Harbus

Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Sports

The HBS Rugby Team poses under the goalposts after winning the London Tournament.

HBS Rugby flew to London determined to continue an undefeated year by winning its first tournament against international competition. It succeeded in grand style, with both the HBS A and B teams bringing home trophies. HBS A won all four of its games, outscoring the opposition by a combined 145 to 0 to claim the tournament championship. HBS B went an impressive 3-1, greatly improving its skills and taking home third place.

For HBS A, the first day kicked off with HBS playing a tough London Business School A-side. Having not played against live opposition since finishing its fall season in November, the HBS A-side spent most of the first game knocking the rust off. London fought hard, determined to defend their home field. Tackling and rucking ferociously, London tried to penetrate Harvard's stout defense, anchored by the aggressive play of Chris "Bicycle" Trimble (KSG) and Randy "Pino Grigio" Goldstein (ND). HBS used its defense to wear down London, and exploited opportunities to launch counterattacks to gain field position and scoring opportunities. The first half ended 0-0, but midway through the second half, one of these counterattacks penetrated the LBS defense, and Mark "Whitworth" Wayshak raced to the corner of the try zone to score Harvard's first points. HBS then found its rhythm and began to dominate the battle for field position, consistently attacking the London end. Although HBS did consistently attacking the London end. Although HBS did not score again before time was called, it bode well for the rest of the tournament, and HBS came away with a 5-0 victory.

The B-side tasted their first action of the New Year against the spirited team from INSEAD. It took a few minutes to get back into the flow of the game, but the team showed strong defense holding their opponents off the board and coming away with the win off a penalty kick by Jon "Asian Persuasion" Wyler (OC) in the game's final minutes. Wyler would go an impressive 4 for 5 on kicks for the tournament.

During the second game, HBS A took on an overmatched INSEAD A-side. Warmed up and ready from its first match, HBS grabbed the initiative and never let go. Working off yet another HBS counterattack, team Captain Liam "Teddy Bear" Patrick (OC) plunged into the try zone only 2 minutes into the match. The rout was on. Over the next forty minutes, HBS scored nine more tries, including tries by Patrick (3 total), Brendan "Frosted Tips" Whitworth (OJ), Brian "Stella!" Geary (OA), Joel "Freight Train" Hartel (NB), and Sean "Bait" Eldridge (NE). HBS kept changing its style of play, at one point moving Prop Forwards Craig "Switch" Canton (OJ) and Jeff "Mountain Man" Todd (HLS) out to the wing, where, with the help of Atsushi "Bear" Oshiba (OF) and Patrick, they penetrated the INSEAD defense, and rumbled 40 meters down the field, where Canton charged into the try zone for a score. Goldstein caused further chaos by flattening the INSEAD scrum half with a vicious hit that sent both the INSEAD player and the ball flying, underlining Harvard's swarming defense. HBS used the game to further develop its rhythm and cohesiveness, fine-tune its defense, and improve its offense. Patrick converted 7 of his 10 kick-at-goal attempts, as HBS slammed INSEAD, 64-0.

Continued...

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