Written by Angela Francisco - High winds were blowing the rugby ball in all sorts of directions, but that didn’t stop teams from across the state of Connecticut from coming out and playing each other in  the Connecticut Cup on Saturday, April 4.

Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) and Trinity College started off the day at 10:30am, and maybe it was too early for them as the game displayed a lack of continuous phase play and an absence of team work. Unable to find their momentum in a messy game, the teams carried a 0-0 score into the second half. Shortly into the second half CCSU scored back-to-back tries, seconds from each other. Trinity was only able to get their team to play together towards the final minutes of the game and they were able to put five points on the board, but that wasn’t enough and it lead to a 10 -5 CCSU victory. 

The second game of the day featured University of Connecticut against Quinnipiac University in a very fast-paced match. UConn was the first to score, touching down only minutes into the game. This set the entire game in motion for them and they were able to make different phase plays work as well as shut down Quinnipiac's attack. Quinnipiac lost control of the ball on many occasions, and UConn won 29-10.

The final match for the Connecticut Cup was the highly-anticipated game between University of Hartford and Southern Connecticut State University. The evenly-contested match displayed a high-intensity start that continued through all 80 minutes. During the first half both Southern and Hartford were capitalizing on each other’s mistakes, but a lack of discipline from Hartford led to a series of penalties and that forced them to defend their goalline for a chunk of the game. They did so successfully, though, and the teams entered halftime tied 0-0.

In the second half it didn’t take Southern long to put up two tries. Hartford’s intensity only grew from this point, they came together, calmed down, and cleaned up their play. Southern began to fall under the pressure of the fast backs and hard hitting forwards of the Hartford team. Working their way up the field, Hartford was able to capitalize on the holes Southern left open and ran in three tries to win the game 19-14.

The Connecticut Cup has one more week of tournament play.

Connecticut Cup Standings after Week 3