To all,

The men of Towson rugby traveled to West Virginia University this past weekend in the hopes of finishing the regular season on a high note. The mountaineers had other ideas and were looking to defend their home field. WVU has a strong program and made it to the mid western playoffs last year and we knew we were in for a tough game. We were informed that they had not secured a referee for the game and therefore one of their coaches would be reffing the game. I have found in the past that having a coach with a vested interest reffing the game can be problematic.

We started the game in good fashion and almost scored in the first minute as our pack rucked well in the loose and our backs got the ball wide to the wings. WVU withstood the charge and started to control the clock with their enormous forwards playing small ball. While we defended their pack well, it allowed them to maintain possession of the ball and momentum swung to their side. Mid way through the first half the ref awarded a penalty for our player handling the ball after a tackle. While there was no ruck formed and the defender is allowed to play the ball the ref awarded a penalty and WVU jumped out to a 3-0 lead. My yelling at the ref only resulted in a warning to be quiet.

In a back and forth game both sides moved the ball up and down the field. TU finally broke through after our scrum half caught WVU napping and ran one in from 20 yards. The kicked failed. Score 5-3 in favor of the good guys.

A penalty was awarded to TU a few minutes later and our kicker launched a 30 yard kick to extend our lead. The ball sailed over top of the goal post and no one was quite sure if the kick was good or not. Confusion rained as the ref refused to make a decision. It didn’t help that our touch judge did not go behind the post during the kick. Eventually he awarded a scrum down to WVU and he never did make a decision as to whether the kick was good or not.

Half time score: 5 – 3 in favor of Towson.

After a brief rest the game resumed and WVU took control of the ball and their forwards maintained possession for much of the remainder of the game. They eventually got the ball out wide and scored a try to retake the lead 8-5. While our forwards did a good job of playing against a pack who out weighed us by a substantial amount, our backs had a rough day as they passed poorly, dropped balls, missed tackles and had kicks blocked. It was a total surprise after last week to see us execute so poorly given the strong play of our backs over the last few weeks. Still the victory was still within reach and we were only down by 3 points with 10 minutes left. Several times we had the opportunity to score only to have a player drop a pass. Late in the game WVU kicked the ball deep into our end zone. A player from each team was chasing the ball and were jostling each other as they made their way towards the end zone. Our player reached the ball first and touched the ball down for what appeared to be a touch back. The ref, who was trailing the play by 30 yards blew his whistle and awarded a penalty try saying that our player had stopped a sure try by pushing their player off his stride. While we vigorously protested this call, the try was given and the kick was converted. Final score WVU 15 – Towson 5.

When all is said and done, WVU probably deserved the victory. It wasn’t that they played that much better than us, it was that we played so poorly. We didn’t deserve this win, but the controversial calls by the ref didn’t help.

Leave it to the B side to lift the spirits of the club and salvage a victory against a solid squad from our opponent. The B side did an outstanding job of getting the ball to the wing and scored early by dotting the ball in the corner. WVU responded with a try of their own and we were deadlocked into a 7-7 tie. We scored on a penalty kick to take a halftime lead of 10-7. We asked the boys if they drove four hours to lose this game. The answer was a resounding NO and they took care of business in the second half. Our scrum half may have scored the try of the year when he took the ball down the sideline late in the second half and the outcome still in doubt. Nate Brady is 5′9″ and weighs 150lbs soaking wet. He shrugged off several tackles and was at the 10 yard line when one of their players launched his body in an attempt to push Nate out of bounds. Their was a huge collision with the sound being heard across the field. While temporarily stopped, Nate took the hit and crashed into the end zone. The opposing defender needed to come out of the game due to the violence of the hit. The sidelines went crazy and the try really lifted our spirits. Final Score 20-7 for the Beavers. Our B side has not lost to another B side in over two seasons.

As we close the regular season out our record is 8-2 for the A side with our two losses to Navy’s A side and a fine WVU team. The B side is 5 – 4 with all of their losses coming against A side competition. The roster continues to hold steady between 40 – 45 players. We have a bye this weekend and close out our season in the Rites of Spring tournament hosted by Baltimore RFC in two weeks.

Look for an email about the Bull Roast in a few days.

Cheers.
Stoney