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This weekend, the Irish faced their first true road test, playing IU’s Mudshark Rugby Club. After a long bus ride, the Irish took the field against a very physical IU team. This made for a first half that was dominated by forwards play on both sides, with roughly even possession. In due time, however, both sides managed to get on the board, the Irish with a kick for points, and the Mudsharks with a try, but a missed conversion. A few minutes later, Notre Dame made another kick for points, giving the Irish a slim 6-5 lead that they held for the rest of the Half.
In the second half, however, the Irish defense began breaking down at points, allowing many more linebreaks and penalties than they did in the first half. The Mudshark offense made a good effort to capitalize on these mistakes, and finally began putting away tries, something that continued throughout the second half, and something that the Irish were not able to do in return. All told, the Mudsharks were given a handy victory, with a final score of 6-39.
On the morning of Saturday, September 27, the well-established Ohio State RFC faced off against the relative newcomers on the scene, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The match started with a fast try by the Buckeyes, which was quickly countered by an Irish try of their own. As the first half wore on, the Irish pack kept the OSU forwards at bay with a stout defensive line and relatively solid set-piece performance. But this only made it difficult. It did not stop the Ohio squad entirely, who managed to score two more tries and kick one conversion before the half. The Irish did not fare so well, remaining scoreless for the rest of the first forty minutes, albeit not for lack of opportunities to score, simply a lack of execution. This made the score going into the second half 17-5, with Ohio State winning.
The second half showed a marked upswing in the Irish defense, allowing much fewer linebreaks and giving away fewer penalties than in the first half. This again did not stop a very physical Buckeye squad, who managed to put away three more by the end of it. An eleventh-hour rally by Notre Dame and a powerful drive that ended in a try were simply not enough to make up the gap, and the final score of the match was 32-12, in favor of OSU.
The B-side game was played in a much more aggressive and physical style than the A’s, and as such was kept a much closer game, with the teams trading points until the end, where the score difference came down a kick-for-points off a penalty that happened late in the first half. Final score for the B-side match: 19-17, Ohio State.
The Notre Dame Rugby Club made a solid showing in both the A and B-side matches in the seven matches they played in this weekend’s Big Ten Plus One Tournament in Elkhart, Indiana. All eleven Big Ten teams were represented at the Moose Rugby Grounds for two days of top-notch Midwest rugby.
Notre Dame’s first day of the tournament was marked by low-scoring games, starting with a 7-0 victory over Minnesota. The Golden Gophers and the Fighting Irish were well matched the whole way through, and an early try and a stout goal-line defense gave the Irish their first win over a Big Ten opponent. The afternoon game against Wisconsin was just as hard-fought, and after trading points and maintaining a strong back line throughout regulation play the score was even at 10-10. To decide a winner, the game went into three overtimes and then two rounds of shootout-style kicks, with the Irish eventually coming out on top 13-10.
On the second day of play for the A-side, a team plagued with injuries took the field to score an early-morning semi-final win against the Fighting Illini of Illinois 19-10; gaining a spot in the championship game vs. Penn State. The final match was characterized by strong back-line play from Penn, as well as a large amount of kicking for both teams, who each scored their first points of the match in kick-for-points situations. Notre Dame let through a few back-line tries early on, and even after stepping up the defensive play, could not make up the gap, resulting in a 26-6 loss, and second place overall in the tournament.
The B-side also had a good showing over the weekend. They started off slow Saturday without much structure and lost to IU and OSU’s mixed B-side. However, the B-siders started to find their rhythm and went on to win handily in their next two matches against Iowa and Penn State. The B-side showcased stellar performances by several brand new players in the back line. They finished third place overall in the B-side bracket.
Ultimately, a second place out of 12 A-side and a third place out of 8 B-side finish are a great demonstration of the mettle of this still-young Irish rugby club. Most of their players took from this weekend a great sense of determination and a feeling that, while this was a great showing, Notre Dame still has great room for improvement going into next weekend’s home match versus OSU and the beginning of their league season.
The Notre Dame Rugby Football Club would like to thank former Ireland head coach Eddie O'Sullivan for putting on a phenomenal preseason camp for the team. Two practices a day from August 23-25 prepared the team for their upcoming D1 schedule against some of the best U.S. teams.