NCR All-Stars A Great Idea That Needs One Thing Changes
NCR All-Stars A Great Idea That Needs One Thing Changes
The New England Independents won their second straight NCR All-Star Championship on Sunday, defeating the Pacific Coast Grizzlies 28-0.
The tournament echoes some of the old ways of playing, with top players coming together in regional squads to play each other in what is intended to be a higher-level step to even greater heights.
What this tournament showcases is how players who coaches (or the players themselves) consider to be good play with new teammates in a short-assembly system. But the format itself, much like the Territorial Championships of old, have a few drawbacks. One of those is that quick assembly and a largely unknown mix of players can lead to a mistake-riddled performance, or perhaps a game plan so simplified as to be less than exciting.
The other issue is that games have to be played over a short period—players can't travel all over the country, and as it is it's not cheap to play in the NCR All-Star National Shield Challenge. So, the solution has been to reduce the games to 40 minutes, and play three 40-minute games on Day One, and three 40-minute games on day two. While NCR has done an excellent job ensuring as much as possible that collegiate playoff games are not played on consecutive days (only small college did that), this is not the case for the ASNSC. The teams played 200 to 240 minutes of rugby over the course of 32 hours.
So perhaps the final games weren't the best examples of the weekend. Players were tired and were happy to slow things down. Certainly this was the case for the Independents Red side, which went to the boot early, and used a powerful scrum and maul to get on, and stay on, the front foot. An early penalty from Reed Santos and a drop goal from Victor Gourdon put them up 6-0—taking points when on offer is smart, especially at the end of a grueling tournament.
It wasn't until the 17th minute that we saw a try. A nice run from wing Abe Kamara of Dartmouth got the Independents in Pacific Coast 22, and then freshman Bobby Voth tapped quickly on a penalty before feeding another Dartmouth man, Matias Calvo, who charged over.
That did seem to fire up the Independents and as the longer first half came to a close, fullback Matt Anticev used his support as decoys and took the corner.
(Oh right, didn't we mention? While the tournament was indeed 200-240 minutes of rugby, for the finalists, it was 250, with 25-minute halves for the championship game.)
There was still a little bit of time left in that first half, and the Independent scrum shoved Pacific Coast back, were stopped on an eightman pick, and then lock Charlie Beney piked up and was over. That made it 25-0 at halftime with the conversion. Things slowed down after that. Pacific Coast actually made it all the way to the tryline but lost the ball before touching down.
Independents Red goes up HUGE at halftime
— National Collegiate Rugby (@ncrrugby) January 15, 2023
Independents Red: 25
Pacific Coast Grizzlies: 0
: https://t.co/iwoACrlkH4#NCRAllStars pic.twitter.com/MN6vfptkUg
With about eight minutes to go Santos clotted a penalty goal, but that was it for the scoring and the Independents were winners 28-0.
For the Pacific Coast, their semifinal against Great Lakes might have been their downfall. That game, entertaining and tooth-rattling as it was, took a lot out of both teams. Great Lakes had beaten Independent Red in pool play, which is why the New England side was in the playoff track they were in, and when they had space they could burn teams.
Pacific Coast looked to win the contact point, and it was the big boys that opened the scoring through Cal Poly Humboldt standout hooker Jason Uipi. It remained 5-0 until a few minutes into the second half when scrumhalf Grady Pope cut through a lineout and was gone for about 40 meters. That set up a chance for John Gblah to blast over and the Grizzlies led 12-0. But somehow that was it. It was a really strong defensive effort from Pacific Coast to kep Great Lakes in check, and they never had the chance to run on subs and rest guys—the Grizzlies won, but it cost them.
The other semifinal was between the two Independents teams, with Red holding off White 12-3. Independents White took 3rd over Great Lakes 17-12.
Of the teams that lost quarterfinal matches, the Midwest Barbarians beat the Southeast Bears 28-22 to win one consolation match, and the Tri State Foundry edged the Mid-Atlantic 14-10. The Barbarians were an impressive 2-1 in pool play and actually won their pool, but will be shaking their heads at their 15-12 loss to the Independents White in the quarters.
NCR Announced an All-Tournament 23
All-Tournament Team
Matt Anticev: New England Independents Red - Dartmouth College - Grad Student
Chase Basson: Pac Coast Grizzlies - Mira Costa College - First Year
Matthew Beacom: Southeast Bears - University of Tennessee - Junior
Sam Brown: Pac Coast Grizzlies - Claremont Colleges - First Year
Sean Collins: Tri-State Foundry - SUNY Oswego - Senior
Ollie Corbett: New England Independents Red - Brown University - Junior
Arthur Dehareng: New England Independents White - UMass Amherst - Sophomore
Antonio Esteves: New England Independents Red - Brown University - Sophomore
JD Farrell: Great Lakes Thunderbirds - Marian University - Junior
Aiden Farrell: Midwest Barbarians - Iowa Central Community College -Junior
Rashawn Fraser: New England Independents White - Norwich University - Senior
Ollie Fussel: Southeast Bears - Belmont Abbey College - First Year
Henrique Gabriel: New England Independents Red - Brown University - First Year
Junior Gafa: New England Independents Red - Brown University - Senior
Finlay Hutton: New England Independents White - University of Vermont - Junior
Aaron Juma: Great Lakes Thunderbirds - Wheeling University - First Year
Mark Kearney: Mid-Atlantic Sharks - Georgetown University - Senior
Andy Takudzwa Naringo: Midwest Barbarians - Principia College - First Year
AJ Pasquarello: Mid-Atlantic Sharks - The College of New Jersey - Senior
Tony Robinson: Tri-State Foundry - Nazareth College - Junior
Seth Vallance: Pac Coast Grizzlies - Wayne State College - First Year
Milaan Van Wyk: Pac Coast Grizzlies - New Mexico Tech - Senior
Peyton Wall: Great Lakes Thunderbirds - Indiana University - Junior
There were others who stood out also, with Santos and Keegan Bliss for the Independents backs, Uipi for the Grizzlies forwards top of mind. Brian Arnold and Ivan Delgado of Great Lakes, Bobby Voth of Independents Red (a freshman called up from the White team to fill in and who played basically the whole tournament at scrumhalf), Pope for the Grizzlies at scrumhalf, and a pile of Northern Iowa guys for the Midwest.
A Great Event With Just One Change Needed
NCR almost has it. The idea of an all-star tournament is both appealing and useful in identifying good players. The timing, in January before school gets going again, is also good, and the location, in Houston, means it's unlikely the weather will be rough.
There will always be an issue of players being unfamiliar with each other, and coaches and players sometimes not clicking. Those issues just have to be dealt with. However, the amount of game time can be changed. In this tournament, two teams played 250 minutes, two played 240 minutes, and four played 200 minutes. Even with each squad taking 30 players, it's a tough ask. If you split the playing time equally within your squad (which never happens), you're looking at 100-125 minutes of rugby in less than 36 hours.
(It's also a total of eight hours of field time on Day One and just under seven hours on Day Two.)
Shortened games do not have contact events in proportion to the time—a 20-minute game will not have one-quarter the rucks or tackles of an 80-minute game; it will have close to 40%. Two three-minute games in a day will likely have the contact events of two full games in that time.
If this event can add one more team, the solution is easy—three pools of three tracking to three more pools of three on the second day. That's a total of 18 games (as opposed to 22 now), or four per team—enough to make the trip worthwhile but now only 80 minutes per roster spot as opposed to 100 to 125.