The Quakers and the Tigers Grit Out a Tie

It was a windy fall day at Penn Park when Princeton met Penn...

Capitalizing on a flurry of early penalties, defensive mis-cues, and spilt ball Princeton Rugby shot out to an early lead in the match between the Tigers and the Quakers in their first fall match. Buoyed by strong running from their backline as well as well timed off-loads, Princeton opened the scoring. They quickly followed with another backline driven try. With two successful conversions the Tigers staked themselves to an early 14-0 lead. 

Penn soon answered back with a try produced by the industry of its two flankers, John Colavita ‘14 and Jacob Bennett ’15 and the straight line running of Adam Brownstein ’13, who bullied his way into the try zone.  It would be his last try of the day for he was soon felled by a boot to the face and was removed from the game. In his absence Princeton touched down two more tries: one the result of a scrum-half scamper, the other the end product of solid team continuity. Penn would close the first half with a try engineered by the twinkle toes of their eight-man, Daleroy Sibanda’ 15. But things looked grim for Penn went into halftime facing a 27-15 deficit.

Princeton seemed to seal their victory with the first try out of half, putting the score at 33-15. It was all but assured when Mr. Sibanda was soon awarded a yellow card for a dangerous dump tackle. Penn, however, determined not to let their season start so ignominiously, responded with a greater commitment to defense and a sharper focus on their game plan.  They were aided tremendously in these efforts by the work of the substitutes Kevin Sweeny-Delbarton and John Largerower. 

With their defense sorted out Penn went on the attack. The first rejoinder came off a Princeton turnover. With ball in hand Penn spun it out wide and was able to exploit the overload through a beautiful 50-50 offload from Andrew Weis ’15 to Fonzarelli Collins ’14. Fly-half Barron then put one in off a penalty, calling his own number and rumbling in.

Down five with only minutes remaining in the game, Princeton crept forward into Penn’s half. However luck shined on Penn when a spilt Princeton ball landed in the hands of Doug Swift ’15. He swiftly turned defense into offense charging forward and passing to Andrew Martin ’13, who then offloaded expertly Sibanda before receiving a crushing blow. Sibanda made his return from the yellow card triumphal by taking the ball 65 meters for the try and tying the game at 33-33.  However, the comeback victory was not in the cards for the Quakers as the furious comeback had burned up most of the second half clock.  Thus the whistle blew and both sides were left with a well-deserved, but ultimately unsatisfying tie.

Second XV Match

In the B-side match Penn and Princeton again battled to a draw. Penn’s B’s were lead by Rampage Rempel and Scott Rozen-Levy.  Their dynamism was supported by the hard running of Ibs and Dave.  Richie Barnett served as an excellent support in the lineouts and had his own hard runs that assured the Quakers of their second tie of the day.

UPenn Starting XV

1-Daniel Zuvia ‘15

2-Frenchie Gabarre-Grindrod ‘16

3- Romaine Waite ’13- Replaced by Matt Fiore ‘16

4- Max Tromanhauser ‘16

5- Sawyer Waugh- replaced by Kevin Sweeney-Delbarton

6- Jacob Bennett  ‘15

7- John Colavita ‘14

8- Daleroy Sibanda ‘15

9- Nabil Darwich ‘13

10-Billy Barron ’15 Replaced by Arthur Rempel ‘16

11- Andrew Weis ‘15

12- Adam Brownstein ’13- Replaced by Sawyer Waugh- Replaced by John Largerower

13-Doug Swift ‘15

14-Fonzarelli Collins ‘14

15- Andy Martin ‘13

Reserves

Arthur Rempel ‘16

Scott Rozen-Levy 16

Matt Fiore ‘16

John Largerower

Quinn Kliman ‘16

Fernando Velarde ‘14

Kevin Sweeney-Delbarton ‘16

Game Summary

Score
Princeton 33- Penn 33

Penn Scorers
Daleroy Sibanda (x2)
Billy Barron
Christian Collins
Adam Brownstein

Conversions

Billy Barron (x2)

Doug Swift (x2)