The Yale University Rugby Football Club

Yale Drops Heartbreaker to UCONN

A Side

Yale began the season on a disappointing note, dropping their first contest to local rivals UCONN. The first 20 minutes of the match saw Yale primarily on defense, partly due to the abundance of penalties called against them. Early in the game, Yale showed its rust by struggling in the set pieces, losing their first 9 lineouts getting pushed around in the scrum. When opportunities presented themselves, players did a poor job of winning contact and posting properly. Moreover, this effected the rucking game and Yale lost way too much ball, something that was only exacerbated by UCONN's frequent unpenalized diving over in the rucks. On the bright side, the defense was excellent, especially in the back line, and Yale only allowed UCONN to score 5 points in the first twenty minutes despite not playing anywhere near their best rugby.

Yale quickly rebounded from the kick off and flyhalf Evan Edwards '09 hit a 30 meter penalty kick to tighten the score to 5-3 at the 25 minute mark. After UCONN's kickoff, Yale maintained possession for several phases, then had a player sent to the sin bin for an offsides call, something Yale had been called for several times already. Yale held strong and moved the ball up the field, but then turned the ball over at midfield due to poor body position in contact, resulting in a bad post. This turned into a quick weak side counter attack, which was stopped a few meters from the goal line. UCONN was able to continue to recycle and finally found a hole when a post man was too wide from the edge of the ruck and made the score 10-3. Shortly after kickoff, Yale had a line out at about the 22. For some reason, while short 1 player on the field, deep in their defensive end, with only minutes to go until half, Yale decided to try to run the ball out of their end. 2 passes later the ball was on the ground, picked up by UCONN, who converted on a quick score. The score at half time was 15-3, but Yale was very much in the game, having controlled much of the play despite not playing anywhere near their best rugby.

The second half was much improved, with better decisions, better tactical kicking and more possession for the Bulldogs. The scrum got better when Yale brought in some fresh legs, especially prop Brandon Sharp '11, but lineouts were still a struggle. 12 minutes in an inside center for UCONN was sin binned for a malicious high tackle and Yale took advantage when center Garrett Spitzer '09 punched in a score after some beautiful recycling and multiphase patterns. Evan Edwards made the conversion and the score 12 minutes into the second half was now 10-15. Unfortunately, another mistake gave UCONN another try. Off the kick off, a player made a nice catch, took the ball up and tried to split two defenders instead of choosing the outside shoulder of one and setting up a ruck. The ball was turned over and several phases later UCONN scored a try. Yale still played strong and the backs put together some great runs and once were held short less than a meter for the try line. Thus, despite the outcome, there was much to be hopeful about regarding the team's performance, which likely would have benefitted greatly from the two scrimmages which were unfortunately cancelled.

Neither team really dominated play and both were evenly matched. In the end, Yale's lack of good ball from the sets (especially the lineouts), poor rucking, and a handful of mistakes were too much to overcome. UCONN ended up on top by a margin of 20-10.

B Side

Coach Pikul was too busy running touch and organizing the B and C side to take a lot of notes. Yale started the B side match with 4 players with no game experience at all, as opposed to UCONN who had a very experienced side. Yale did well considering the circumstances. Yale was decent in the sets and around the rucks. Unfortunately, the Bs got torched on the outside and UCONN's outside backs were able to make several long runs, a few for scores. In the end, this group of underclassmen has huge potential, not to mention huge size, a welcome change from Yale's typically undersized squads. The future looks bright for Yale. Unfortunately, the Bs went down by a score of 32-10.

C Side

The C-game saw Yale freshman, some of whom got their feet wet in the B game, outplay UCONN on the field. This squad a mixed team with about 50% freshman, a handful of sophomores and a couple of upperclassmen filling in for numbers. We had a few great scores and played well across the board. Hats off to flyhalf Arturo Zindel '11 and fullback Matt "Ben Johnson" Lacasse '10 for playing lights out in the B and C games. To end the afternoon right, Yale squeezed out an 8-5 victory for the C side.