Rugby reaches Nationals

Author: Brooke Farquhar

The trip down to Florida over the weekend was a second spring break for some of the members of the men's rugby team. It was also a huge break for the entire team in regard to their success this season.

The Middlebury men's rugby team will compete in the Division II Championship for the first time against Arkansas State University (ASU) on May 5 in Stanford, Calif. The game will air on CSTV at 1 p.m.

Although the location of the tournament in Sanford, Fla. made for a sunny trip, the road to the championship game was not so clear.

Middlebury went into the tournament ranked second in the Northeast behind the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and was seeded seventh in the tournament. Despite facing the second-seeded team in the bracket and the number one team in the West, the Panthers trounced the University of Northern Colorado in the first round, 39-27.

Middlebury then faced another number-one ranked team, this one from the MidAtlantic. Salisbury was seeded above Middlebury in the bracket at number six, and was coming into the semifinals off a big win over Humboldt State University.

But Salisbury's confidence coming into the semifinal match proved irrelevant. Middlebury's defense stuffed Salisbury's offense in what Head Coach Ward Patterson called "the best game of the year." Middlebury dominated the match, beating the team by a score of 59-14.

ASU comes into the final after a close game with the Coast Guard, the two-time defending champs. The 25-24 win came off of a penalty kick in the last seconds of the match.

"We need to keep up our intensity," wrote Matt Volz '07 in an email. "We're all very excited right now, and we need to carry that over into the championship game."

ASU was not the only team to have instrumental penalty kicks. Sophomore Ari Silverman went nine-for-nine in extra point kicks for Middlebury.

For the first time in his career, Patterson is taking his team to the championship game. In the past decade he has led the team to five undefeated seasons in the conference and to the quarterfinals of the National Championship twice.

A spectator might attribute the team's success to the "haka" or Figian dance the team does before every game. Epeli Rokotuevekao introduced it to the team a few years ago, and although Luke Yoquinto '08 said he does not understand all the words of the chant accompanying the dance, the sequence is a way of "bearing your soul to battle." Its Figian roots exempt the team from imitating the dance of the New Zealand All-Blacks. Yoquinto added it would be "sacrilegious" to imitate the dance of the greatest team in rugby (although ASU does before every game).

Patterson is confident the high level of performance his team is exhibiting will continue.

"Our play is at an all-time high and we are a much better team than when we lost to [Coast Guard] in November," wrote Patterson. "Playing unknown opponents is part of our sport, and we did take some time to scout them while we were in Florida."

Suffice it to say, the men's rugby team showed Patterson its stuff over the weekend.

"There were so many exciting plays that I will have to study the game tape to remember them all," wrote Patterson.

The team, along with a group of parents and alumni, is in the process of petitioning the school for a full-time head coaching position for the rugby club - and for Patterson.

"We're trying to get him hired as a full time coach," said Yoquinto. In light of the team's performance this season, he added, "Essentially without him we'd be nothing."