As the summer is winding down, the Towson University rugby team is getting ready for our upcoming fall season. Coming off a 13 – 2 spring, and returning 12 of our 15 starters, we have high hopes for winning the PRU and advancing to the national playoffs in the spring. Many of our players have spent the summer playing 7’s in places like Las Vegas, Florida, and Connecticut. The team has been working hard over the summer as we prepare for a very difficult fall schedule.

In an effort to get ready for our tough league schedule, we have taken on the challenge of playing several division one programs. Before the season gets under way we will have played West Virginia University,
University of Maryland and local men’s team Rocky Gorge. As we get into the heart of our schedule we will have to go through local rivals UMBC and Salisbury. This is the toughest schedule in the league by far. On
the other hand, if we are as good as we think we are, then playing good teams has got to be part of the equation.

We will be getting a formal schedule out to you soon so that you can mark your calendars for our home games. We had crowds of over 300 people at our home games last year and hope to increase our fan support for the coming season. Hopefully the alumni weekend got your blood flowing and jogged your memory about what a great sport rugby is.

Finally, we are looking for an experienced forwards coach who can make practice twice a week at 5:00. All of our current coaches are former backs and we would really like to get someone with some experience in
the pack to take our very talented forwards to the next level. While this does require a certain time commitment to the club, I can say with confidence, that all of our current coaches are having a blast working
with this group of young men. Let me know if you have an interest in this position.

To win the game is great
To play the game is greater
To love to play the game is the greatest.

Best regards,
Don Stone

The Towson men’s rugby team ended the season in style winning the Rites of Spring tournament over the weekend. Many of you will remember this as the Preakness tournament held every year in early May. We played at beautiful Bocek field in downtown Baltimore on two hot and sultry days.

As we have done in other recent tournaments, we were the only team to enter two sides. We do this with the hope that our B side players will get a taste of stronger competition and make them ready that much faster to compete for a position on the A side. Also, this insures that everybody gets to play in multiple games over the weekend and we do not have half our team standing around not playing.

Given the large number of games and my propensity to write long novels about our weekend play, I will give you a short synopsis of each game. Our B side started the day with a very close loss to a division one team, Union of New Jersey. We scored early on a counter attack by our full back who ran the ball in from the midfield. Unions much bigger pack took control and small balled our forwards for a try. They missed the kick and we were up 7-5 with only a few minutes left. A 30 yard try for TU was waived off late due to an inadvertent whistle by the referee. Several penalties against TU led to a late score and TU fell 10-7 on the last play of the game. While we lost the game, the B side competed admirably against a division one men’s team.

The A side took the field against White Horse of Philadelphia. We came out strong and dominated all phases of the game and won the game by a final score of 39 – 8. We scored in all phases of the game. Our back line play has been outstanding and we felt that if we got them the ball that we could run against anybody in the tournament.

The B side was up next against another men’s club, the Washington Renegades. Washington had a huge, experienced pack and it showed as they dominated play against our small pack. They controlled the clock, kept possession, and rolled to a 26 – 7 victory. While we have some very good athletes on the B side most of them have played less then 10 games and it showed.

Next up for the first fifteen was the Tidewater Area Touring side from Newport News. This was a division three men’s team who was more interested in socializing and drinking beer then in playing serious rugby. The final score was 71 – 7. While it is hard to gauge the value of a game like this, we did continue to work on our schemes and executed them to perfection.

The B side played it’s final game of the day and lost to another men’s team, North Penn. This was a hard fought game and the boys competed well losing 17 – 7. While the B side finished the day losing all three games, we think they gained valuable experience playing against better competition than we normally see from other college B sides. I don’t know of any other college team that has entered a second side in these spring tournaments.

The A side finished the day with a resounding victory over the Rochester Colonials. The score was 19 – 0 at the half. After we scored another try a few minutes into the second half, Rochester threw the towel in and walked off the field trailing 24 – 0. I can’t think of any time in the ten years that I played that we gave up and didn’t finish the game. They also didn’t show for Sundays consolation game against our B side.

We entered Sunday as the number one seed and played North Penn in the semi final. We dominated the first half but were only winning by the score of 10 – 0. Our backs continued to get the ball wide and we had several long breaks. We did struggle to finish as we died with the ball on several occasions. Our style of rugby depends on passing the ball to support and being unselfish. We discussed the need to play as a team at half time. The second half was much better and we started to move the ball better. We scored several more tries and the final score was 29-7.

The team had an hour to rest and got the opportunity to make fun of their head coach as I played in the over 50 game. They were on me for all the things I tell them to do, but didn’t do myself. I got my one half of rugby in, didn’t get hurt, and retired at the half so that I could go and coach the A side in the championship game. Perfect.

We entered the finals against a seasoned men’s side, the Washington Renegades. They had done a pretty good job of whopping up on our B side and we knew they had a strong, aggressive pack. The game was very close in the first half even though the boys from TU were in control of the ball. We continued to run well and had several long breaks. Washington tackled well and the score at the half was 7 – 0. While I was uncomfortable with the close score, our boys were playing hard and we stressed the need to stick to our game plan. Our fitness took over in the second half and we rolled to a final score of 21 – 7. The 2010 Rites of Spring champions!!

While absolutely gassed the boys stuck around, drank a few beverages, and enjoyed the camaraderie that can only be achieved with shared sacrifice. What ever I get out of coaching, the smiles on their faces is more meaningful to me then anything else.

We ended our season with a stellar 13 – 2 record. We won the Rocky Gorge college tournament and the Rites of Spring men’s tournament. We outscored our opponents by a 198 – 22 over the weekend. Our B side finished the season with a 6 – 7 record, with all of their losses coming against other teams A sides. Our B side has not lost to another B side in over two seasons. The strength of our B side has allowed us to move up players to the A side as injuries take their toll during the season. Close to half of our players who played in the championship game played on the B side last season. We have several starters who have been injured and will make their return in the fall. We had only two seniors start yesterday and will return over ninety percent of our players for next year. We ended the season with about 45 players on the roster.

We look forward to the fall with the goals of winning the league title and advancing to the national playoffs. We feel we have the talent and commitment to reach these goals and the boys have dedicated themselves to coming back in the best shape of their lives.

We would like to thank all the alumni, parents, and girlfriends who have supported us this year.

Best regards,
Don

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

Your Towson Men’s rugby team won the Rocky Gorge college invitational tournament this weekend!!

We traveled to Howard county with 2 teams entered into a ten team tournament made up of local college teams. We were the only team to enter a B side into the event. We feel so strongly about the quality of our B side that we entered them into a tournament made up exclusively of A side teams.

The day started with the first fifteen playing against a relatively new team from Washington College. The preliminary games were 20 minute halves and we jumped out to a substantial lead within the first ten minutes. We were getting the ball to the wings and scoring a lot off of second phase rugby. Halftime score was 30 – 0. Given the inexperience of the other team we decided to slow the game down and have our forwards play small ball with a lot of rucking and mauling. In spite of our effort to keep the scoring down we still added on 16 second half points for a final score of 46 – 0.

The B side was next and played divisional foe, Navy. Our B side is composed of players who have in most cases only played 10 games or less. Due to injuries, many of the players from last year’s 8 -0 squad have moved up to the A side and we have a lot of players with only a small amount of experience. None the less the Beavers played very well and lost by a final score of 12 – 7. We really started to come on in the second half and quite simply ran out of time.

After a short rest the B side took the field against a good A side from St. Mary’s college. We started slow and found ourselves in a quick 12 – 0 hole. The team regrouped and started to play better as we scored a quick try right before halftime. Score at the half 12 – 7. The coaches were really pleased with the leadership exhibited by some of our new players and the boys really believed that they had a chance to complete the comeback. Our pack took control and we started to move up and down the field at will. St. Mary’s scored off of a dropped ball and extended their lead to 17 – 7 with less than 10 minutes left. The B side continued to work hard and were rewarded with a try. We had closed the score to 17 – 14 with under two minutes left. With great urgency the B side pack went to work and moved the ball down the field. We bullied our way into the end zone and score a try as time expired. Final score 19 – 17 for Towson.

Next up was the A side against a solid team from Frostburg. We knew that the boys from the hills of western Maryland would bring it and we were ready. We continued to move the ball well and continued our trend of getting the ball wide. We scored several times on the wings. Our pack has really been on fire recently and their offense has gone through the roof. Our forwards are entering the rucks with two or three players at a time. They are really starting to support each other and the results have been outstanding. Final score 42 – 0.

Based upon the preliminary games Towson’s A side was seeded first and would play the fourth seed in the semi finals. The B side just missed being in the final four and ended up with a number 5 seeding. Not bad for a B side entered into a ten team tournament made up of all A sides. They ended up being the top seed in the consolation bracket.

The B side therefore took the field against division three powerhouse American University. The boys from DC were an experienced and well coached group and it showed as they handed our B side a 17 – 0 loss. They were clearly the better team, but the boys showed a lot of heart and determination and were definitely competitive.

As things worked out, our opponent for the semi’s was going to be Frostburg again. We were informed that they were going to forfeit the game because they didn’t see the sense in accepting another beat down from the boys of Towson. While disappointed, we took it in stride and used the extra rest to get ready for the finals against the winner of the Navy – Salisbury game.

The Finals were held late in the day and we ended up meeting our arch rival, Salisbury. This team has been the class of the league for more than a decade and has several national championships to their credit. Because they are still in the playoffs, they traveled with a mixture of both A and B side players. While they rested several of their A side players, lets be clear, they were here to win this tournament.

Towson was ready and took it to our opponent from the first whistle. We were in control of the game from the beginning and never let Salisbury get into any kind of rhythm. We held our own with against a very strong pack and clearly had the better back line. We constantly got the ball to the wings and were one pass away from scoring several times in the first half. Leave it to our pack to provide the first score. Late in the first half we had the Salisbury pack on its heels and our all league prop, Tony Ayigah took an off load and stiff armed his way through several opponents for a twenty yard run and score.

Halftime score: Towson 7 – Salisbury 0

We continued our strong play in the second half and dominated play in all phases. We scored another try and were sitting on a 12 – 0 lead when tempers started to flair. Salisbury continued to be thwarted at every turn and at some point their frustration started to show. They are not use to being down and several skirmishes took place on the field. One of our players retaliated in an effort to protect a teammate and was tossed from the game. A few minutes later one of our players was sent to the Sin-Bin for an infraction. Down two men, Salisbury responded with a try off of an offside’s penalty by one of our players. The score was now 12 – 7. With ten minutes left it could have been easy for us to lose our cool. Instead we weathered the storm. One of their players was given a red card and sent off. Our scrum half came back from his exile in the penalty box and the teams were all even for the remainder of the game. We picked up our intensity and scored another try late in the game. Final score 17 – 7.

Summary – We won our tournament and had the pleasure of beating one of our arch rivals in the process. The A side out scored its opponents 105 – 7. Our B side ended up with a number five seed and beat an A side in the process. We were clearly the best program on the pitch on this day.

As we enter the last month of the season our A side sports a nice 8 – 1 record, with their only loss coming to Navy’s A side. Our B side has a 4 – 4 record which is very impressive given that 6 of their 8 games have been against other teams A sides. The roster continues to hold steady at 45 – 50 players. We have more than a dozen players on the injured reserve list and yet continue to field very competitive teams. The camaraderie of the team is going off the charts and they are really starting to enjoy each others company.

We are off to play West Virginia University this weekend. Should be a good test for the team as this is a very large school with a fine tradition. We will keep you posted.

PS – congratulations to our good friend Mike Flannigan and the Navy A side. They beat their biggest rival, Army on Friday night by a final score of 13 – 11. This was a big win for Flanny and the boys as Army was ranked in the top five by almost every poll. Go navy.

Cheers

Don Stone

Having spent the last week wallowing in the sun in Aruba, I wanted to let you know how the TU rugby team did over the last two weekends.  Last Saturday we hosted Catholic University for our first home game in the last two seasons.  It was a glorious day, temperatures in the 70’s, and a crowd of between 200 – 300 spectators.  Catholic finished just above us in the final standings last season and we wanted to make a statement about who the better team was. We dominated the game from the first whistle and were leading 20 – 0 at the half.  We continued to run the ball wide and scored several tries in the corner of the end zone.  When you have a team down at the half you want to keep them down and not let them back into the game.  We scored two more tries and a conversion to take the lead 32 – 0.  To Catholics credit they continued to play hard and their forwards did a nice job of playing small ball and finally scored a try in the waning moments to avert the shut out. Final score 32 – 7.

The B side is getting stronger each week due to the exceptional number of new players we have added.  The competition level is rising and many of the A side players are looking over their shoulders.  The Beavers continued our dominance and posted another shout out with a final score of 36 -0.  More importantly we had a slew of new players play in their first game.  We had so many players that we had to substitute the entire squad at the half. We then had to bring in some new players half way through the second half.  All told, we had 50 players participate in our two lopsided victories.  It has been a long time since we have had over 3 and 1/2 sides.  We have resurrected both the Cougars and Darvon kids(C & D sides).

The boys ruined my vacation plans.  I was so stoked by the weekend results that I didn’t want to miss this weeks practice and the upcoming game at home against Old Dominion.  Alas, I suffered through a week on the beach in the Caribbean.  The boys were never far from my thoughts.

On this past Saturday we played a well regarded Old Dominion team and had similar results.  Unfortunately I can’t provide any color commentary as I was not there.  We continued to use our backs, I think the best in our league, and scored several tries by getting the ball to our wings. The final score was 34 – 18.  This was not an easy victory as ODU had a very large pack and maintained possession for much of the game. When we do get the ball we make things happen.  It would be nice to have a couple of 6′5″ , 240lbs, second rows but that’s not who we are.  We have a small and gifted pack who can score often.

The B side won their game as well, although I don’t know the details.

We are now 4-1 after five games with our only loss coming to Navy’s A side.  The B side sports a similar record.  We have over 50 players on the roster but have lost several players to injuries over the last few weeks.  We lost two A side players this weekend and will have to use our depth to fill in these spots.  We are headed to a tournament in Howard county this week and may end up playing some of our arch rivals, UMBC or Salisbury.  It will be interesting to see how far we have come since last fall.

That is all for now.  Expect to see and update on the reunion weekend in the next few days.

Cheers,

Don

The Towson men’s rugby team traveled (what else is new) to play the Quantico Hooligans this past weekend. After all the horrible weather, it was a nice to play on a grass field, on a beautiful sunny day. Due to spring break, we traveled with about half of our squad to play a strong division two men’s team. While we were missing quite a few of the regulars on both the A and B side, we still traveled with about 2 full sides and were able to give a number of players an opportunity to move up and play at a higher level. In the long term, this will increase our depth and make us a stronger squad.

The A side game started with the lads from TU controlling the tempo and pace of the game. We spent much of the first 20 minutes in our opponents side of the field. We did a nice job of moving the ball to the wings and had several long runs. As has been the case for several games, we have struggled to make that last pass and the boys need to learn to finish. The Marines gathered themselves and started to use their size and strength to push our forwards around in the rucks and set pieces. Most teams we play like to play small ball with their forwards and are content to attack our pack and make five yards at a time. While we have a small pack, we have done a good job of defending our gain line and most teams give up trying to beat our forwards at some point. Quantico tried on numerous occasions to have their backs crash through our back line with very little success. As such the first half ended with neither squad putting any points on the board. Halftime score 0-0.

We talked about making a few adjustments at halftime and encouraged the boys to play their game. We knew the marines were not going to get tired and we would need to use our superior speed to break the stalemate. We kicked off the second half and the men from TU finally caught fire and started to play our game. We pushed them back deep into their side of the field and never let up on our intensity. We finally got a nice movement around their wing and our winger made a nice run down to their 22 meter line. As he got tackled to the ground our outside center followed in support, called for the ball, and received a perfect off load from our winger as he was getting tackled to the ground. He took the ball – ON THE BURST – and went untouched into the try zone for a 5 – 0 lead. A nice long conversion put TU up 7 – 0. The team captains encouraged the boys to stay focused and we knew this game was far from over. We continued to attack and defend both sides of the field well. A long kick by our flyhalf was mishandled by their wing and our boys screamed down the field, took possession of the ball and hooked up for another try. A missed conversion left the score at 12 – 0. All the momentum was on our side and we looked like we would finish the game in style. Unfortunately the game is played for 80 minutes. With 20 minutes to play our scrum half got a yellow card for repeated infringement on their rucks and was sent off the field for 15 minutes. Now were a man down and our starting scrum half is pacing back in forth in the sin – bin. Quantico immediately stepped up their efforts and were rewarded with a penalty kick to close the gap to 12 – 3. Momentum was on their side and they continued to attack us and we were on our heels for most of the last fifteen minutes. A missed drop kick by their fly half took several goofy bounces and try as we might we couldn’t get our hands on it. One of their players touched the ball down and all of a sudden the score was 12 – 8. We continued to defend our goal for the last five minutes of the game and with a sigh of relief the whistle blew and we collected our second win of the season. Given the missing A side starters and the fact that we lost several other starters in the game due to injuries, we will happily take the victory. We lost our starting fly half to a twisted ankle. Our hooker, who is a captain, left the field in an ambulance with what was feared to be, a broken ankle – x-rays were negative. All things considered, this was a very good victory for the club.

The B side consisted almost entirely of new guys, most of whom haven’t played in five games yet. We put a patch work pack together with players playing positions for the first time in their lives. Since Quantico has a small team we essentially played their A side again. We decided to play two twenty minute halves. The B side guys showed a lot of heart and determination against a bigger and more skilled opponent. We fell 20 – 5 but played the other team straight up in the second half. Once they got their sea legs under them the new guys on our team were very competitive.

For the first time since I have been coach we were hosted by another team and we went to a local Irish restaurant to enjoy food and beverages. Quantico did an outstanding job and we are grateful that the boys got an opportunity to bond and sing a few songs together. It was a real team building experience and we hope to have more of them.

We close out the first part of our season with a 2 – 1 record. We beat the teams we should have and the loss to the Naval Academy was a learning experience. We now play the first of two straight home games against Catholic and Old Dominion. While we have yet to have a practice outdoors, Newell field will finally be available for practice starting this week. Given the weather, spring break and injuries we are not quite where I want us to be, but we will make the best of it and pick up our intensity this week. Assuming the weather doesn’t do us in, we will play on the University Union field this Saturday. If you can make it out we would love to get your support.

We continue to move forward on the Alumni reunion and I will send out another email in a day or two.

Best regards,
Don Stone

We went to the academy with the knowledge that this was going to be a learning experience for the boys. Besides playing one of the best teams in the country, this was the first time we have been on a field this season due to the weather. My hope was that we would compete on the field and the resulting score would be unimportant. We played on the artificial turf, on the water, on a beautiful sunny day. For most of the A side game the boys competed well between the 22 meter lines. We were able to hold our own at times and played solid defense and rucked well. On the other hand, we were on our heels most of the day and any time we made the smallest mistake, Navy would make us pay. By the time the game ended, the score was a lot to a little(none). There are lessons to be learned even in a lopsided loss. We got to watch Navy execute on both offense and defense. As you would expect, they were very disciplined and very physical. The biggest difference was their level of fitness. Everybody on their sideline is incredibly fit. I would say that approximately 20% of our players are in rugby shape. Unfortunately, I have not been able to impress upon our team the level of fitness that is required to compete with really good teams. As most of you know, it takes years to develop the skills necessary to become a good player. I get most of the kids for 2 years or less. The main difference between good teams in college and average teams in college is the level of fitness.

The B side game was much of the same. We would hold our own at times and neither game was completely one sided, but in the end, the results were the same. We had at least 10 brand new players get an opportunity to play and almost all of them were excited about the game and how much fun it can be. We could probably field a C side, but the majority of college teams can barely field a B side. Navy’s C and D side were playing Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

After the game, we made it clear to the boys that we were not discouraged with their performance. While in clearly over our heads, they hung together, and gave it their best. Character is built during difficult losses, not easy wins. Coach Flanagan stopped by and praised the boys for their effort and heart.

We head to Happy Valley to play Penn State’s alumni team this Saturday. While spring break begins next weekend, we expect to travel with at least 2 sides. We will have several of our A side players on spring break and will work with the players who can make it. The same will be true the following weekend when we play the Marines at Quantico. While I would like to have my team at full strength, I try to look at the positive side. Many players who normally play on the B side will get a chance to strut their stuff on the first fifteen. The same will be true for the B side. The spring season is usually more laid back and we will use this season as an opportunity to develop players for next falls matrix games.

 Blogging for the Men’s Rugby Team for Towson University