Brown Wins February Frolic

Brown successfully launched its spring (winter) 2010 season with a 25-15 victory against the local Providence Men’s Rugby Team While it was only February, conditions allowed the players from both sides to get out and get a run, despite the 35 degree, snowy weather and no goal posts. It’s tough to put posts up on field turf.

Providence, Rhode Island Prior to the match, Brown hosted a referees clinic run by the New England Referees Society. About 16 men and women from around New England attended the all day course to develop their skills as future referees.

The clinic went off successfully and culminated with each of the participants, refereeing part of the scrimmage in the afternoon. While this format was not necessarily ideal for the players, it was an invaluable experience for the referees to apply the course to match situations. The clinic and the match certainly got the spring rugby juices flowing, with most everything else frozen.

Although Brown kicked off to Providence, the Bears got on the scoreboard first. Brown’s Greg Karwaski ’11 stole a lineout from Providence at mid-field which led to a series of phase plays working across the field and back with Karwaski finding the ball in hand and breaking through the PRFC defense with a well timed run for Brown’s and the season’s first points, a 5-0 lead. Providence leveled the score 12 minutes later. The 5-5 tie would be broken exactly 30 minutes into the half when freshman out-half Zehid Jethani ’13 took the ball to the blind side of a ruck and hit Sam Rabb 10’ who ran through the defense for the try. Six minutes later and 25 meters out from the Providence goal. Brown disrupted the scrum, causing a poor Providence pass that went in goal where flanker Hao Li’10 touched the ball down, upping the Brown lead to 15-5. Two minutes later Providence scored from a lineout, ending the half with the score 15-10.

In the second half, Providence, then Brown, traded scores with Karwaski ’11 getting his second try of the match from a well driven lineout. With the score 20-15, Providence was not out of the hunt but with minimal time remaining, Brown was then able execute four phases of play. The first three involve a series of rucks by the forwards. The backs then were let loose as Jethani attacked the line, putting center James McGinn 12’ through who then off-loaded to Rabb for the final score of the game.

SQUAD

1. Bob Forrester’10 – replaced by Mohammad Abdalah’11 at the half 2. Daniel Levine-Spound’12 – replaced by Jay Smith at the half 3. Andrew Alvarez’11 4. Rall Walsh’10 – replaced by Bob Forrester at the half 5. Ben Mossbarger’10 – replaced by John Hermansen’10 at the half 6. Zach Long’13 – replaced by Gabe Heiderich’10 at the half 7. Hao Li’10 – replaced by Rall Walsh’10 at the half 8. Greg Karwaski’11 9. Dave Riley’10– replaced by Taylor Peak at the half 10. Zehid Jethani’13 11. Rob Powell’12 – replaced by Sam Rabb at the half 12. Taylor Peak’13 – replaced by John Goddard’13 at the half 13. James McGinn’12 14. Ian Clancy’12 – replaced by Han Lee’12 at the half 15. Sam Rabb’10– replaced by Rob Powell at the half There was still more rugby to be had on the day as several of the referees from the clinic made their debut performance against the mighty second XV (really a mix of old and new players.

This group kicked off the scoring with a nice 60 meter run by Dan Levine-Spound 12’. Levine broke the PRFC line after taking a good ball off a ruck. One defender was not enough to stop Levine who raced the entire distance to touch the ball down. It was Brown’s own coach Matt Medina (playing for his club side PRFC) who scored next to level the score at 5-5. Medina’s excitement was short lived as flanker Nate Bishop 13’ was next to go over, three minutes later. PRFC would play the last note as they scored with no time remaining to tie the second match 10-10.

SQUAD

1. Mohammad Abdalah’11 2. Dan Levine’12 – replaced at the half by Jay Smith’10 3. John Hermansen’10 – replaced at the half by Christopher Carney’11 4. Mike Donnell’12 5. Martin Bell’12 6. David Dean’11 – replaced at the half by Brian Kelly’13 7. Nate Bishop’13 8. Ben Mossbarger’10 – replaced at the half by David Dean 9. Dave Riley’10 – replaced at the half by Simon Swig’13 10. Blair Cameron’12 11. Tokiso Thato’11 12. John Goddard’13 13. Ted Orf’12 14. Ari Nakos’12 – replaced at the half by Emanuel Steg 15. Ian Clancy’12 Brown plays the University of Rhode Island, Saturday, March 6 at home on the field turf behind the Olney Margolies Athletic Center at the intersection of Hope and Lloyd. The kick-off will be at 2 P.M.

Contact: Jay Fluck, Director of Rugby, Brown University
Email: Jay [dot] Fluckcbre-ne [dot] com