullback Lyle Matthews (who accounted for 26 points), BYU pulled away 71-33.

The Cougars have unleashed a few more weapons in the last few games and they certainly used them against Arizona—one of those lessons that, yes, the other team is working to get better, too.

The Quarterfinals

So the quarterfinals are actually quite familiar matchups. After all our talk about perhaps one or two guards changing … well … not quite yet. It’s difficult to change this guard.

What we do have is four matchups we have seen before this season:

Army at Navy

Met November 5, 2022 at Annapolis, when Navy won 27-14, and March 24, 2023 at West Point, when Navy won 34-26.

Life at Lindenwood

Met February 18 at Life, with Life winning 34-22.

Met March 18 at Lindenwood, with Lindenwood winning 17-7.

Cal at Saint Mary’s

Met March 25 at Cal (in a game that was supposed to be at Saint Mary’s but a soggy pitch forced the change), and Saint Mary’s won 38-34.

BYU at Central Washington

Met March 18 at CWU and BYU won 24-23.

So these matchups have happened six times this season, with the average winning margin being 8 points.

In addition, these eight teams have met other quarterfinalists a further seven times (not counting Cal at BYU, which was a reserve Cal side and the result doesn’t fit our narrative), those games were:

Life 24 BYU 14
Saint Mary’s 23 BYU 18
CWU 29 Saint Mary’s 26
CWU 36 Army 14
Lindenwood 36 Army 7
Cal 31 Army 14
Navy 33 Cal 28

So just for fun, if we looked at these eight teams as their own league, here’s what we would see:

D1A Quarterfinalists	W	L	T	PF	PA	PD	BT	BL	Pts
Navy	3	0	0	94	68	26	3	0	15
CWU	2	1	0	88	64	24	2	1	11
Saint Mary's	2	1	0	87	81	6	2	1	11
Life	2	1	0	65	53	12	2	0	10
Lindenwood	2	1	0	75	48	27	1	0	9
Cal	1	2	0	93	85	8	3	2	9
BYU	1	2	0	56	70	-14	1	1	6
Army	0	5	0	75	164	-89	1	0	1

It's worth pointing out that in the 13 games played between these teams, five were by a try or less, and five more were within two tries. Yes Army was 0-5, but they played perhaps the toughest schedule and that certainly must have helped see them past Davenport.