Dartmouth Defeats Cornell in 2005 Ivy Championship
Conshohocken, PA -- Philadelphia-Whitemarsh, the Penn Rugby and our title sponsor Royall Lyme couldn’t have picked a better day for rugby yesterday as the Royall Lyme 2005 Rugby Ivy League Championship got under way at A.A. Garthwaite Stadium in Conshohocken, PA. The weather was warm and sunny with a little breeze. Perfect rugby weather for the players and 500 fans.
The first three matches of the first round were a bit one sided as Harvard took care of Brown 43-5, Cornell shut out Columbia 32-0 and Dartmouth put it to Yale 35-3.
At the end of the day, it was Dartmouth and Cornell that made it through the first day of the tournament unscathed. Cornell after winning easily over Columbia, won a battle against Harvard. The game was tied 7-6 at half as Harvard’s Rob Campbell kicked two first half penalties, while Cornell’s JoJo Bucci pounded in a first half try. Greg Rossi made the conversion to give Cornell a one point margin. Cornell’s physical play matched against Harvard’s speed an finesse. Cornell dominated the field of play in the second half and finally put one in. Winger Jeff Kreuger scored an unconverted try to give Cornell an uncomfortable 12-6 lead. Harvard came knocking, but Cornell held on for the win.
On Sunday afternoon, Ian Wilson scored two second half tries to lead Dartmouth to a 21-7 victory over Cornell. Dartmouth last won the championship in 2002 defeating Cornell 35-17 at Cornell. Cornell has never won the Ivies, but has been to the finals three times in the last four years including a 20-5 loss to Princeton last year.
Four Cornell players where named to the 2005 All Ivy team. Seniors Lucian Hanset, Jeff Kruger and Mackenzie Cook where joined by John Friedman ’07 on the fifteen player squad picked by Ivy coaches and tournament officials.
Article compiled from reports from siano
ivyrugby [dot] com (subject: 2005%20Ivy%20Championship) (Stephen Siano, Cornell ’82) who was a tournament official.
Submitted by Mike Raffe Cornell MRP ’80:
607-273-1900 ext. 11 or mraffetompkins-redcross [dot] org