On a rainy Saturday, the Dartmouth men's rugby team took the field against Northeastern University for its first New England match of the spring season. The Dartmouth team showed improvement over last week's match against UCLA, an important step as the team continues to develop in preparation for next weekend's Ivy League Championships at Penn. In a match marked by penalties and handling errors due to the bad conditions, Dartmouth took the early lead and never looked back, emerging with a 39-17 victory.
While Northeastern relied heavily on their forwards to do much of the offensive work, Dartmouth made greater use of its backs and also tried to exploit the conditions with frequent territory kicking. "Our forwards, especially, executed better than they have so far this spring," commented captain Erik Richardson '05. "The other thing, too, is that our rucking was far stronger, and we got the ball cleanly to the backs so they could play dynamic rugby."
The first half saw relatively little scoring, as both teams found it difficult to avoid penalties and hold on to the ball for long periods of time. However, in the 15th minute, Dartmouth fullback Andrew Caspary '06 converted a penalty kick to put Dartmouth up 3-0. The team received its first try in the 34th minute after several phases of play placed Dartmouth near the Northeastern try zone. The backs spun the ball wide, and outside center Jesse Blom '06 connected with a tricky pass to streaking winger Will Pierce '06, who scored in the corner to make the score 8-0 at the end of the half.
Early in the second half, Dartmouth cemented its lead. In the 43rd minute, Blom intercepted a pass and ran 50 meters for a breakaway try. Off of the ensuing kickoff return, Dartmouth managed to send the ball wide to Caspary, who kicked it 30 meters and then caught up with the ball and played it with his feet through traffic, before collecting it on the bounce for a try, giggling the entire way. These efforts put Dartmouth up 22-0.
Over the next twenty minutes of play, Northeastern scored a total of three tries, refusing to give up. While the first came off a grubber kick into the corner, the flyhalf took the second into the try zone himself, sidestepping the Dartmouth weak side defense. He created the third opportunity with a chip kick over the Dartmouth defense.
Though Northeastern's efforts put the team on the board with 17 points, it was not enough to overcome Dartmouth's continued offensive output. The DRFC scored three more tries before time expired, making the score 39-17. Exhibiting scoring prowess throughout the game, Caspary scored two of these, while Blom added one.
While lots of hard work lies ahead for Dartmouth, the team "definitely showed improvement over the previous week's performance [against UCLA]," said coach Alex Magleby.
The team continues preparation this week for what promises to be the most competitive Ivy tournament in recent years. Yale, which Dartmouth takes on in the first round, is moving into Division-I New England and has improved greatly over the last two years. Harvard, Princeton, and Cornell all field consistently strong teams, and based on their recent results, Penn looks to be the most improved side. Details of the tournament can be found at www.ivyrugby.com.
