Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Attention Old Boys

From the MCRC Website:
Calling Old Boys

Attention all Midd rugby alumni: you have been challenged to a game on the 23rd of April (2005) . Lets see if you still have it in you. The game will be played at the Middlebury pitch.

Email Ward Patterson or Caleb Consentine with details of what postion you would prefer to play.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Lovely English Summer Weather Greets Ruggers

The following largely unedited email from Coach Ward describes the first match of the MCRC Spring 2005 rugby season played at Vassar on April 2.

April 4, 2005:
[We had] lovely English summer weather on Saturday, ALL rain and wind. The field did hold up quite well under the conditions, though.

The A's had a mixed bag of veterans, developing players and one "first gamer". The B side had many first game guys and so we came to have a fun run in the mud.

We did not know that Vasssar had just returned from a 4 game tour of Argentina, and were match ready. :(( Nevertheless, the boys got ready and started the game, and gave up a try right away. Learning mistake. We then counter attacked and scored right away. 5 - 5. It looked like a high scorer to come, but the weather proved that to be false. Our # 9, Jeff McCormick came off with a very bloody nose and so grabbed the most eligible pair of legs and wished him well. (Our B 9 had theater rehearsals.)

Jimmy Manyuru earned himself a ten minute rest, and we pressed on. We gave up one more try and a penalty try before the half. 17 - 5. The guys were not rattled and seemed quite confident of winning. We started very strong in the seond half and were able to get much better scrumming and neutralize their rucks and muals. (We had only had 3 hours of practice time on grass, and so were quite rusty the first half.) We scored in the corner, bringing the total to 17 -10. Kerry Cebul got himself sent off for most of the second half, and so we had a challenge. The guys played very hard but could not get to the line.

The B game was fun as many of the guys had never played before. We ran 6, 7 or 8 virgins at all times, and so things looked a bit unorganized. They won 5 - 0, and showed their character well. Nick Immonje scored on a break-away,and nearly scored on a dribble, but the ball bounced away from him as he leapt at it.


There will be more postings from Coach Ward during the season.