Last weekend, the men’s rugby team advanced past the New England playoffs for the first time in recent memory. After a difficult 12-6 victory against Babson College on Saturday, the men lost 55-5 against New England College (NEC) the next day. Despite the wide margin of defeat, the loss was described by captain David Dietz ’14 as the team’s “best game of the season.”
The team went undefeated in a league of Maine club rugby teams, which includes schools such as Bates, Colby, UMaine-Orono and UMaine-Farmington. Because of its season performance, the team entered the New England regional finals as the third seed in a four-team playoff.
Saturday’s game against Babson was one of the hardest games the Polar Bears have had all season.
“This was the best team we’d played so far, up until New England,” said David Clark ’16. “There was good teamwork, and [Babson] didn’t score a single try.”
“They had a big, strong physical team, but we really sized them up,” said Dietz.
The game became a competition primarily between each team’s defensive play, with Bowdoin scoring two tries and one conversion to Babson’s two penalties. For a total of 10 minutes at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, Charley Allen ’14 was yellow-carded after a dangerous tackle, giving Babson a man advantage. But the Bowdoin squad kept them from scoring.
“We moved [Dietz] from forward to the wing to protect the outside,” said Clark. “The whole weekend was noteworthy for our defense, and those ten minutes were representative of that.”
On Sunday, the men faced an even bigger challenge.
“New England had a very strong team defensively,” said Dietz. “They’ve been beating teams by 90-100 point margins, and so we forced them to play a different kind of game. The final score sounds like a blow-out, but we gave them the hardest competition they’ve had all season.”
The men’s rugby team, which has not lost a regular season game in over three years, faced an unusual challenge against NEC. Unlike most other schools in the region, NEC has large scholarships available for top rugby players, who hail from places as diverse as Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.
“It’s hard to win against teams like that,” said Dietz.
Bowdoin scored one try against New England, the sixth try that NEC has allowed all season.
Many Bowdoin players felt anxious going into the game against the Pilgrims, partially because they had taken the opportunity to watch one of their matches the previous day, and partially because of the school’s reputation. The team was also worn down from playing against Babson the day before.
“It was pretty exhausting to go straight to NEC the next day after playing Babson,” said Clark.
Three of the team’s usual starters were sidelined going into the game: Clark, forward Sam Patterson ’14 and wing Kurt Herzog ’13. Because of this, the starters on Sunday’s game were composed of an unusually high number of underclassmen. Seven of the starters were sophomores or first years, with almost all subs during the game also being first years. Despite missing three regular starters, there were some noteworthy performances during the matches.
“Jay Query [’14] played a very good defensive game,” said Head Coach Richard Scala. “Probably the best player in the tournament was more or less shut out by Jay.”
Scala noted that forwards Roger Tejada ’14, Varun Wadia ’15 and Zach Ward ’16, were strong contributors.
“They’re three guys who are supposed to be the biggest guys on the field, and they were outsized,” said Dietz. “But they really played above their size.”
This weekend, the men will travel to Union College in New York to play in the Northeast Championship. From there, the top two teams will go on to nationals. Currently, Bowdoin and NEC are the only schools from New England still in the running.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Scala when asked about the team’s prospects at the Northeast Championship. “We have a very strong team, as do they, but I think that I like our chances. Let me put it like this: if we play next week like we did this week, we should be in very good shape.”