Brown Wins Winter/Spring Season Debut

Brown opened up its season with a 25-10 win over Ivy rival Yale in a scrimmage formaton the field turf behind the OMAC.  The sun and Brown’s enthusiastic play seemed to warm thing up and make the 35 degree temperature a bit more bearable.  With several new players on both teams, and a recent collegiate 7’s tournament appearance in Las Vegas by both Yale and Brown, the day had the makings of some exciting rugby.

No goal posts were available so the only points to be had would need to be earned the hard way. Substitutions would not be held to the normal limit as both coaches wanted to get looks at several different combinations of players.

The Bears took the first bite out of the visitors 11 minutes into the game. A Brown throw to the back of the lineout, 10 meters from the line, was won and driven close to the line.  Scrumhalf Matt Leonard’14 sniped through only to be caught short of the line.  Newly appointed co-captain Danny Levine-Spound’12 would not be denied, as he picked up and drove over for Brown’s first score and a 5-0 lead.

A short while later, Yale mistakenly grounded a ball in its own goal, resulting in a 5 meter scrum to Brown.  With minimal scrum practice for both teams, Brown wanted to win the ball and move it to space. Brown pulled off a well executed back line play slipping senior fullback Rob “RL” Powell’11 through a center seam untouched, silencing the Yale dogs.  It was like “Magic” as RL simply appeared in the goal area of Yale with no defenders around: 10-0 Brown.

Late in the half, a missed tackle allowed Yale their only points as the half ended 10-5 in favor of the Bears.

One minute into the second half, former captain and wing Sam Rabb’11 intercepted a pass and “went all the way” for the second half’s first points.  Fifteen minutes later, #8 Chaney Harrison’11 picked up from the back of a ruck scoring the second try of the half.  A defensive lapse four minutes later allowed Yale their second try of the game.

With 15 minutes remaining in the half, and Brown enjoying a 20-10 lead, Brown executed some good phase play resulting in the last score of the game. Leonard caught the ruck defense napping and sliced through the defenders putting the last five points on the board.  The game ended 25-10.

The match was refereed by Judah Boulet.