The Yale University Rugby Football Club

Yale Drops Heartbreaker to Brown

Yale traveled to Providence to take on an underrated and scrappy Brown side. The men of Brown were clearly ready to play, and the weather, which featured low temperatures, driving rain, and a field with several inches of standing water, certainly favored Brown's forwards-oriented game. Yale's backs were unable to get much going offensively, largely due to the inclement conditions.

Yale started off the game strong. A powerful run off of a Yale scrum saw fullback Ryan Vandersloot '11 streak down the right sideline and touch down in the corner. Ryan was unable to slot the difficult conversion, and Yale drew first blood with a score of 5-0. Brown answered back with a try of their own, with poor tackling by Yale's backs allowing a Brown center to break the line and score under the posts, putting them ahead 7-5. The Bulldogs battled hard the rest of the first half, putting pressure on the Brown defense and earning two penalties, both converted by Vandersloot, to go up 11-7. Unfortunately, a lapse of concentration by Yale's defense allowed Brown to score just before the half, putting them up 12-11 at half.

Yale came out of intermission fired up, expecting a tight contest similar to the first half. Unfortunately, due to mistake-free play by the Brown back three along with some timely errors by Yale, Brown was able to keep the men in blue pinned in their end for nearly the entire half. Brown had sustained possession near the Yale line, and although Yale's goal line defense was commendable, Brown was eventually able to go over to put the score to 17-11. The ball remained in Yale's end, with attempts to clear fielded cleanly by the Brown backs. Brown was able to add a conversion, followed by a soft converted try at the death, to bring the final score to 27-11.

Final Score: Yale 11 - Brown 27

Yale's B side battled hard despite the adverse conditions. As expected, the game was fairly sloppy, with plenty of handling mistakes and penalties. Brown went up 15-0 off of sustained pressure in Yale's end, but the B's never quit. Number 8 Jules Terrien '12 earned his first try as a Yale rugger after a strong drive by the Yale forwards. Although it was not reflected in the score, the Yale B's competed admirably, and showed that the future of Yale rugby is in good hands.

Final Score: Yale 5 - Brown 15