USARU Sweet sixteen
For Immediate Release
May 17, 2008
First Round of Action Complete in USA Rugby’s Men’s Club Playoffs
AUSTIN, Texas – USA Rugby saw the first day of action in its Men’s Division I, II and III Club Playoffs come to close Saturday, at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, and although the day’s results showed a startling number of first round blowouts, the physical contests that took place were not always revealed by the final scores.
Here’s a look at each division of USA Rugby Men’s Club Playoffs after day one.
Division I
Local hosts, the Austin Blacks, fell to the defending champions, Hayward, 44-12. Hayward led the rebuilding Austin team by 20 points at halftime and the 14th-seeded Austin side couldn’t rebound from that kind of deficit.
“We had to replace nearly 10 of our starting 15 since last season,” Austin’s head coach Mark Brewerton said. “It’s not an excuse, but that kind of turnover has an obvious impact on your team. I am really proud of our guys’ effort and you have to give credit to Hayward. They are a really tough team.”
The third-seeded Hayward Griffins will play No. 6 Pearl City Rugby Club in the Division I Round of 8 tomorrow at noon. Pearl City, based in Muscatine, Iowa, move on after a seemingly easy 48-6 victory over Mystic River today.
Pearl City is coached by the 2007 Rugby World Cup backs coach, Adam Friend, and finally finds itself in a position to turn the tables on Hayward after last year’s 17-15 loss at the hands of the California team. This is only Pearl City’s second year in Division I, having advanced from Division III just four years ago and even though they won by over 40 points today, they expected more out of themselves in the early minutes.
“Tomorrow’s match will be a tough one,” Friend said following his win. “Our teams have different strengths and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. It took a little while to gain our composure in today’s game, and it’s obvious we won’t be able to do that against Hayward tomorrow.”
The top-seeded Olympic Club struggled against the 16-seed Gentlemen of Aspen and to the shock of many, found themselves tied at 15 by the end of regulation. Aspen led by as much as 12 points with less than 20 minutes to go, when the Olympic Club finally put some offense together. By the time the two teams were just four minutes into overtime, OC’s youthfulness and training was glaring as they scored 33 points in just two 10 minute halves.
“Aspen is a top class outfit, a good team,” Olympic Club Coach Ray Lehner said. “We knew they’d be physical out there. My team really didn’t get their engines going until late in the game, but we had a slight edge in fitness and youth and used it to our advantage in the end.”
The ninth-seeded Maryland Exiles also took a bit of warming up in their game against No. 8 Palmer. Although Palmer led at half, 14-7, Maryland made some adjustments and stepped it up big in the second half to also score 33 consecutive points before the whistle blew with the Exiles leading 40-14. Maryland will face Olympic Club tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. in the Round of 8.
After trailing Park City Haggis by 17 points before switched ends, Chicago’s South Side Irish propelled ahead off a last minute dive into the try zone by Dave Fee, giving them a 27-22 advantage just before the final blow. South Side Irish now moves on to face the Glendale Raptors in tomorrow’s competition.
“It’s unbelievable,” South Side Irish captain Matt Kelly said following the match. “Everything we read heading into the playoffs doubted us, people said we were going to lose, there was no we we’d win and we really took that to heart – no one expected this.”
“Luckily, we got one more try in the last minute and stuck it out to the end,” said South Side fullback Dave Fee, who came up big for his team in the barnburner against Park City. “I thought we had the fitness to handle them and we didn’t capitalize on it in the first half, but fortunately we were able to take full advantage in the second.”
The youthful Glendale Raptors proved too quick for Long Island and outpaced the New York side for a blowout 85-8 final score, with Dewon Reed completing the hat trick for 15 points and Raptors captain Mike Graham contributing 30 points to the victory, with 10 conversions and two tries of his own.
After leading by just three points in a physical first half, Life University turned it up a notch and muscled out a 44-19 final against Los Angeles. The team now moves on to face Las Vegas in the Pool D championship on Sunday afternoon. The Blackjacks just barely eked out a 23-20 win over White Plains in their game’s final moments when Vaha Esikia snuck in for a last minute try.
“We really got lucky,” Las Vegas Coach Steve Richards said. “The bottom line is, we should not have won the game, we didn’t play to our full potential, but we’ll take the win.”
Division II
With the exception of the meeting between the No. 9 seed Sacramento and the No. 8 seed North County Gurkhas, which saw Sacramento come out on top 18-17, all of the higher seeds were victorious throughout today’s Division II competition.
The top-seeded team in Division II team found the road a bit bumpy on its way to the next round as Brandywine was able to prove itself worthy, but not invincible, in its 34-20 win over Clinton Muddy River. Brandywine will meet the ninth-ranked Sacramento Team in its Round of 8 encounter.
Last year’s runners up, Red Mountain handed Norfolk a 55-5 defeat to remain in the hunt for the title this year. The Arizona team now moves on to meet Jacksonville, which recovered from a sluggish start and came from behind to defeat the Albuquerque Aardvarks 32-17.
“The team showed true dedication and tenacity out there in the second half to come back and win this one,” Jacksonville Head Coach Ricky Brown said. “All credit to the Aardvarks though, they played a great game today.”
After finishing fourth in last year’s Senior Men’s Club Championships, Tulsa came out with a vengeance against New Orleans, dominating possession and the scoreboard in the second half to run up a 37-0 lead before the half and holding its opponent to just two tries in the second half for a 47-14 final.
Tulsa moves on to face the Detroit Tradesmen at 8:30 a.m. for a shot to advance to the Club Championships in Glendale, Colo. After holding a commanding 39-3 lead at the half, the Tradesmen fended off the mounting second half attack from the South Shore Anchors to come away with a 51-27 victory.
Although the Riverside Rugby Club are ranked third, they were considered by some as the underdogs, fielding one of the oldest rosters in Division II. But, as Coach Teleso LeungWo proves - with age comes experience - and the Riverside Rugby Club defeated the younger Hartford side, 45-24, on Saturday.
At the same time, the sixth-seeded Wisconsin Team battled it out against the No. 11 Charleston Rugby Club for the chance to go on to play Riverside in the Round of 8 tomorrow. Charlotte actually led for nearly 12 minutes in the second half, but Wisconsin slowly built up a 19-point lead by half and enough buffer to secure a 36-22 victory for the Midwest side.
Division III
No. 1-seed Middlesex met its match against the eighth-seeded Fort Worth club, in what seemed to be a reoccurring theme amongst the division favorites. Middlesex actually found itself trailing 10-5 at half, and then following several lead changes throughout the last 40 minutes, scored the game winning try to put them up, 23-18, as time ran out.
Middlesex will meet up with Michiana tomorrow, following its convincing 53-19 win over Eagle Rock this morning. Boosted by a David Knudson hat trick before 40 minutes had elapsed, the fourth-seeded team shutout its opponent 33-0 in the first half and did not look back.
After leading 19-5 heading into the break, Jersey Shore ran away with its match against Montgomery in the second half, scoring four unanswered tries to pull off a 47-5 victory. The team will meet Reno at 1:45 p.m. on Sunday, following the Nevada team’s shutout of Montclair, 52-0, to advance to the quarterfinals of Division III.
For more information on this event or for the complete Men’s Club brackets from Division I, II and III, please visit www.usarugby.org/goto/mens_club.
Men’s Club Playoffs
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Zilker Park - Austin, Texas
Division I
Olympic Club 48, Aspen 15 (OT)
Exiles 40, Palmer 14
South Side Irish 27, Park City Haggis 22
Glendale Raptors 85, Long Island 8
Hayward 44, Austin 12
Pearl City 48, Mystic River 6
Las Vegas 23, White Plains 20
Life 44, Los Angeles 19
Division II
Detroit 51, South Shore 27
Tulsa 47, New Orleans 14
Riverside 45, Hartford 24
Wisconsin 36, Charleston 22
Jacksonville 32, Albuquerque Aardvarks 17
Red Mountain 55, Norfolk 5
Brandywine 34, Clinton MR 20
Sacramento 18, NC Gurkahs 17
Division III
Michiana 53, Eagle Rock 19
Middlesex 23, Fort Worth 18
Jersey Shore 47, Montgomery 5
Reno 52, Montclair 0
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Sara John | Director of Communications | USA Rugby