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Rugby East Sees UMW Win, Army, KU, and Navy Win Also

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Rugby East Sees UMW Win, Army, KU, and Navy Win Also

UMW vs Southern Virginia. Photo David Hughes.

Mary Washington, Kutztown, Army, and Navy all recorded victories in the Rugby East.

Army's defeat of Queens University Charlotte is detailed here.

That was a clash of two teams that had won the week before. Two teams that had lost the week before, and likely didn't really like it, were Kutztown and Penn State, KU emerged winners 31-17. Wing Logan Bachman, center PJ O'Reilly, scrumhalf Aidan Smith, and hooker Andrew Sampson scored tries for Kutztown while O'Reilly converted all four and added a penalty goal for a person haul of 16 points.

Head Coach Gregg Jones said he didn't see any marked improvement in his side following last week's lost to Army. 

"We continue to play physical rugby," said Jones. "Maybe we played with a bit more confidence after the Army game and another week together."

Clearly Jones recognizes that success in the Rugby East will require more.

Lewis Gray scored four tries for Navy, including two of the first three, as they defeated Mount St. Mary's 59-13. Ben Haugh scored two, and Nick Janowsky, Titan Case, and Tanner Russell also touched down.

"Definitely a lot of bright spots today. We scored another 59 points and we could have scored more," said Navy Director of Rugby Gavin Hickie. "Our set piece is still trending well and it was great to see Titan Case get a try in his first appearance with us. There were a lot of positives today, but as always there is plenty to work on. It was never our goal to keep everyone at a shutout because it's unrealistic to maintain that, but in the manner, we gave away our points, particularly on kickoff receiving I thought we were a bit sloppy."

And Mary Washington shut out Southern Virginia 32-0.

UMW controlled possession for as much as 75% of the match, but couldn't convert all that possession into points all the time.

UMW flankers Tobey Barnfield-Lee and Lloyd Stephens and lock Nick Ball defended well and the Mothers got tries from Kut Waddington, Michael Gray, and Sebastian Schefermann (who scored two).

Connor Conn Foster scored the only second-half try, while Scheferman added two conversions and a penalty gor a personal haul of 17.

"Our defense was good," said Director of Rugby Gearoid Dunbar. "This last week we worked really hard on the structure around the breakdown,"

That meant putting big forwards around the pillar areas to prevent Southern Virginia's big runners from picking up and powering ahead.

"They've got some big boys coming around the corners," said Dunbar. "But it worked well and most of their breaks came from their backs."

There were some things to work on for UMW.

"Offensively, we made some fantastic breaks upfield but really struggled to finish inside the red zone," added Dunbar. "We had a lot of knock-ones and a bit of tryline fever. We need to slow it down and regain control."

SVU''s intensity counter-rucking somewhat forced the UMW players to pick up and go faster than they were ready.

"SVU did a really good job of forcing us to go a bit quicker than we wanted to," said Dunbar. "They did a really good job getting back on defense and their defensive style is very up in your face. If we had slowed it down we could have probably scored more."

Latest standings:

Rugby East W L T PF PA PD BT BL Pts
Navy 2 0 0 134 12 122 2 0 10
Army 2 0 0 53 29 24 2 0 10
Mary Washington 1 0 0 32 0 32 1 0 5
Kutztown 1 1 0 48 42 6 1 0 5
Queens 1 1 0 39 38 1 1 0 5
St. Bonaventure 1 0 0 13 10 3 0 0 4
Mount St. Mary's 1 1 0 35 66 -31 0 0 4
Notre Dame College 0 1 0 10 13 -3 0 1 1
Virginia Tech 0 1 0 7 23 -16 0 0 0
Penn State 0 2 0 27 58 -31 0 0 0
Southern Virginia 0 2 0 0 107 -107 0 0 0