BRAG Blast - Beavers leave it all on the field against WWU but fall 31-21. Lots of other things about the fall season to be thankful for.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with family! My wife Melody and I spent the evening with five ruggers still in Corvallis and cooked a turkey feast in our RV for all of us. It was a great opportunity to talk about the past 15 months with Troy as head coach and how the trajectory of our program has changed. No league wins in the two years prior, to seven wins last year in the B pool to almost knocking off returning champions Western Washington the weekend before last.
Juwan shares with us some perspective on where we've come from, where we're headed to, and how much he enjoys playing with this group of rugby brothers.
Match Report: OSU vs. WWU (11/17/2018)
Score at halftime: OSU 21 - WWU 10
Final score: OSU 21 – WWU 31
Final game of the fall season. We are 2-1 in the Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference, having demolished Boise State and U. Washington, and lost to U of O in a match we know we should have won. Western Washington U. has been solidly the top team in the NCRC in recent years, and a couple weeks ago they beat the Ducks 66-7, with a strong pack scoring 9 of their 10 tries. We were missing starting forwards Ian Mann, Alan Hopper and Jake Kasiah, along with three impact reserve forwards. We’ve recently moved second-year backs Colton Buchanan and Dane McKinney into the forward pack because of their solid tackling, but have had little time to build their set piece skill set. On paper, the Beavers were definite underdogs going into this match.
But we came out swinging, playing at a level not seen for the Beavers in many years. WWU won their possession on their opening kickoff and played for 11 phases. Our defensive structure, line speed and individual tackles looked like a professional rugby team and WWU was at a loss for how to crack our defense. We eventually won possession at the breakdown, and after several sharp phases Kieran McCullough kicked far ahead into open space – a good chase by Tejas Godbole, Dane McKinney and Cam Castle won us possession and a couple phases later a penalty by WWU at the breakdown yielded a lineout 15 meters out. A well-conceived backs play off the lineout set up blindside winger Cam Castle for an inside scamper across the try line. Tejas Godbole hit the conversion and five minutes in it’s OSU 7 WWU 0.
The next few minutes were a repeat. WWU wins possession off their kickoff on the 10-meter line and the Beavers play intense tenacious defense for seven phases, driving WWU backwards and the unrelenting pressure leads to a WWU knock on in the backs. Off our scrum Kieran again kicks ahead into space and another good chase pressures the receiver into a knock on. We play 7 phases off our scrum but are penalized at the breakdown. Play continues with solid Beaver defense but an offsides penalty plus 10 meters for talking at the ref gives WWU the ball in our red zone. After a bunch of phases the ref misses a WWU knock-on and a few play later their forwards power over the try line. We are up 7 -5 after 14 minutes.
Twelve minutes later after back-and-forth play around midfield, another Beaver kick and chase puts us in WWU territory and the structure of our attack in the wide channels is working well. Blindside flanker Dane McKinney pickups up a loose ball at the breakdown and scampers 15 meters to dot it under the posts. The Beavers are up 14-5 and we’re looking the clearly better team with good structure and variety in our offensive attack and aggressive defensive line speed giving WWU fits.
We fumble the kick off backwards and are playing defense in our red zone and give up a penalty at the breakdown. WWU scores on a simple 5-meter forwards lineout play that we don’t defend well. Ouch. OSU 14 - WWU 10.
After some back and forth second phase play, lock Kyle Lantow makes a nice offload in the wide channel to Dane McKinney who burns three individual tackles and scores his second try before the half-time buzzer. OSU takes a commanding 21-10 lead, reflecting our best half of rugby in 5+ years and a far better display of offensive and defensive structure and decision making than the NCRC leader.
Second half. Beavers kick off and show solid defensive structure again, but we’re going a bit high in tackles and giving 5 meters on several WWU phases. WWU is penalized and we kick for touch to their 10-meter line. We lose the lineout to the first pod in an easy WWU steal off our very predictable lineout call. The first of many lost lineouts in the second half. A couple minutes later after good defensive phases we turn over the ball but throw an errant pass in the centers; WWU kicks it forward behind our wing and our fullback misses an easy tackle on the touch line, giving WWU a 70-meter try and a closer margin 21-17.
A few phases of good defense after we kickoff and we tackle WWU into touch. Again, they easily win our lineout thrown too low to the first pod and we tackle them into the opposite touch line. WWU again disrupts our lineout but we manage to get the ball and a penalty so we kick for touch and have a lineout again well into their territory. WWU again steals our lineout, this time on a poor throw to the back pod. Our fullback drops a high box kick but after their scrum our strong defense again wins a turnover and after a WWU penalty we kick down to 25 meters out. This time we go to our short man in the lineout and win it (good decision) but don’t put points on the board. Several series later our fullback doesn’t see our winger’s space out wide and instead kicks 40 meters ahead but straight into touch so it comes back to our 30-meter line. We play good defense again, force a kick, and due to playing penalty advantage we give a short 10-meter pop kick ahead and the ref calls advantage over way too soon (poor ref decision there). A minute later WWU is penalized again and we kick to touch 40 meters upfield, and again lose our lineout to the first pod. Ugh.
We play a lot of defense in our red zone, and after a questionable high tackle penalty we let WWU quick tap and hit directly in for a try, to take the lead 24-21 with 18 minutes remaining. 10 minutes later WWU scores again as our defense is losing some punch after so much time defending in our red zone, and only one impact reserve forward coming on. The final score remained at 31-21. We couldn’t manage field position in the second half because we were losing all our lineouts, which put our backs against the wall for most of the half. We had opportunities to score in the green zone in the closing 5 five minutes but we coughed it up and WWU put the ball into touch at the closing whistle. We completed the evening with a full B side match – good fun for everyone and all the Beavers got as much playing time as possible.
The program we are rebuilding with head coach Troy Hall is really showing dividends. Overall, we showed vs. WWU that we can compete and outclass any team in our league. With some adjustments to our lineout, some healthy forwards reserves, and better play at fullback we would have won this game to put us at the top of our standings. We’re well-positioned for the second half of our season – four Saturdays in February, followed by NCRC playoffs the first two Saturdays in March.
Coaches and players were able to connect with a group of Beaver Alumni supporters before the match, and we’re working on ways to build stronger connections and support for this Beaver team that is growing in skills and know-how. It’s an exciting time for Beaver Rugby and we have the opportunity now to cross the line and lift this team to its full potential!
Fundraising Note:
Below is a plea from our teams VP Rees Rosene. Rees is a sophomore that has started every game since he entered OSU as part of last years solid freshman class.
Hello Everyone,
We recently finished our fall season with a record of 2-2. Over the course of four league games this term we managed to put up 187 points, while conceding only 108. We also won two big games in early November at the PAC 7s championship tournament at Witter Field, Cal's famed rugby stadium, beating Utah and Stanford, and just two points shy of winning the Plate final vs. USC on a missed conversion. We won the respect of all present and put the OSU Beavers solidly back on the radar for PAC rugby. We just finished with a great match against Western Washington, where both teams were pushed to their limits. the match ended 31-21 in favor of WWU, but great strides in the development of our team were on display for the many alumni and fans who came out to support.
We are writing you to ask for the opportunity to have Coach Troy back leading the team in 2019 and to continue with the upward trajectory of the program. He has done so much for the club in terms of bringing energy, enthusiasm, and a vast knowledge of the game to our club. We have many players who are now in our starting lineup, and among the top try scorers in the league, who started playing as freshman last year, or just picked up rugby this year. We all recognize how hard he works for our team to improve each player and create a culture around the club that develops rugby players to their maximum potential. It is for these reasons that we ask you to donate to the new Beaver Rugby Alumni Group 501c3 so that Troy can continue to develop our skills in January.
Sincerely,
Rees Rosene
Vice President, OSU Men's Rugby