Match Report - Army vs UMASS
27 Oct 2006
Once again for the second time in a row, the Men’s Army rugby team played a home game at the Anderson Rugby Complex on Saturday at 5 pm. The weather was quite nice for a rugby match; however, the first signs of the changing seasons were clearly apparent. Army, currently ranked 2nd in the nation, was 3-0 prior to the match against UMASS and looked to further their winning streak on the road to a national championship.
A Side: 107-3
The Army Rugby A side match-up started promptly at 1700. The starting XV had a goal of playing their own style of rugby no matter despite their opponents attempt at stifling Army’s pattern of play. Several minutes into the game the Army ruggers struck first with a nice play through hands that ended with wing Robert Zargan, ’07 putting it down in the corner. This first try served as a catalyst, as Army began to score more and more frequently as the half continued. The forward pack showed excellent dominance of all set pieces. They dominated scrums, with a huge push coming from the front row of Erik Waage, Tony Fatula, and Chris Wallgren. Locks John Breneman and Clint Hail showed a high level of skill and coordination in the lineouts. Meanwhile the extremely athletic back row combination of JP Flach, Dan Strathman, and Nate Peper caused a great deal of havoc in the loose. Army backs began to run freely after the forwards began to give great ball to the backs. Flyhalf Andrew Locke began to orchestrate a dominate offensive performance at that would give the Army rugby team more than 50 points at halftime. UMASS’s sole points came from a well place penalty kick from about 30 meters out. Seventeen tries were scored over the course of the game with John Breneman, Chris Grevious, and Brendan McCarthy all scoring hat tricks with 3 tries each. McCarthy and Zargan combined for 11 conversions out of 13, a extremely accurate display of kicking on the day. In the end, the final score read Army 107 – UMASS 3.
This fine day of Men’s Army Rugby displayed a great amount of discipline and commitment by the team as they were able to continue to play at their high level without playing to the level of the opponent.
A Side Starting XV:
1 Erik Waage
2 Tony Fatula
3 Chris Wallgren
4 John Breneman
5 Clint Hail
6 JP Flach
7 Dan Strathman
8 Nate Peper
9 David Lodwick
10 Andrew Locke
11 Chris Grevious
12 Chris Bahr
13 Brett Hanger (Robert Small @65)
14 Robert Zargan
15 Brendan McCarthy
| Name: | Tries: | Conversions: | Penalty Kicks: | Total Points: |
| Andrew Locke | 2 | 10 | ||
| Chris Grevious | 3 | 15 | ||
| Tony Fatula | 1 | 5 | ||
| Robert Zargan | 1 | 5 | 15 | |
| Brendan McCarthy | 3 | 6 | 27 | |
| Nate Peper | 2 | 10 | ||
| John Breneman | 3 | 15 | ||
| Chris Walgren | 1 | 5 | ||
| Robert Small | 1 | 5 | ||
| Total: | 107 |
