The National Collegiate Rugby All American team finished off their France Centennial tour 3-0 after beating French Universities 25-19 on the Fourth of July in Paris.
the tour was held in part to commemorate 100 years since the USA beat France in the 1924 Olympics to win Gold.
This final game was a close one throughout, and ended in dramatic fashion. Neither team was able to make too many breakthroughs, although in the first half the NCR team had more chances inside the French Universities 22.
Still, an early French Universities breakthrough did put NCR under pressure and only an excellent tackle from scrumhalf Remy Thomson (NDC/Walsh) stopped them. Right after that BYU’s Scholz Award-winning flyhalf Wyatt Parry launched a massive kick that was chased well by his teammates. The French kicked clear but Parry was right there to take the ball up and the French Universities team was penalized for not rolling.
Keelin Coyle (St. Bonaventure) slotted the goal for a 3-0 lead.
However, French University answered fairly quickly, earning two fairly quick penalties, both in the tackle area, to take two shots at goal. Both were successful and French Universities led 6-3.
They added to that a little bit later in the first half and led 9-3.
After tat third one, French Universities knocked on the restart, and then were penalized following the scrum. The mark was right in front of the posts and Coyle had no problem.
Finally, late in the first half, French Universities attacked down the sideline. They kicked into the NCR 22 but Mate Kvirikashvili (Kutztown) picked up and countered. After a couple of phases Thomson box-kicked nicely into the French half.
NCR kept up the pressure and almost scored a few minutes later but were held up in-goal. Finally, after some missed chances, captain Ollie Corbett (Brown) tapped back a lineout throgh near midfield. Parry drew a defender and fed Coyle, who broke through only to pop a nice offload back to his flyhalf, who was again in support. Parry worked his magic again, taking on the final defender at full speed before passing to Aaron Juma (Wheeling) for a 22-meter run to the line.
That put NCR ahead 11-9.
In the second half, French Universities attacked a little fast and wider and was able to zip around the outside on a well-weighted kick to the wing to retake the lead. With the conversion it was 16-11. NCR answered with a brilliant little try from Thomson, who took a return inside pass off a set move to scamper in. With Coyle’s conversion it was now 18-16. The French answered with a penalty to take a 19-18 lead.