1st XV AIC at Dartmouth Men

Dartmouth Wins Scott F. Milley Memorial 7s Tournament at University of New Hampshire

Taking the field for the first time since returning from its spring tour to the Cayman Islands, and playing in a 7s tournament for the first time since the Ivy Rugby Sevens in November, Dartmouth Rugby didn’t show any rust in winning the Scott F. Milley Memorial 7’s Tournament hosted by the University of New Hampshire Saturday. The Big Green entered four teams in the college division, and while all of them had positive moments on the day, the 1^st VII by far enjoyed the best results, going undefeated en route to brining home the championship.

The 1^st side started the day with a game against the University of Connecticut in pool play, and they made sure to put away their opponents early. Powered by three tries from wing Kevin Clark ’14 and another by center Clark Judge ’12, The Big Green raced out to a 24-0 lead at halftime. They continued to pour it on in the second half with props Paul Jarvis ’12, prop Nate Brakeley ’12, and scrumhalf Derek Fish ’12 adding scores to bring the final score to 45-0.

The Big Green kept up the fine form in their next match against American International College (AIC). Like against Uconn Jarvis, Fish, and Clark provided the offense, as Jarvis scored two tries and the latter two each put in one of their own. Center Will Mueller ‘12 scored as well, as Dartmouth cruised to a 33-5 win.

With the two convincing wins, Dartmouth found itself with the number one seed and a first-round bye in the playoff round. Humorously enough, the end result of this was that the Dartmouth 1st VII wound up facing the Dartmouth 2nd VII in the semifinals. Heading into the match the 2nd side had proved themselves to be no slouches, going undefeated after beating the University of New Hampshire 2nd side 35-0, the Dartmouth 4th side 24-12, and the University of Albany 14-12. In addition, they notched a 19-7 win against Norwich University in the first round of the playoffs.

But despite the skill they had shown earlier, the 2nd VII found it to be somewhat lacking when they took on their schoolmates. Center Brian Flint ’14 would have a fantastic solo effort for a try a quarter of the way into the game, but it would be the second side’s lone high point. Tries by Fish, flyhalf Will Lehmann ’12, wing Wilson Chockley ’15, and prop Lawrence Anfo-Whyte ’13 created a lead to big to come back from, and the 1st VII won handily 33-5. Unfortunately, the 2nd VII would struggle to bounce back from the loss. They would drop their final match, losing 20-12 the University of New Hampshire 1st side in the 3rd place match.

Thankfully, The Big Green 1st would not have any such troubles in the Men’s College final, where they again faced AIC. Brakeley put up an early try, and Clark and Lehmann would quickly follow with identical efforts to increase the lead to 17-0. From there the route was on, as almost all of the previous scorers found there way back into the try zone before game’s end. Coupled with some dominating defense that successfully stymied AIC’s attack, the total performance was more than enough to earn Dartmouth a convincing 45-0 win and the championship.

As for the other sides that took part, their results were more uneven. Aside from losing to the 2nd VII, the 4th Dartmouth side went 1-1 in their other pool play matches, beating the University of New Hampshire 2nd side 50-5 and losing to the University of Albany 24-12. Ultimately, they would bow out in the first round of the consolation playoffs, losing 15-5 to Uconn. Meanwhile, the 3^rd side went 1-2 in pool play, beating the AIC 2^nd side 12-7 while losing 33-0 to the University of New Hampshire 1^st side and 21-7 to Norwich. They would bounce back in the consolation playoffs, beating AIC’s 2^nd VII again, this time by a score of 24-5. They would unfortunately close on a loss though, falling to Uconn 21-20 in their final match.