Middlebury College Rugby Club

In the Northeast final Middlebury lost to UVM by 4 points.  Middlebury comes back from 3 – 14 to lead by 1 point with 20 minutes left.  With 10 minutes left UVM scores a good try spreading the ball wide from a turnover midfield just inside the Middlebury half.

Both teams had played tough games the day before in miserable weather, Middlebury beating Stony Brook 11 – 0, UVM coming back in the final quarter to beat New England Champs UMass-Amherst 15 – 10.  Beautiful weather for the NRU final and both teams coaches met an hour before the original kick-off time to discuss delaying the game to get a better, playable field.  The 3rd clash of these Northeast titans is delayed for 1 1/2 hours.

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One of the two UMass-Amherst’s field is unplayable so kick-off is being delayed till 1:30 PM (after the DI women’s collegiate Northeast final).

The 3rd installment in the Vermont teams’ rugby saga: once again Middlebury will play their northern neighbors UVM in this 2009 – 2010 DII men’s collegiate rugby calendar.  Middlebury has won both of the last 2 encounters by close margins: 20 – 14 in their regular season game and 16 – 10 in the New England Championship Semifinal – both games were played at Middlebury. This game will be for the Northeast Championship, one of the 3 titles Middlebury picked up last year.  Having already lost the New England Championship to UMass-Amherst, Middlebury will be eager to add some silverware to their cupboard before going onto the national tournament.  Both teams have already qualified for the the national championship “sweet 16s” in the spring but the winner of this game will earn the higher seed and, theoretically, the “easier” road to the national championship (but seedings are often proved wrong especially at the national level).  The weather is set to be warmer and drier than it was yesterday, which will allow for some better flowing rubgy but the field is likely to still be muddy, saturated and pretty torn up after the rain and games yesterday.  Kick-off is at 1:30 PM EST.

UMass-Amherst will play Stony Brook in a 3rd place play-off at 10 AM – this game is crucial for both sides as the winner will earn the 3rd northeast spot in the national championship “sweet 16″.

Middlebury beat Stony Brook in the NRU semifinal by 11 points at UMass-Amherst.  The muddy, uneven field was drenched with rain and there were literally puddles all over.  The rain only let up for the 30 mins after the other semi-final – as soon as our game kicked it began to drizzle and only got worse as the game continued.  Neither team’s running gameplay was favored by these impossible conditions.  For the second game in a row Middlebury was without their forwards captain Chris Mutty ‘09.5 (out due to injury) so Ben Winter ‘10 leads the haka.

From the kick-off it was clear that the side with the better tactical kicking and fielding of kicks would control the game but scrumming would also prove crucial with the numerous knock-ons from the wet ball.  Middlebury had the run of the first half and should have scored more points with all the pressure they created but the conditions dumbed the Blue’s finishing.  Credit also to Stony Brook for some solid goal line defense.

Scoring summary below:

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The #2 seed Middlebury will play #3 Stony Brook University in the NRU Semifinal, 2 PM kick-off at UMass-Amherst.  Stony Brook beat BU 31 – 29 to reach this stage.  In the other semifinal #4 UVM will play top seed UMass-Amherst.  Both winners of the semifinal games will automatically qualify for the national tournament in the spring, the losers will fight for the 3rd spot on Sunday.  Championship game and 3rd place playoff will be played on Sunday at UMass-Amherst. Click here for directions to UMass-Amherst

It will be interesting to see which 15 Middlebury plays on Saturday as some of the 9 starters who did not play this past weekend due to illness and injury may return for this big weekend.

Middlebury books a place in the Northeast semi’s with a win over Hamilton 51 – 5.  The win is a great bounce-back for Middlebury after suffering their worst loss in recent history to UMass-Amherst the previous weekend.  This young team worked hard all week to correct their mistakes and bring new players up-to-speed.  With injuries plaguing the team some exciting new talent has emerged including 8th man Luke Dauner ‘13 and 9 man Dylan Whitaker ‘13.  This combined with the return of influential starters, Drew Harasimowicz ‘11 at lock and Rowan Kelner ‘12 at flank, and high impact sub Nat Kelner ‘12, made for a great day of Middlebury rugby!

The  Middlebury tackling is vastly improved after the defensive collapse against UMass – the return of the brothers Kelner and Harasimowicz sparking the Middlebury defense.  The scrumming is also back to its winning ways despite missing front row starters Brett Woelber ‘09.5 (hooker) and captain Chris Mutty ‘09.5 (loose head prop) through injury.  The game begins as a ping pong kicking battle with the Middlebury playmakers looking for holes in the Hamilton backfield but often finding the Hamilton fullback whose hefty booted response makes for a strong counterattack.  Territorial control of the game falls to the team with the better decision-making and execution in the kicking battle.  Hamilton’s strength comes from their fullback’s distance kicking & counter-kicking; as the game progresses Middlebury learns to keep the ball away from him and varies their attack to make for an unpredictable and exciting attacking force.

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This Saturday Middlebury, the New England #2 seed, takes on the New York #2 seed, Hamiltion, at the Tree Farm fields in Essex Junction (click here for directions).  Kick-off at 1 PM.  It will be the end of the season for one of the teams with the winner going on to the NRU Championship weekend at UMass-Amherst on November 14 and 15 where the top 3 out of the 4 teams competing will qualify for the National tournament in the spring. The MCRC will be looking forward to the return of some key starters (7 starters were missing from their last game) but they may be without the services of others who were injured in this past weekend’s games.   Playoff time is when teams show their depth and Middlebury is certainly being tested on this front but when the whistle blows there are no excuses – the 15 on the field are the 15 on the field.

In the New England Championship Final Middlebury lost to UMass by 34 points to 3.

UMass scores early in the first half and shows absolute dominance in the scrum, which continued throughout the game – the Midd pack were only able to win 1 or 2 of their own scrums let alone compete on UMass’ scrums.  Middlebury responds with a penalty kick and with less than a minute left in the second half the score is 3 – 5 to UMass – anyone’s game…but the Middlebury defense falls asleep in the dying seconds of the half and lets a fast UMass backline run from one end of the field to the other and then use their powerful forwards to punch home the converted try: 3 – 10 at halftime.  That late 1st half try swung the control of the game wholly in UMass’ favor.

Poor tackling from Middlebury in the second half and strong running from the UMass team saw the floodgates open and Middlebury struggled to stay in the game.  The Middlebury players fought all game and despite the loss their are some positives to take away…many lessons to learn.

As difficult as this loss is The MCRC has to move on and move on quickly as they will be playing a knock-out game this coming Saturday in the North East Quarterfinal against Hamilton followed by the North East Semis & Finals the following weekend.  A loss this coming Saturday will be the end to their season and goodbye to a 4th consecutive Nationals run in the Spring – the next two weeks will be a true test of Middlebury’s character.

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In their second meeting of the year Middlebury again overcomes a resilient UVM team in a nail-biter.  Despite missing several regular starters due to injury The MCRC get the “W” and go on to the New England Final tomorrow.  Forwards captain Chris Mutty scores a try from a quick tap early in the game.  Sirkia converts and goes on to hit 3 penalty kicks maintaining his almost 100% record for the year (he has missed 1 penalty kick this year).  UVM scores 2 unconverted tries – one in the first half and another in the second as they rallied.  Final score 16 – 10.

In the other New England Semi-Final UMass-Amherst comes back from behind to beat Boston University 22 – 12 (5 – 12 at the half).   This sets up a Middlebury vs. UMass final at 1 PM Saturday, November 1 at the Tree Farm fields in Essex Junction (click here for directions).  UVM will play BU at 11 AM to determine seedings for the North East playoffs and with home field advantage at stake both games are crucial – number 1 & 2 will play at home next weekend – 3 & 4 will have to travel.  Head to head and then point difference will be used to decide the #2 seed from the two teams that end up with 1 win & 1 loss over this weekend – so UVM and BU can still win home field advantage for next weekend.

This weekend Middlebury will host Boston University, UMass-Amherst & UVM in the New England Rugby Division II Collegiate Men’s Championship.  On Saturday Middlebury takes on UVM at 11 AM followed by #2 seed BU against the #3 seed UMass at 1 PM – both games will be held at the Middlebury College Rugby Field and look to be crackers!

On Sunday the losers of Saturday’s games will play each other in the 3rd place play-off at 11 AM followed by the Championship final at 1 PM.  These games will be played at the Tree Farm Facility in Essex Junction (click here for directions)  as the Middlebury field is likely to take a pounding from the rain and Saturday’s games.

All 4 teams will progress to the North East Quarterfinals and a chance at one of the 3 North East spots in the National tournament in the spring. This weekend will determine who gets home advantage for those quarterfinal games and who has to make the long trips to New York to take on the other North East teams.  And of equal importance the New England Champions will be crowned!  Middlebury has won 7 of the last 8 New England Championships; Yale broke the streak in 2004.

Tags: game, home, NERFU

This weekend was a true test of character for Middlebury as they faced a team who had certain players willing to resort to illegal and dirty tactics – important to note that this was not true of the entire U-Maine team but the few culprits made for an unpleasant encounter to say the least.  Driving wind, constant rain and 45 degree weather made for a tough day all round and tended to slow down our usually overwhelmingly fast play.  Nonetheless, The MCRC took the lead within 3 minutes and never looked back.

Tags: game, home, NERFU, playoffs, score