Army Hosts Navy at West Point
Army Hosts Navy at West Point
The #1-ranked US naval Academy makes it a double-dip Army-Navy season with a spring game at West Point Friday night.
Army is ranked #7 by GRR and last fall lost to the Midshipmen 27-14 in Rugby East Conference play. This followed on from their fall 2021 clash in which Army won 24-17 on their way to winning the D1A National Championship.
The game will be shown live on The Rugby Network.
“We have been on a great journey all season long and now our journey culminates our regular season with a visit to West Point,” said director of rugby Gavin Hickie. “We are expecting a physical and tough game from Army who will pressure us in all areas. We are very excited about the challenge.”
Nominees for 2023 Scholz Award Named
Army is coming off a tour of the West Coast where they lost close games to Cal and Central Washington. Battling a few injuries, with No. 8 Lucas Pattinson unfortunately often unavailable and 2022 Rudy Scholz Award winner Larry Williams also hampered, the Black Knights continue to play solid rugby. With Rudy Scholz Award nominee Tiaan Mosconi running the show at scrumhalf and loose forward Dominic Tianga showing well, they have the ability to put a stranglehold on teams.
Navy is coming off an impressive win over Cal in Annapolis and then last week’s defeat of Penn State shows they can score in a variety of different ways. Against Cal it was the maul and the forwards and dedicated defense that did the job. The Midshipmen made some handling errors and, really, had they cleaned those up might have won by an additional try or more.
Against Penn State the backs were able to run a bit more and Navy showcased their versatility.
This week both center Lewis Gray and No. 8 Ben Haugh received nominations for the 2023 Rudy Scholz Award.
Gray has scored 15 tries and against Penn State led Navy with nine defenders beaten.
