Harbus

Issue date: 5/4/09 Section: Sports

The HBS Rugby Football Club sent two full squads to compete at the MBA Rugby World Championships at Duke University on April 18 & 19. HBS had trained hard all spring for the tournament including frequent 'stadiums' and tune up matches with Cambridge (UK), London Business School (UK), a couple of Brazillian teams over spring break, MIT (MA), and NYU (NY). By the time they reached Carolina, the HBS ruggers were fit as a fiddle and itching to board and keel-haul their rapscallion competitors!
 
The B-side started off strong against Cornell putting together some great attacking moves and were rewarded with the first try of the game. Cornell hit back quickly by taking advantage of the Harvard defense's distraction during their rousing rum and sea shanty routine. Cornell then took the lead by successfully booting in the conversion. The remainder of the game was a stalemate, much like the epic maritime battle between the Merrimac and the Monitor, up until the dying minutes. As full time approached, Harvard sprung a backline break that pushed Cornell back to their try line and it appeared that the go-ahead score was imminent. However, in the end they where unable to breach Cornell's defense and ended up losing 7-5.

The second B-side game against the highly skilled red-bearded pirates of University College Dublin was a formidable challenge. Dublin had won eight of the last ten championships, and was determined to punish the swashbuckling Harvard side. Harvard showed some signs of brilliance, made some strong tackles, and forced the Irish to fight for all their points but came up on the short end of the stick, losing 43-0.

Next up was the A-side versus the Wharton B's.  The game found HBS at the preferable end of the pointy stick, and the pirates dominated in all phases of play with a 48-0 victory. Strong play by the big boys in the front-row, Alex 'I'm not Chris Farley' Somers (ND), Seth Ross (OB) and Joel Hartel (OB) ensured that all line-outs and scrums were secured. Forward open-field play was highlighted by the dominant running of Chris Trimble (HKS), Joe Harrington (HLS) and Ben Reno-Weber (OX).  The backs played equally as well with epic tries scored by Sean Eldridge (OE) and Curt Willener (OJ). Scrumhalf James Joun (ND) and winger extraordinaire Kevin O'Boyle (NG) linked up twice for blind-side scores. The game was soured, however, with the loss of James 'peg-leg' Joun who was sidelined for the rest of the tournament.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools

FRONT PAGE