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NCR All-Stars Latest After Day 1

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NCR All-Stars Latest After Day 1

NCR All-Star Tournament features eight teams.

Endurance in the NCR Collegiate All-Star tournament was a key factor on Saturday and will be even more so on Sunday.

Teams that started well sometimes found themselves flagging a little late, and struggling teams certainly found game #3 difficult. Great Lakes Thunderbirds looked in control in their first two games, but so did the Southeast. The Bears showed off one of the more potent offenses on the day and also benefited somewhat from the was the schedule fell out. Great Lakes played at 9AM and 11AM and so when they met the Southeast at 1:30PM, this was their third game, while the Southeast had only played one game.

Wind, Familiarity Affects NCR All-Stars First Round Games

That game was a comfortable win against the Midwest and the Bears were able to sub out players when they had the game in hand. Upshot—Southeast was rested and confident, while Great Lakes was a little tired, and Southeast won 28-12.

Even so it was 12-12 with about 12 minutes left when the Southeast scored a couple of phases after a scrum, using their big carriers to punch through the line and power runner Doyle Hedgepeth crashed over. Great Lakes did have a chance with a lineout in the Southeast 22, but couldn't win it. And then moments later hooker Laurence Old was off free and clear to score. He was called back for a knock-on but it was a tough call—further review revealed that the ball had been tapped back by a Southeast defender, and Old had not knocked the ball forward.

From that scrum the Bears kicked deep, chased, got a penalty, and eventually after a series of crashes Noah Mills (The Citadel) sealed it. The Bears went on to beat New England White to go 3-0.

New England Red worked their combinations nicely and finished off their day with one of the biggest scores of the day (40-minute games remember) 29-12. Flyhalf Mike Weir has pulled the strings nicely despite having an uncharacteristic day goalkicking. The wind caused havoc with his kicks, but he didn't need them as New England scored five tries in their final match.

Pacific Coast played three very tight games. They saw New England come back to win their opener and seemed determined not to let that happen again and finished strong to win 17-14 and 15-14 to go 2-1.

Still, everyone is still in it as all eight teams are in the quarterfinals. So Sunday looks like this:

Sunday Schedule
B1 9:00 AM New England Red vs Midwest
B2 9:00 AM Great Lakes vs Mid-Atlantic
B3 10:00 AM Southeast vs Tri-State
B4 10:00 AM Pacific Coast vs New England White
B5 11:00 AM Loser B1 vs Loser B2
B6 11:00 AM Winner B1 vs Winner B2
B7 12:00 PM Loser B3 vs Loser B4
B8 12:00 PM Winner B3 vs Winner B4
B9 2:00 PM Loser B5 vs Loser B6
B10 2:00 PM Winner B5 vs Winner B6
B11 3:00 PM Loser B7 vs Loser B8
B12 3:00 PM Winner B7 vs Winner B8

It is very possible that an 0-3 team can trip up a 3-0 team. Can Great Lakes put that one unfortunate call behind them? Is the fact that Pacific Coast worked through some close games show they are a tough group that learns and won't get rattled? Are New England Red or Southeast that strong?

What is clear is that the team that wins it all will likely win their quarterfinal by a lot, thus getting a chance to rest some players, and will be the team that has the best depth. By day's end, each team will have played 240 minutes of rugby in the space of 30 hours.

Saturday Scores
9:00 AM Great Lakes 18-7 Midwest
10:00 AM New England Red 10-7 Pacific Coast
11:00 AM Midwest 0-24 Southeast
11:00 AM Great Lakes 20-10 New England White
12:00 PM New England Red 17-5 Tri-State
12:00 PM Mid-Atlantic 14-17 Pacific Coast
1:30 PM Great Lakes 12-28 Southeast
1:30 PM New England White 15-7 Midwest
2:30 PM New England Red 29-12 Mid-Atlantic
2:30 PM Pacific Coast 15-14 Tri-State
3:30 PM Southeast 22-5 New England White
4:30 PM Tri-State 0-31 Mid-Atlantic

 

Pool A
Team W L PF PA PD
New England Red 3 0 56 24 32
Pacific Coast 2 1 39 38 1
Mid-Atlantic 1 2 57 46 11
Tri-State 0 3 19 63 -44
Pool B
Team W L PF PA PD
Southeast 3 0 74 17 57
Great Lakes 2 1 50 45 5
New England White 1 2 30 49 -19
Midwest 0 3 14 57 -43