The Yale University Rugby Football Club

Yale plays tough but drops their first game of the season against Dartmouth to go 2-1 on the season.

Yale came out flat, turning over far too much ball in the first half. The half time score was 45-3. Dartmouth was quicker to the breakdown, and Yale needed to do a better job of keeping their feet; put simply, Dartmouth consistently won at the point of contact. The back three were under tremendous pressure all day due to Dartmouth's kicking game, but generally held strong. Our best play of the first half came when freshman fullback Mac Hull returned a kick up the middle of the field, offloading to classmate Grey Grissom, who recycled it and forced Darthmouth to commit a penalty which center Ryan Vandersloot converted to get Yale on the board. The biggest story of the first half was Yale inability to put together multiple phases, and poor tackling. Our kicking game, which was a strong point last weekend, wasnt nearly as good this weekend. We had a difficult time clearing our zone for much of the first half.

The first 15 minutes of the second half were disappointingly similar to the first. But after 15 minutes, Yale had seen enough. We started to play at the level we are capable of, elevating our effort level in all facets of play. In fact, when the going got tough, we shut out Dartmouth in the last 25 minutes, despite Dartmouth having several chances near our try line. We were able to do a better job at the breakdown and generate multiple phase possessions. We also started to get back a field position advantage and were able to keep Dartmouth in their end of the field. One bright spot came after three phases, when flyhalf Pat Madden broke the line and sped 50 meters, drawing his defender and linking up with Matt Lacasse for a try in the corner. In the end, the final score was 62-8

There were many positives to take away from the second half; our fitness is good, our defense can be excellent when we play with intensity and purpose, and it is obvious that we can play a high level - we just need to put these things together for 80, rather than 25 minutes. That being said, there are also many lessons to be learned from this week's match; we must improve our tackling, increase our urgency to the breakdown, and above all, we must come out ready to play from the first minute. Next week's match against Brown is huge, and a win keeps us in the driver's seat for a home playoff match.

Final Score: Dartmouth 62- Yale 8

B-Side

The B-side had a tall order, playing against a much more experienced Dartmouth B-side. Yale marched out mostly freshman versus a side dominated by sophomores and juniors. The team played well at times, but broken tackles and good ball handling by Dartmouth was simply too much for the youngsters. The bright spots were that the set pieces were sound and that Yale battled hard all match. Yale's future is bright and the B-side improves with every match.