Indian Rugby Season Roundup

By Brendan M. Neff | Thursday, November 9, 2006

Despite the optimism surrounding this year’s fall campaign, the Dartmouth Rugby Football Club will not advance to the National tournament for the first time in three years. Let down by an unfortunate string of injuries and uninspired performances in crucial contests, the men in green look forward to a Spring tour—training towards an Ivy championship, rather than a national one. Disappointed by their failure to achieve the club’s stated preseason goal, the team salved their wounds by carrying their final two matches by a combined score of 147-22.

The Dartmouth Big Green’s string of misfortunes this season continued against Harvard in a Homecoming showdown in Hanover. For the fourth time in six weeks, Dartmouth opened the match by losing a tight-five starter to injury as junior prop Kemper Pierce went down with a bum knee and had to be replaced by recent team-addition Dan Siegfried ‘08.

The Crimson came out with fire early on, using a simple but well-organized attack to pick and jam the ball down the field running hard off the rucks with forward support. In the 10th minute, a kicking error led to trouble as Harvard pressured the Green’s counter-attack, forcing the bad ball. The Crimson jumped on the loose opportunity and seconds later tallied their first score and conversion, putting them ahead 7-0. Continuing to be plagued by inexperienced mistakes, the Men in Green lost a lineout at the midline and then proceeded to be whistled for a penalty in phase play. This uncharacteristic play resulted in a dramatic shift in field position in Harvard’s favor. A rolling maul off of a lineout and ten meters later Harvard had touched down again to take a very early 14-0 lead.

Backs against the wall, the Dartmouth offense began to find its rhythm, as their speedy back line was able to find a few holes in the Harvard defense, ripping off long line-breaks only to find their gains squandered by poor handling and slow support. Dartmouth’s kicking game, usually quite reliable, also suffered this weekend and in the 15th minute, the first of a handful of sure kicks sailed wide, robbing Dartmouth of an early answer. Dartmouth would not be deterred, however, as only minutes later they drew some blood of their own, stealing a Harvard scrum on the Harvard 5 meter, and turning possession into points as John Wilkens ‘06 found Co-Captain Aziz Sayigh for a try under the posts. The conversion from dead-on missed and Harvard maintained a 9-point lead.

After a Drew Jennings’ ‘08 penalty kick cut the deficit to 6, Harvard struck again in the 35th minute to increase their lead going into halftime. The Green pack lost an attacking scrum at the Harvard 40-meter, and the countering Harvard 8-man found open space deep in Dartmouth territory with a boot. Under pressure, Dartmouth was forced to knock the ball into touch, but the subsequent lineout saw Harvard break the Green defensive wall with two quick attacking phases. Opening up the Dartmouth defense for the crashing outside center, the Harvard side found the try-zone beneath the posts, making the final halftime mark 21-8.

This would prove to be the bulk of the game’s scoring, as Dartmouth came out with a renewed commitment to defense in the second half. The offense however continued to struggle and failed to capitalize on repeated line-breaks as individual efforts sliced hole after hole in the Harvard defenses, only to be squandered due to lack of support. Poor handling and pressured decision making proved to be the downfall of the men in Green as they could not translate their superior athleticism into points.

Midway through the half, Dartmouth’s prospects looked up for a moment as wing Jennings went screaming down the sideline off multiphase possession, finding the try zone in the corner to pull the Big Green to within eight. Harvard answered right back however as they had all game, putting pressure on Dartmouth’s back three with high up-and-under kicks and deep kicks into the corner. They tallied their final score in this fashion as back-up Doug Raicek ‘08 had trouble handling a tough bounce on a deep kick, which happened to fall into the hands of the pressuring Crimson, who took it to the house putting Harvard ahead for good 28-13.

In the final minutes the Dartmouth attack—fighting for a result that would see them through to the playoffs—continued to decimate the Harvard defense. Again and again the lads failed capitalize on line breaks, even managing to twice knock-on in the Harvard try-zone. A last second kick at goal from Jennings clanged off the posts and was harmlessly kicked to touch by Harvard, bringing the final whistle. The 13-28 proved to be too great in the end, and the loss eliminated Dartmouth from National Championship contention.

The club would find a measure of redemption the next week, staving off relegation in resounding fashion against UMass and earning a result against Army in a friendly game at West Point.

In the relegation battle, Captain Tom Manzo ‘07 was pleased with his team’s performance as they rolled up a truly impressive tally, posting 100 points on the day and earning their third shutout victory of the season. On the game Manzo noted, “We came to play today, and really controlled the ball throughout the game. We were able to wear them out quickly with our speed and capitalized on keeping possession moving forward. Our backs had a good day.”

The scoring opened very early on as Paul Huelskamp ‘06 broke through the UMass defense, dicing through the back three to touch down under the posts, something he would do twice more before the day was done. Co-Captain Aziz Sayigh ‘07 also managed an impressive individual effort in the first half, charging his way through traffic to mark one of his two tries on the day. Perhaps the highlight of the first half was when fan-favorite and club president Peter Harris ‘07 notched his first career 1st XV try about midway through, capitalizing off a nifty line-break by junior hooker Josh Ring ‘08. Another one of the Huelskamp tries, as well as a try in the corner from winger Drew Jennings, one of his three on the day, put the Big Green up 33-0 at the half with four made conversions.

In the second half, the pressure kept on coming as flyhalf Conlan O’Leary ‘09 always managed to find the streaking open man and the Big Green wore away the UMass defense. Scoring tries on the day were burly lock Anthony Arch ‘09, 8-man Josh Weinberg ‘07, Captain Tom Manzo ‘07, and winger Jake Pawlowski ‘08, as well as the ageless Brad Fierstein ‘06 who managed to touchdown twice while playing the tight-head prop position.

On the day the Indians nailed 10 of the 15 conversion attempts, with Jennings curving the final one inside the posts as time expired to set the mark at 100-0, making it the third time Dartmouth would win by shutout this season.

Finally, this past weekend the club justified the 5 a.m. bus Sunday morning by earning the team’s first result against an Army side in a long while. The club rode a strong play in the loose from Arch and Siegfried, inspired kicking from Pawlowski, and a three try day from Sayigh to a 47-22 victory over the Cadets. Said the senior Sayigh, whose hat trick marked his first wearing the Green: “There were ups and downs, strikes and gutters. But we finished on a high note and are looking forward to Ivies in the spring.” Indeed.

Indian Rugby Season Roundup

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