The Yale University Rugby Football Club

YALE 29 - Trinity College 10

The men of Yale rugby played another strong game this weekend, soundly defeating Trinity College by a 29-10 margin and improving their NERFU record to 4-0.

Several key injuries sustained in last week’s CCSU game forced the Bulldogs to juggle their starting lineup against Trinity, who with a record of 2-1 coming into Saturday represented Yale’s toughest opponent to date. In the pack, Scott “Beanpole” Proctor ’08 made his A-side debut, filling in well at second row for Terrence DePentheny O’Kelly ’07 who is sidelined with a hand injury. Former second rower Sherman Wang ’07 moved to No. 8 to replace veteran Matt Devlin ’05, who suffered damage to his ankle last week. Sean Walbridge ’08 returned to the forwards as flanker, and Jack Mahoney ’07 started his first A-side game of the season at center after recovering from knee surgery. All said, Yale wasted no time reestablishing their chemistry.

On their very first possession of the game, the Bulldogs marched down the field going twelve phases of punishing center crashes before Michael Freedman-Aponte ’05 received the ball on the wing and walked into the try zone untouched. Center and captain Mike Atkins ’05 scored minutes later off a pop pass and flyhalf Rob Smith ’06 converted the kick to give the Bulldogs a 12-0 lead.

Yale carried their momentum into the second half with solid defense and multiple phase rugby on offense. Winger Bobby Cardone ’06 scored early in the half and then converted the kick to pull the Bulldogs ahead 19-0. Yale’s aggressive play hurt them on several borderline offside penalties and a few pushed passes which nonetheless resulted in two unconverted Trinity tries. Yale recovered on the back of Rob Smith who posted his biggest game to date with two tries of his own.

The final whistle saw the Yale men victorious once again and poised for a showdown with co-conference leader U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Coast Guard has smashed the other conference teams as well, going 4-0 with better than a 150 point differential in those games. Yale will host Coast Guard on Saturday, October 16th, likely in the morning (due to a home football game and referee availability, the time has not been finalized) You will all be sent an email when the time is set, so if you're in the area, come see this clash of rivals.

The Yale B side also played determined rugby; unfortunately, like their contest against Providence, they lost by only one extra kick. After going down by three scores, the Killer B’s began to play to their potential and took control of the pace of play. In the second half, Yale built up their momentum with sustained drives and seemed poised for the winning try when time ran out.

Sam Beutler ’07 had another strong performance at scrumhalf, scoring two of Yale’s tries and making himself an offensive throughout the game. Among the forwards, Josh “Nick Nolte” Foran ’06 played well in the second row, especially in the second half, and in the backfield Vip Nikore demonstrated strong running at center. Yale also welcomed the contributions of newcomers Yurij Rudenski '07 at lock and Sam White ’08 at wing, two new players who are quickly learning the game.