Having fared poorly at the last two Ivy League Rugby Championships, the Dartmouth rugby team arrived at Conshohocken, Penn., set on regaining the Ivy Cup that it had previously held for five straight years. Relying on aggressive defense that yielded only two tries in three games, the team again earned the Ivy League title with victories over Yale in the first round, Penn in the semifinal and Cornell in the final.
Because an early exit last year yielded Dartmouth a fifth seed in this year's tournament, the team faced No. 4 seed Yale in its first match on Saturday morning. Adapting its strategy to the shortened 50-minute game, Dartmouth battled for territory, kicking frequently to keep the ball in Yale's end. Though the Dartmouth Rugby Football Club started slowly, and Yale managed to gain three points with a penalty kick in the fourth minute, Dartmouth soon came together to score 35 unanswered points.
With powerful and relentless offense, Dartmouth scored a total of five tries and converted two penalty kicks. Eight-man Joseph Killefer '06 scored the team's first two tries by running through several tackles on his way to the try zone. In the second half, prop Dan Kovler '06 pounced on a failed Yale kick in the try zone to score, and he scored a second time on a short carry through traffic. During a counterattack, wing Scott Penner '06 also scored off of a pass from center Jesse Blom '06.
Later the same afternoon, Dartmouth met Penn in the semifinals. In the team's first match, Penn displayed a strong running offense, especially in their centers, and was able to overcome a deficit to beat Princeton 18-17. Dartmouth's hard-nosed defense, however, proved to be impenetrable for the Penn offense, as time after time, the DRFC pushed the attackers backward with positive tackling.
On offense, Dartmouth kept the ball in Penn's half of the field for much of the game. On two occasions, after strong running by Killefer, the backs deftly passed the ball wide to Penner, who worked his way through the defense to score. Fullback Andrew Caspary '06 also capitalized on two penalties with successful kicks.
While Penn mounted an offensive in the last 10 minutes of play, their efforts proved to be insufficient. A drop kick in the 48th minute put Penn on the board with three points, and after an extended goal-line stand, the team finally punctured the Dartmouth defense in the final play of the game to score and make the final tally 18-10.
In the final match against Cornell, Dartmouth squared off against a team that had made heavy use of its large forwards to run the ball throughout the weekend. Against Dartmouth, however, the Cornell forwards rarely found themselves able to gain any territory because of Dartmouth's unrelenting tackling. Among others, lock John Turner '04 and flanker Ian Wilson '08 both stepped up on defense to make positive tackles against Cornell's hardest runners.
For most of the first half, Dartmouth dominated territory and possession, but handling errors and Cornell's strong goal line stance prevented a large accumulation of points for the DRFC. In fact, Dartmouth scored only once in the first half, when flyhalf Brad Hogate '05 kicked the ball to a streaking Dan Correa '05, who in turn kicked it into the try zone, where he recovered it for the try. Caspary converted a difficult kick to put Dartmouth up 7-0.
Cornell found more offensive success in the second half, though Dartmouth also stepped up its scoring. Dartmouth scored early in the half, when Wilson picked up the ball out of a ruck and ran 20 meters through traffic into the try zone, making the score 14-0.
After knocking at the door for several minutes, Cornell finally put one in the try zone after turning a scrum to its advantage while deep in Dartmouth territory. Subsequently Dartmouth held on to a tight seven-point lead, even after prop Omar Foda '07 was penalized and sent off, forcing Dartmouth to play a man down. However, Dartmouth sealed the game with two minutes remaining when Hogate kicked the ball high to the Cornell fullback and was there to tackle him when he caught the ball. Hogate poached the ball and Wilson stepped in to pick it up and run it into the try zone for the score, putting Dartmouth up 21-7.
"We definitely had something to prove this weekend," co-captain Erik Richardson '05 said. "We were successful in part because we played with more intensity than the other teams." Having won the Ivy League trophy for the sixth time in eight years, Dartmouth now looks ahead to the upcoming weekend when it plays in the national tournament Sweet Sixteen match. In the first round, Dartmouth faces Tennessee at the University of California at Berkeley Saturday at noon. On Sunday, the team will play Minnesota or Cal Berkeley depending on the outcome of Saturday's games.
