2008 Ohio State Rugby

[mooktarr]

Well done Buckeyes

 

[wadc45]

Here is what we have right now...we are still waiting on a few players who have not returned to town yet. We also have no idea what we will get when non-recruited freshman report in a few weeks.

Front Row:

We return a solid front row, lead by tighthead prop David Knab (Cleveland, OH). He is joined by fellow St. Ed's grad Matt Altieri (Cleveland, OH) at hooker and Aaron Jenkins (Springfield, OH) at loosehead prop. This group will never be the biggest, but they are extremely athetlic for their size and extremely talented in the scrums. This is one of the strongest units on our team. Rick Hubbard (Hamilton, OH), Alex Logeais (Hopkins, MN), Alek Steman (Columbus, OH) and Geoff Bishop (Gahanna, OH) will provide depth at prop and team president Mike Hassey (Westerville, OH), our Jose Oquendo, will back-up Altieri at hooker as well as provide depth at several other spots. Last year's starting hooker Adam Norris is still rehabbing a surgically repaired shoulder.

Locks:

Took a huge blow last night...ten minutes into a scrimmage with Wittenberg where the A-side was only going to play 20 minutes one of our second rows, Matt Timmons (Ashville, OH), re-injured the same knee he had surgery on 10 months ago to repair a torn ACL. We are anxiously waiting on MRI results...Matt is pretty sure he re-tore his ACL but our trainer is hopeful he merely tore some scar tissue. Keep your fingers crossed. He was two be joined in the boiler room by sophmore Zach Hribar. We are now going to be looking to promote someone, at least in the short term, to fill in for Timmons...freshman Nick Kelly (Westerville, OH), sophmores Billy Fell (Garden City, NY) and Kyle Girardi (Hilliard, OH) are candidates. Unfortunately, we are losing Jason Suhy to active duty as he is deploying in two weeks and we wish him the best.

Back Row:

Captain and 8-man Brandon Jewett (Columbus, OH) anchors this unit as well as the whole team. "Grip" walks with a permanent limp and we have determined that is just to lull his opposition into thinking he is wounded...beause he can be as punishing of a runner as we have had at OSU when he wants to be. He is joined by flankers Chad Cochran (Westerville, OH) and Eric Sanchez (Chicago, IL). Chad has rejoined the team after a brief hiatus and we are ecstatic to have him back. He is an tough, athletic player who could rotate at any of the three back row spots. Sanchez is a player we've been waiting for the light to click on and it appears it is at least starting to flicker. He seems to get better with every game. Freshman Jeff Walsh (Westerville, OH) will add depth, as will sophmore Joe Lotozo (Upper Arlington, OH). We lost a talented B-side flanker Josh Griffin (Sycamore, OH) to a year studying abroad.

Scrum Half/Fly Half:

We are excited to get two talented scrum halfs back this year...Cody Albright (Westerville, OH) returns from a year-long hiatus due to military commitments and Mickey Franco (Santa Clara, CA) returns from being on loan to the Chicago Lions. Both are extremely talented...Cody is a great field general while Mickey has some of the best service I have seen. Our ideal situation will be to play Cody at 9 and Mickey at 10 which allows us to play Nate Ebner (Columbus, OH) at fullback. Last year's scrum half Andrew Little (Copley, OH) is on the shelf currently with a back injury but is due back soon. Freshman Garreth Willatt (Washington D.C.) has started off his career at OSU by playing B-side fly half and will likely rotate between 10 and 15, as will fellow freshman Cameron Gould-Saltman (Los Angeles, CA). Freshman Kevin Johns (Westerville, OH) will start off his career at OSU at scrum half. We lost B-side fly half and mustache connoisseur Adam Devine (Philadelphia, PA) to a rash of concussions but he has volunteered to help coach the C-side.

Centers:

OU-transfer and St. Ed's grad Jimmy Nvratil (Cleveland, OH) returns at inside center after being out for almost a year due to an injury. His replacement last spring, Tommy Pierson (Mechiancsburg, OH) will slide over to outside center and will form a solid combo in the middle. They will be backed up my UC-transfer Matt Hundley (Hilliard, OH), who will also provide depth along the deep three and will likely find himself on the field more often than not. Erik Castle (Springfield, OH) will also provide depth at the centers, along with Aaron "Naughty" Kerrigan (Bellbrook, OH). Castle ran at some 12 and 15 last night and showed some flashes. Naughty looks to be a future 13 but needs to continue to develop the mental side of the game.

Deep Three:

The starting wings are up in the air...three guys will definitely compete for time. One spot is likely to be occupied by Jason Denk. Denk is the kind of wing who will run through a brick wall for you and ask why later. With his speed and tackling, he will likely start at 14. The other wing spot will be up for grabs between Josh Barkhurst (Westerville, OH) and Cye Marshall (Canton, OH). Barkhurst is a finesse player who can also add depth at fullback and fly half. He is a smart rugby player when he wants to be. Cye is a physcial wing who is great at scraping across the back side on defense. Former Temple punter Robert McFarland has a monster leg and is trying to make the transition from D1 football to D1 rugby. Fullback Nate Ebner is the most electric player on the squad. He is especially dangerous in the open field with 4.4 speed and will also handle most of our kicking responsibilities this year after spending his summer competing with the USA junior national team at the IRB Junior World Championships and also playing for the USA Hawks during the most recent NA4 test series.

This weekend:

Saturday, September 13th 11:00 AM
East Campus Pitch - Happy Valley, PA

vs.

#13 Ohio State vs #2 Penn State

AmericanRugbyNews.com Game of the week: it's all about college

In what should be a mouthwatering contest, Penn State is scheduled to host Ohio State in a showdown between two of the top guns from the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest Premier leagues.

The Buckeyes are coming off a 43-0 shutout of Ohio last week and are one of the early season picks to win the newly formed Midwest Premier League, while the Nittany Lions have also begun their fall campaign on a winning note.

 

[osugrad21]

Link

Ruggers prepare to host OSU rematch

By Kurt Bopp
Collegian Staff Writer

As Ohio State comes to town, the Penn State Ruggers prepare for a long-awaited rematch.
But beating the Buckeyes won't be the main focus of the Ruggers.
"I'm still trying to fill the A-side," head coach Don Ferrell said. "I'm excited to see who steps it up and gets on that side."
Senior flanker Steve Hurley estimated that six guys were going out for three spots at flanker. This and other position battles will be fought out over the next few weeks before league play begins.
Though the players feel the added pressure of earning spots, junior prop Scott Hills said not having a set lineup drives them even more.
Once the lineup is set, the Ruggers will have to get in synch with each other and play as a unit, which simply takes time.
And that is what they are running low on.
Penn State has only five matches left before it begins league play, but Hills couldn't care less. He counts every game like it matters, even though these matches have no effect on who gets to the national tournament.
Although excited for a match with Ohio State, the Ruggers are looking forward to opening league play with one of their fiercest opponents -- Navy.
"Penn State-Ohio State factor will be in the back of our minds, for sure," Hills said, "but Navy is our real rival."
Navy is the biggest competition the Ruggers have in the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union. And this season, the two kick off their regular season campaigns against each other here on Sept. 27.
Cont...

 

[RugbyBuck]

Great, great stuff, Wes. Sorry to hear about Timmons; hopefully it's not as serious as he thinks. Nice luxury to be able to move Ebner to FB and attack with him. I hope all the experience he got this summer filters down to the rest of the guys.

Best of luck against State Penn.

 

[wadc45]

Dropped a tough one...but unlike our football counterparts we stood toe to toe with the #2 team in the country and I think we proved we are back. Fitness was an issue as was missing a few key players to injuries and military commitments. Ebner broke late on a weakside attack and found an inexperienced wing wide open down the sidelines...only problem was that he tried to beat the PSU fullback to the outside rather than taking the ball back inside where he had tons of support. PSU eventually managed to turn him over and put the ball into touch...ball game. PSU 22 OSU 19

AmericanRugbyNews.com VTech upsets Navy in season opener

Elsewhere in non-conference action, Penn State got by Ohio State 22-19. It was a battle up front with the Nittany Lions? scrum getting the better of their Buckeye counterparts. OSU flanker Blake Cochran scored his side?s only try, while flyhalf Nate Ebner kicked four penalties and a conversion.

?It?s a game we absolutely should?ve won,? Ohio State head coach Tom Rooney told ARN. ?We had our chances, but I am not unhappy about the way we played. Penn State had opportunities too that they didn?t finish.?

That statement about the scrums is horribly inaccurate...the scrums were actually where we were at our best yesterday. Our front row is as good as any in the country and they proved that yesterday. They are getting little to no help from our young locks in the scrums and are really having to scrummage five versus three and are still able to exert their will most of the time. They gave us a chance to have some great first phase attack that we were never really able to capitalize on.

Credit to PSU...they have some talented backs, especially at 13 and 15. They have great speed on the outside and some great height in the boiler room. There is a good chance we could meet again next weekend in the finals of the Big 10 tournament.

FYI, we have been told to prepare for the worst with Timmons...MRI was done, waiting on the results, but the initial diagnosis was a torn ACL and/or meniscus. Hopefully it is just the latter...

 

[osugrad21]

Link

Rugby downs OSU

PHOTO: Kyle Lewis
Click Photo To Enlarge | Print
Justin Lotter runs the ball downfield in a game last season. The Ruggers claimed victory in both games over the weekend, including a win over rival Ohio State.




By Kurt Bopp
Collegian Staff Writer

Senior flanker Steve Hurley knew it didn't look good, but a win is a win.
And beating the Buckeyes made it all the better.
Hurley and the Penn State Ruggers beat Ohio State, 22-19, in a match on Saturday that was "very unpolished," according to head coach Don Ferrell. After a first half that featured mainly dropped balls and missed opportunities, the Ruggers figured out their mistakes and pulled away in the second.
"It's always nice to beat [Ohio State], but it was very sloppy," Hurley said. "We missed a few chances to run up the score on them."
The game gave the Ruggers a chance to use all three sides, two against the Buckeyes and one against University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Penn State won all three.
The main problem with the team is a simple concept: playing together.
"We looked like a team playing an early season match," Ferrell said. "We just need the guys to play together; spending time together and adjusting to our system."
This was highlighted in a big scoring opportunity shortly after halftime.
After a scrum, a Rugger emerged from the pile with the ball and had a massive breakaway. With one defender to beat, he juked and tossed the ball to an open player. But the ball was overthrown and bobbled by the receiver, leading to a turnover instead of an easy try.
"We are starting to know each other," junior prop Scott Hills said. "We still have to learn each other's tendencies and how we play."
After losing many forwards, Hurley said the team is full of freshmen and new players. Among them is Joe Baker, who Ferrell believes could be key to the team's future.
Cont...

 

[wadc45]

These articles are laughable...we missed just as many opportunities in the second half and literally should have won the game when we had a 5-meter scrum with a chance to pad the lead. Their lone points in the second half came off of a handling error by a kid playing his first game ever on the A-side at fullback. We were up 17-16 at halftime and the final was 22-19, so to say that PSU "figured out their mistakes and pulled away in the second" is hardly accurate. You can tell these articles were written by people with no knowledge of the game and/or people who weren't there.

 

[wadc45]

http://www.americanrugbynews.com/artman/publish/college/The_Big_X_Championship_is_back.shtml

By Brian Lowe
Sep 19, 2008 - 6:33:16 AM

It has been more than 20 years since the Big Ten rolled out its college rugby championship, but at long last it’s back baby.

The ‘Big Ten Plus One’ is set for this weekend in Elkhart, IN, and will feature twelve teams split into four pools.

All preliminary games on Saturday will be 25-minute halves, with the match to determine third and fourth places, plus the final on Sunday, to be 30-minute halves.

Despite the shortened games, coaches agree that the tourney will be very useful as they get ready for the start of Midwest Conference play the following week.

“It allows us quick opportunities to get a lot of work done,” Ohio State head coach Tom Rooney tells ARN. “It’s really a bonus going in to the Leagues the next week. The biggest bonus though, will be future marketing opportunities.”

Pool A
Penn State
Michigan State
Purdue

Pool B
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Notre Dame

Pool C
Ohio State
Illinois
Iowa

Pool D
Indiana
Michigan
Northwestern

We moved up to #11 in the latest Goff poll...we are at #15 in the ARN/Down Under Endeavours poll. Big 10/Midwest teams ranked include:

Goff (California teams not currently playing are not included)
#2 Penn State
#6 Bowling Green
#11 Ohio State
#16 Notre Dame
#17 Minnesota

ARN/Down Under Endeavours (California teams included)
#7 Penn State
#15 Ohio State
#18 Bowling Green

 

[RugbyBuck]

I'm surprised that Notre Dame would deign to participate.

Best of luck. Ruck hard, tackle low, Bucks.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

I'm surprised that Notre Dame would deign to participate.

Best of luck. Ruck hard, tackle low, Bucks.

I'm surprised that--after that shameless, dishonest press conference that they held to reject Big Ten membership--we would ever, ever let them participate in something like this.

Whether it's us or the craven Big East crawling to them on their knees, what is it that we can't just tell them to get lost. It's like they have some crazy jedi mind trick thing going on to keep the conferences from seeing how unnecessary ND is.

Do we do it in the hopes of building up good will, so they'll join the B10? These smug bastards laugh at us! The reality is that if they don't need to join a conference they'll take all they can from the conferences and never give anything back (see Big East). If they do need to join a conference, they'll come crawling on their hand and knees regardless of how we've treated them in the past.

 

[wadc45]

Rugby works a little different...there is no true Big 10 conference as far as advancing to the Sweet 16 is concerned. The Midwest gets two spots in the Sweet 16 and ND could not remain independent and qualify for nationals, as determined by USA Rugby.

OSU is a member of the Midwest Rugby Union, which includes most Big 10 schools as well as Bowling Green. The current D1 Midwest teams are Ohio State, Minnesota, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, Northern Iowa, Iowa State, Bowling Green, Michigan, Wisconsin-Stout, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Notre Dame (teams such as Michigan State, Northwestern and Iowa are in D2). Penn State belongs to MARFU (Mid-Atlantic Union) with teams such as Navy, Virginia Tech, Kutztown, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland and Radford.

This weekend marks the first edition of the Big 10 Rugby Tournament since the late '80s...and to make everything work it only made sense to invite a 12th team. When it was determined that Elkhart would be the host of the tournament, Notre Dame was a natural fit, both because of location and by way of there being a member of the Midwest, to fill that 12th spot. There was talk of BG filling in when Northwestern asked to drop out but luckily we were able to convince Northwestern that this weekend would be to the benefit of their team's long-term performance.

 

[wadc45]

AmericanRugbyNews.com Penn State wins Big Ten Championship

Posted in: College
By Brian Lowe
Sep 21, 2008 - 7:21:40 PM

Penn State has won the Big Ten Plus One championship after blasting Notre Dame in the final on Sunday in Elkhart, IN.

It was the first Big Ten championship in more than 20 years.

Despite some close calls in the preliminary rounds, the Nittany Lions went full throttle in the final and the Irish didn?t really have a look in.

PSU made it through to the final after squeaking past Indiana 7-5 in the semifinals. Notre Dame beat Illinois in the other semi to earn its place in the championship decider.

Earlier, Notre Dame was forced into extra time against Wisconsin before eventually prevailing on a penalty kick shootout to advance to the semis.

Penn State had tough games early on against Purdue and Michigan State, while Notre Dame accounted for Minnesota in the preliminary pool stages.

Indiana showed well by taking care of business against Northwestern and Michigan in the pool stages. Northwestern was singled out for special mention for making the effort to travel to Elkhart to play despite the fact that its students are not back at school yet.

Other teams that fared well included Illinois and Ohio State. Illinois downed the Buckeyes 14-10 in their opening game, but OSU bounced back afterwards to beat Iowa 22-7.

?It was well received all the way around and it was well run,? Ohio State head coach Tom Rooney told ARN. ?It was good rugby.?

Still sick over losing to Illinois...we pounded Iowa and Wisconsin and Illinois was no better...we just came out flat and tried to coast to a victory instead of going for the knockout in the second half. At least we were able to regroup and tag Iowa and Wisconsin to go 2-1 on the weekend. Midwest league play starts this weekend at Notre Dame...

 

[RugbyBuck]

Well done, Bucks! 2-1 in a 15s tournament is a more than respectable showing.

 

[wadc45]

Agreed...but we had no reason losing to Illinois...my hope is that this fuels the fire...we have a very worthy opponent in ND this weekend and then come for a class with Michigan on 10/4. We are much better than we showed on Saturday (against Illinois and Iowa). Half way through our final match on Sunday (against Wisconsin) I turned to another coach and asked "where was this team during the Illinois game). That was out night/day our performance was this weekend...

 

[wadc45]

Got off to a huge start this past weekend...

AmericanRugbyNews.com Opening day in Midwest

By Erin Jones
Sep 27, 2008 - 3:27:22 PM

The new structure of the Midwest will reveal the fiercest of them all when conference teams are pushed to their limits with a full schedule of games and travel.

It will show us which teams have the most depth and make for some great rugby, too.

Speaking of superb rugby, Ohio State declared victory over Notre Dame 34-14. The game was physically demanding and continuous.

"It was a hard game. Notre Dame gets better and better," said coach Tom Rooney of Ohio.

The match started quickly with an opening try in the first thirty seconds of the game by the Buckeyes when Notre Dame fly half dropped the ball. The momentum only escalated from there with Notre Dame retaliating. Halftime score 7-7.

Notre Dame entered the second half swinging but lost the bout with Ohio who scored three tries the first half and three the second.

Four of the six tries for the Buckeyes were made by #6 Chad Cochran and Fly Half Nate Ebner. Other scorers included Brandon Jewett and Eric Sanchez who made it look easy with a nice long break through the centers for the points.

Some erroneous reporting there...neither OSU nor ND converted their first tries which made for a 5-5 score midway through the first half. However, we added two trys often brilliant open field play to go to the half up 17-5. From there, we really did a good job of dropping the hammer on ND, something we didn't let them do last spring when we jumped out to an early lead only to see them make a game of it late in the second half. Our back row played brilliantly and we got some great effort both offensively and defensively from our centers, neither of who were projected as starters when the season opened up. Matt Hundley is playing the best rugby of his career at OSU...he probably has the best rugby IQ on the team and his physical capabilities are now starting to catch up.

This weekend is another big one and we could use all the support Columbus can muster...the Wolverines come to town for another league match. Final details of the time and date will be posted when possible (there is talk of moving the game to Friday night)...