The Yale University Rugby Football Club

Yale Drops Disappointing Match to Dartmouth

Yale Rugby suffered another disappointing contest this Saturday. The weekend began poorly, as the threat of tropical storm remnants descending on New Haven forced Yale Rugby to reschedule its game. Originally slated to be a home contest, the Bulldogs found out Friday afternoon that they would be travelling to Hanover to face Dartmouth. Due to limited travel accomodations, only an A-side game would thus be played. Despite this inauspicious beginning, Yale Rugby had every intention to go up show the Big Green what they were made of.

The game started relatively slowly. After about ten minutes of back and forth play, Dartmouth drew first blood by dotting down a try after swinging the ball wide. Yale quickly countered with a penalty kick to make the score 7-3. The first half saw momentum swing back and forth, with Dartmouth beating Yale to the outside for several tries. However, Yale's aggression kept them in the game, and the score at the half was 26-6.

The second half did not play out as Yale had hoped. The aggressive play crescendoed, eventually resulting in a Yale player being sin binned for an aggressive ruck. Dartmouth began to have success with wheeling the scrums, a tactic which many of Yale's young forwards had yet to encounter. Despite maximum effort from the men of Yale, Dartmouth's organization and team play was too much for the Bulldogs, who were simply not as well-drilled or well-practiced as their opponents. Dartmouth took the match with a final score of 52-9. Despite the loss, several players stood out on the day. Wing Ryan Salinas '09 had a tremendous day fielding kicks and making tackles, and flyhalf Evan Edwards '09 had Yale's only points of the game. The loss proved to Yale that, despite the outcome, they can play with anyone in the Northeast; expect an empassioned and more organized effort out of Yale in the weeks to come.