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Maryland edged Wilmington 38-24 in a lively and competitive game in Poolesville, MD on Saturday.
Both teams were a little rusty early on as they tried to shake off the cobwebs from a long winter. As the first half went on however the game opened up and some good rugby was played.
Maryland opened the scoring with a try and conversion on the 20-minute mark. A big Maryland pack caused problems for the Wilmington eight, putting real pressure on Wilmington at both scrum and lineout. They also did a good job using their maul and pick and go's to make yards. It was no surprise when they added another try with five minutes to go to the break.
Wilmington finally worked their way into the Maryland 22 entering injury time. With time up Maryland turned it over and tried to run out from behind their line. However in working it up the field the ball was spilled. Conor Mullarkey picked up for Wilmington, jinked past a couple of defenders and put Phil Giordano in under the sticks to leave it 12-7 to Maryland at the half.
Things got better for Wilmington with the opening of the second period. Todd Feeley rose highest to reclaim a Wilmington kick-off. Wilmington worked the ball quickly to the Maryland line before the defenders turned over. However an error behind the ruck allowed Kevin Barry to kick a loose ball between the sticks and fall on it for the try. Barry converted the try to put Wilmington up 14-12.
Stung, Maryland upped their game and put in a couple of quick scores to give themselves some breathing space, before an excellent long range break by Wilmington was finished off by Giordano for his second try.
Maryland again responded with two tries, but with the game in its dying stages Vinny Bull picked off a loose Maryland pass and returned it to the end zone to leave the score 38-24 in the home team's favor.
"We are obviously disappointed with a loss, but for a season opener there are some positives we can take from it," said Wilmington's Kevin Barry. "Maryland caused us problems at scrum and lineout time and if you fail to get a secure platform there you will always struggle. We also need to be more competitive at the breakdown, but hopefully we learned something here and can improve as the season goes on."
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