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Written by RUGBYMag Staff
Saturday, 24 September 2011 20:24 |
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Eagles Name Squad to Face Italy |
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National Teams -
USA Men
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 AUCKLAND, 25 Sept. - USA head coach has Eddie O'Sullivan announced his team to play their final match in Pool C against Italy at Trafalgar Park, Nelson, on Tuesday, 27 September.
O'Sullivan has named exactly the same starting 15 and list of seven subs that played September 15 against Russia.
USA:
1. Mike MacDonald
2. Chris Biller
3. Matekitonga Moeakiola
4. John van der Giessen
5. Hayden Smith
6. Louis Stanfill
7. Todd Clever (c)
8. Nic Johnson
9. Mike Petri
10. Roland Suniula
11. James Paterson
12. Andrew Suniula
13. Paul Emerick
14. Takudzwa Ngwenya
15. Chris Wyles
Replacements:
16. Phil Thiel
17. Shawn Pittman
18. Scott LaValla
19. Pat Danahy
20. Tim Usasz
21. Nese Malifa
22. Blaine Scully
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Written by Pat Clifton
Saturday, 24 September 2011 19:33 |
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Ivy Provides a Blowout You Didn't Expect |
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Colleges -
Men's DI College
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 Ivy League play opened Saturday, and every team was in action, but week one is only half over, as all of the visitors pack up and travel to another conference foe for a Sunday match.
There was only one close game Saturday, which Columbia won 17-13 over Brown. It was stalemated 3-3 at halftime, but Brown’s forwards appeared to bully their way out of the defensive struggle with a pair of unconverted tries from mauls early in the second half.
However, the Lions roared back with spectacular long distance tries from Anogie Jospeh-Erameh and Bobby McMahon to counter. McMahon’s score came near the final whistle. With both teams bagging a penalty and a pair of tries each, the difference was two Lion conversions slotted by Alex Pana.
Dartmouth, as expected, dominated Cornell, running up a 97-3 win. And Big Green coach Alex Magleby, perhaps also as expected, found an area where his team need improve.
“We have a lot to work on,” he said. “There were some parts of our set piece that were really not impressive…but it’s really hard to tell who you are as a team when you have a score like that. Cornell, I don’t know how many practices they’ve had or what preseason they’ve had, so I imagine they’ll be better.”
Harvard also notched a lopsided victory, utilizing a big second half to down Penn 38-17.
The first half was much closer than the final score would indicate, due in part to Harvard replacing a litany of starters from their final four team.
“The first half was pretty scrappy. We picked up a couple of injuries. We traded some tries. We couldn’t quite get any continuity and we stuttered at the set piece,” said Harvard coach Dave Gonzales.
“But we managed to fix our continuity and go forward. The second half we managed to string some nice tries together…By the end of the game it was nice to get a few phases together and put the ball through the hands.”
Harvard’s Sunday opponent, Princeton, scored the lone surprise of the day - a double-take worthy 58-5 drubbing of Yale.
When Gonzalez heard of the Tigers big win, he said, “It’s an unexpected score line, put it that way, so we’ll be going into (Sunday) with our eyes open certainly.”
Other Sunday matches
Dartmouth @ Columbia
Yale @ Penn
Brown @ Cornell
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Written by Pat Clifton
Saturday, 24 September 2011 20:07 |
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Bowling Green, Miami Win Big in Mideast |
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Colleges -
Men's DI College
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 The Midwest season began as expected, with Bowling Green and Miami (OH) scoring big wins over Purdue and Michigan State, respectively.
However, in both cases, the winning coach was less than thrilled about his team’s performance. For Miami, that’s because the Reds led 26-7 at halftime and allowed the Spartans to score three tries in the second half.
“I’m frustrated,” Miami coach Jared Moore said about the 45-28 win. “I just know we’re going to have to play much better against better teams.”
One of those better teams is Bowling Green (35-12 winners), coached by Tony Mazzarella. He was disappointed in his Falcons' performance, as they led just 15-7 at halftime and didn’t put Purdue away as soon as he'd like.
“We played pretty well until it came to finishing off some tries that we really had some chances at,” he said. “We had a chance to stretch the lead a little bit more and put them out a little bit earlier, but we had some knock ons here and there and some indiscipline.”
Rust, says Mazzarella, wasn’t the culprit.
“We’ve been paying the last couple weeks in some tune up games, so we can’t use that as a excuse. We certainly are getting used to not having some key players, most notably Nick Viviani,” he said.
“So I think that’s a little bit of a work in progress still, and as good as a player as he was, I think he was a pretty good leader, so we’ve got a new leadership group and some guys playing some new positions. The rust isn’t really an excuse, but we’ve got a bit of a learning curve.”
That curve gets a lot steeper next week when Bowling Green takes on Indiana, who beat defending Midwest Champs Wisconsin in the preseason.
Miami has a bye next week before taking on the Mudsharks.
(This article originally incorrectly quoted Miami as 35-12 winners over Purdue. The Reds won 45-28 against Michigan State, while Bowling Green beat Purdue 35-12.)
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Written by Pat Clifton
Saturday, 24 September 2011 18:44 |
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Running Eagles, Red Wolves Owned SIRC 7s |
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Sevens -
Collegiate Sevens
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 The South Independent 7s championship was always going to be won by Arkansas State or Life, right?
“We were the only two CPD teams in the Southern Independent Rugby Conference. We thought we definitely had an advantage of most of the teams,” said Life’s Cam Dolan, “but just like in any other sport, especially in 7s, anything can happen at any given day, so we knew we had to come our firing on all cylinders.”
The Running Eagles did just that, crushing Florida International, South Florida and Georgia Southern by a combined score of 128-12 in pool play.
The Red Wolves were equally dominant, blanking Florida State, Florida Atlantic and Middle Tennessee State 124-0 in the other pool.
Arkansas State didn’t concede a single point until the tournament semifinal against FIU, which the Red Wolves won 47-12. Life had a more competitive game against the Seminoles, 26-5, but it was never in doubt.
Arkansas State and Life traded a pair of tries to open the final, but the Running Eagles were able to convert the kick after theirs, taking a 7-5 lead. In the final minute of the opening half, Life scored again, taking a 12-5 advantage into intermission.
Arkansas State climbed back to within a conversion after a Danie Swanepoele try at the beginning of the second half, and the two giants tussled for an upper hand for most of the remainder.
“The momentum shift probably happened about five times, and Life got the momentum there at the end of the second half, and played the majority of the rugby on our end of the field and just stuck the dagger in,” Arkansas State coach Matt Huckaby said.
The dagger came in the form of a converted Joe Cowley try at the death, giving Life the inaugural South Independent 7s title and an automatic bid to the first-ever USA Rugby college 7s national championship.
Huckaby said the Red Wolves were undone by their inability to get the ball to the perimeter.
“It’s a tale of two teams. Life is incredibly strong and skilled, and we’re really (fast), and we were really trying to get it wide and test them around there, but Life sucked up the chances we had by being extremely difficult in the breakdown. We couldn’t get it out clean. They knew what we wanted to do and they prevented it.”
Life’s undergrad program is in just its second fall semester. Since bursting onto the scene, the Running Eagles have made fast rivals of the Red Wolves, who won the only league 15s match between the two in the spring.
“It’s definitely a monkey off our back,” said Dolan of beating ASU. “Most of us are pretty good friends with those guys. When we’re together it’s close, but when we’re on the field, it’s win at all cost and win or go home.”
Though Arkansas State won’t receive an automatic bid to the national tournament, an at-large bid may still be on the table. The selection process for the at-large bids hasn’t been formally announced, but the Red Wolves hope that whatever it is, it leads to a invitation for them.
“It’d mean everything,” said Huckaby of a chance to play for a national 7s title. “My guys have worked hard. I feel like we’ve put our soul on the mat and represented rugby well enough. We wanted that to be decided today with a win, so we wouldn’t have to worry about it or leave it up to politics, but we’ll do whatever it takes to get in.”
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