• New here? Register here now for access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Plus, stay connected and follow BP on Instagram @buckeyeplanet and Facebook.

2006 Ohio State Rugby

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
Yeah, we really do appreciate Josh being there. We only played well for about 10 out of 80 minutes. Our youth really showed but we came away with a win which is what is important.

This weekend we have our second Midwest match, in Ann Arbor, against Michigan. They beat Michigan State 15-10 in their matchup. Should be a great game...
 
Upvote 0
Big win against Tennessee last night...the top team coming out of the South.

Ohio State gets by Tennessee

By Brian Lowe

Columbus, OH ? #15 Ohio State got by #19 Tennessee by 35-27 in the first meeting of the two schools in quite some time Thursday night in Columbus, OH.

The Volunteers opened their fall break tour of the Midwest by hooking up with the Buckeyes in a much-anticipated matchup as both teams were looking to get a gauge on just where their programs are in relation to other conferences and it was the hosts who outscored the visitors by five tries to four.

Dean Panik scored OSU?s opening try of the night when he finished off a multi-phase possession. Bubba Bleakmore got the next five-pointer after being set up on a darting run by Jimmy Navratil, followed by rookie Guiseppe Triosi who dashed 40-meters for the score and a 21-5 halftime lead. Matt Hundley, brother of Penn State?s Justin Hundley, scored the Buckeyes? fourth try, while Bleakmore finished off OSU?s night with a score from a quick tap. Panik added all the conversions.

?I?ve got a pretty good gauge with what?s going on right now. I don?t think we?re as solid as we have been in the past, I think though this group that we have is going to show up inside half a year,? Ohio State head coach Tom Rooney told American Rugby News. ?I think we stand a good chance of winning the Midwest. I?m pretty happy with how far we?ve come from Indiana, through Navy, through Michigan State to here, every week has gotten better.?

The Volunteers put a big team on the field and their backs ran some good lines on the night which led to tries by Josh Gruner, Kevin Hartley, Matt McCartney and Jimmy Reid. One of the scores was an impressive 90-meter effort along the touchline. Reid also landed a penalty goal and two conversions to round of the Vols? scoring.

?They capitalized on every unforced error we made and we made a lot of them,? Tennessee head coach Butch Robertson told ARN. ?Ohio State?s scrum was very, very solid and we weren?t able to settle the set pieces as nicely as I would have liked, but realistically it was a combination of their aggressiveness and our unforced errors. You can?t come to Ohio State and do that kind of exercise and expect to come out with a win.?

Ohio State has a key game looming on Saturday when they face Michigan on the road. If the Buckeyes win the game they?ll go through to the Midwest playoffs in November, but if they lose they?re done for the year. Tennessee, meantime, continues its fall break tour with a game against Division II school Ball State on Friday in Muncie, IN, before locking horns with Indiana on Saturday evening.
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
wadc45;630062; said:
Yeah, we really do appreciate Josh being there. We only played well for about 10 out of 80 minutes. Our youth really showed but we came away with a win which is what is important.
Click to expand...

Good to get the young guys some real-time minutes. That should pay off later. Go Bucks this weekend.
 
Upvote 0
Well there is no such thing as a bad win against The University of Michigan. And we kept everyone healthy, which is very important given our lack of depth and experience. But for the third time in the last seven days, we built an early lead but failed to deliver the knockout punch and let our opponent score some points late to let the score look a lot closer than the game really was. There was not question who was the better team yesterday...the score of 27-5 with twenty minutes to go is an indicator of that. But in the end, we left Ann Arbor with a 34-26 win, which puts us into the Midwest semis against Minnesota.

OSU, Purdue eek out wins

By Brian Lowe

Los Angeles, CA ? #15 Ohio State has secured a spot in the Midwest playoffs with a narrow 34-26 win against Michigan Saturday in Ann Arbor, MI.

The Buckeyes, who needed the victory in order to advance to the post-season of the Midwest pool play, led 22-5 at halftime but took their foot off the gas in the second spell and the Wolverines took advantage to close the gap.

OSU got on the board early with a Dean Panik penalty goal, followed by a pushover try and then two more scores by Nick Bell and Erik Shulte. The Buckeyes extended their lead to 27-5 when Chad Cochran scored a try early in the second half and that?s how the scoreline stayed with 20 minutes to go. However, Michigan suddenly sprang to life and put in two tries of their own to close the gap to 27-19, but OSU put the result beyond doubt when Mike Holmes dotted down near the posts.

The Wolverines weren?t though, and they finished the match strongly with the final two tries. ?These young kids have their moments, but they?ve got to learn that when they?ve got the other guys down they have to put them away,? Ohio State head coach Tom Rooney told American Rugby News. ?It was the same against Michigan State.?

Elsewhere in pool play, Purdue edged Bowling Green 37-35.

Meantime, in a non-Conference matchup in Bloomington, IN, the home team got by the visiting #19 Tennessee 24-22. It was four tries to three for Indiana and completed an 0-3 road trip to the Midwest for the Volunteers, who also dropped a decision to Ball State on Friday night in which they played their ?C? grade players.

A series of unforced errors was the Vols? downfall, although by the same token credit goes to Indiana for taking advantage of those mistakes to win. Kevin Hartley and Grant McCartney were among the Tennessee try-scorers.

?It was valuable, there?s no question in my mind about that,? Tennessee head coach Butch Robertson told ARN in relation to the merits of the trip. ?The challenge that we have is finding competition that we can play against that?s consistently good quality. Sure I?m disappointed with the scores, but we played intensely.?
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
Just to show once again how arbitrary the college rugby ranking are, we went 3-0 against three solid teams last week and dropped a spot. There is no question we are a top 10 team right now, as I would feel supremely confident playing against more than half the team ranked above us (we would easily defeat Maryland, Colorado State, UC Santa Barbara, SUNY Buffalo, Boston College, Delaware and Kutztown). All we can do is keep winning, which is what we plan to do this weekend against Virginia Tech. Any one in the area, we will be playing in Blacksburg at 11:00 AM on Sunday.

College rankings: Lots of movement

By Brian Lowe

Los Angeles, CA ? Eight teams have moved up, ten have dropped and there are three new entries in this week?s Down Under Endeavours College Top 25 following a very busy weekend of collegiate rugby.

Utah has leapfrogged in-state rivals BYU into the #2 spot in the wake of their win over the Cougars, Navy has jumped one place after getting by Maryland, who slipped as a result of the loss, while Kutztown, Delaware, Boston College and SUNY Buffalo all edged up the list. Kutztown and Delaware look to be on a collision course in the Eastern Penn Divisional playoffs that start this weekend, BC has stitched up a berth in the New England post-season, while SUNY Buffalo looks to be the goods going into the New York State playoffs.

Elsewhere, Colorado State has improved its position with a good win over Colorado, and Truman State has done likewise with two early successes in the Western Central sub-region league.

Conversely, Dartmouth has taken a nosedive, not just in the rankings, but also in terms of its national championship aspirations after getting rolled by Harvard in the New England Conference. The Big Green is now out of contention but is refocusing on next spring?s Ivy League championship. Also dropping is Ohio State, Tennessee fell after a less than satisfactory road trip to the Midwest where they were winless in three outings, while Cal Poly, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara each slid a spot, but only because they?re idle.

Breaking into the ARN rankings for the first time are LSU, New Mexico and Cornell which have put together good drives, while San Diego State, Oregon State and Arizona State fall out of the 25 simply because they?re idle, or aren?t playing collegiate sides. Teams on the fringe include Indiana, Purdue, Central Washington, Kansas State and Texas A&M who have all started on winning notes. So, with all the latest data plugged into the trusty spreadsheet, here is the Down Under Endeavours College Top 25.

1 (1) California (idle) [5]
2 (3) Utah (3-1) [5]
3 (2) BYU (2-1) [5]
4 (4) Penn State (5-0) [3]
5 (5) Army (5-0) [2]
6 (7) Navy (4-0) [3]
7 (6) Cal Poly (idle) [4]
8 (11) Kutztown (7-1) [3]
9 (12) Delaware (5-0) [3]
10 (16) Boston College (5-0) [2]
11 (17) SUNY Buffalo (5-0) [2]
12 (9) UC Davis (idle) [5]
13 (10) UC Santa Barbara (idle) [4]
14 (18) Colorado State (3-0) [3]
15 (14) Maryland (3-2) [3]
16 (15) Ohio State (4-1) [2]
17 (13) Washington State (3-0) [2]
18 (8) Dartmouth (3-2) [2]
19 (22) Truman State (2-0) [3]
20 (19) Clemson (2-0) [1]
21 (21) St Mary?s (idle) [5]
22 (unranked) LSU (3-0) [3]
23 (unranked) New Mexico (2-1) [3]
24 (unranked) Cornell (4-1) [2]
25 (20) Tennessee (1-2) [1]
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
This isn't really bad news. Opponents think that they are better than you and you have a chance to work your way right to the top, no BCS crap in this sport!

So, go out there and kick some butt!

:oh: :osu: :io:
GO RUBGY BUCKEYES!​
 
Upvote 0
Glad to see us finally get a win coming from behind. We probably had the ball for 30 minutes of the second half and played the entire half in VPI's end, which lead to several second half penalty kicks by wing Dean Panik. Let me also say that when reading these articles by AmericanRugbyNews.com, our head coach basically feads Brian Lowe exactly what he wants our players to hear and see. Rooney has been downplaying how good we are to ARN all season and he literally has the reporter in his back pocket. So while this article makes it seem like we escaped against a lesser opponent, the reality is that Virginia Tech is a very good team who always plays us tough and other than Navy, is probably the best team we have faced so far this Fall. Their wing, Omotosho, really impressed me. Our forwards really deserve a lot of the credit...playing without our two best forwards, they still dominated Tech in the set pieces.

Link

Buckeyes dodge bullet

By Brian Lowe

Los Angeles, CA ? #16 Ohio State was outscored four tries to two by a much improved Virginia Tech, but still managed to get away with a 25-20 win on the road Sunday in Blacksburg, VA. Buckeye wing Dean Panik booted his team to victory via five penalty goals.

The Hokies were in front for most of the game and led 15-11 at halftime, and had they had a kicker, the final result might have been different. Virginia Tech didn?t convert one shot at goal.

OSU opened the scoring with a pushover try eight minutes into the contest for an early 5-0 scoreline, although that was short-lived as rookie Hokie winger Damola Omotosho swerved his way 75-meters through the Buckeyes? defense to tie the score. Virginia Tech jumped in front not long after by spinning the ball wide where a missed tackle freed Omotosho for his second try. The Buckeyes closed the gap to 10-8 with the first of Panik?s five goals, but from the restart OSU spilled the ball in contact and a movement on the weak side saw the Hokies dot down for the third time and a 15-8 lead. With two minutes to go in the half, Panik slotted his second goal for a 15-11 scoreline as the teams went for oranges.

Three minutes into the second spell the Hokies went in again when they had a three-on-one situation in the backs to stretch their lead to 20-11, however, shortly after, OSU made an adjustment in the scrum and stole a put-in about 20 meters out and a good set of hands sent the ball wide to Panik, who touched down in the corner for the Buckeyes? second try cutting Virginia Tech?s lead to 20-16. The Hokies let OSU off the hook from that point by committing three infringements, all within kicking range, and Panik made them pay by slotting each one for a final score of 25-20.

Ohio State head coach Tom Rooney was full of praise for the strides that his Virginia Tech counterpart Jon Conrad has made since switching from the University of Virginia in the off-season. ?They have a nice system and they forced us to play very conservatively because they defended us well in the backline,? Rooney told American Rugby News.

?I think it says that we?re playing better, at least we?re answering the bell. They had a very good backline attack. They got us in the first half, but in the second half we were able to shut it down, but I?m real impressed with what he?s (Conrad) put in in this short period of time.?

The two other Hokie try-scorers included eightman Eric Divine and outside center Ryan Sullivan. ?We beat them in the running game, but the penalties killed us,? Virginia Tech head coach Conrad told ARN. ?They played a very conservative, very smart game and they really took advantage of us at the breakdown in terms of our infringing. They figured it out pretty quick in the second half, but we had a good game, we nearly had them so it?s improvement.?

Next weekend Ohio State fronts up against #4 Penn State, while Virginia Tech hosts #15 Maryland.

In other college news, Indiana stitched up a spot in the Midwest Division I championship playoffs with a 27-8 win against the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Friday night. Other teams to advance are Ohio State, Purdue and Minnesota. Those playoffs are slated for the weekend of November 4-5.
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top