Chances to Back it Up in NIRA Week 2
Chances to Back it Up in NIRA Week 2
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.
Things don't get easier for Army as they host defending DI champs Dartmouth at West Point. This is a good chance for them to install some fixes from last week, but Dartmouth has to be the favored team. If Army wins, watch out, the DI will be in turmoil.
And finally in DI Mount St. Mary's and Princeton both will be looking for their first points of the season. That's the whole bounce-back thing ... rugby's value in a much more general sense is how it teaches you resilience.
DII and DIII. For the most part are taking a few weeks to get going but we are seeing these teams test themselves across divisions early on. We already mentioned AIC and West Chester. Davenport, runner-up in DII last season, is at Adrian this weekend. Fifteen of Adrian's roster of 26 are freshmen. Wow. That's going to be tough in one sense, but on the other side of the ledger Head Coach Mike Bowen has some time to mold this program. Hopefully he will be able to expand the roster (see comment on LIU). We'll see a bit of Sparta-Rock reunion between these two teams. Davenport also returns several of the players that carried them to the DII final in 2022.
Repeat defending DIII champs Bowdoin play Frostburg which has a very ambitious schedule but also needs depth. UNE, which made the DIII final in 2022, is also active and they visit New Haven. Lander hosts several developing programs in a series of 7s and 10s games.
Check back for scores:
9/8 | AIC | 0-63 | Harvard | NIRA Cross D LIVE 7PM>> |
9/8 | Davenport | 79-0 | Adrian | NIRA Cross D Live 7PM>> |
9/9 | West Chester | 3-38 | Navy | NIRA Cross D Live Noon>> |
9/9 | Brown | 8-22 | Sacred Heart | NIRA D1 |
9/9 | Dartmouth | 41-12 | Army | NIRA D1 Live 7PM>> |
9/9 | Mount St. Mary's | 27-26 | Princeton | NIRA D1 |
9/9 | Long Island | Ccld | Quinnipiac | NIRA D1 |
9/9 | U. New England | 7-45 | New Haven | NIRA Cross D |
9/9 | Bowdoin | 55-5 | Frostburg | NIRA Cross D |
9/10 | E&H, Guilford, Newberry, WWC | at | Lander | NIRA Cross D |