Warmups before the first matches of Tour 2013
On the first day of Tour 2013, UMRFC battled the heat in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and played Trinidad and Tobago Rugby Football Union’s U19 and President’s Selects teams.
T&TRFU’s U19 team played UMRFC’s B-side first and got off to a quick start as they scored 10 points in the first six minutes. Michigan tried to move the ball down the field multiple times but was plagued by handling errors. Trinidad scored again to go up 17-0 before halftime. U of M needed to regroup and hydrate at half as their first 15s game on the spring was not going in their favor.
Michigan was able to score in the second half as Dave Hiltzik took the ball from a maul, and went into a tackle where Spencer Scolnick picked the ball from the ruck and scored. A conversion by Grady Bridges made the score 17-7 T&T. Better ball control gave Michigan a foothold in the match. Mauls and forward ball were helping. But Trinidad responded quickly, scoring twice in the next ten minutes and made the score 27-7.
Michigan shortened T&T’s lead in the final seconds as a hard run by prop-turned-wing Chris Hopfner brought the ball close to the try line. From there, Chening Duker picked the ball from the ruck and scored. Bridges’s second conversion made the final score 27-14 T&T.
1. Brennan Arnett
2. Spencer Scolnick
3. Jackson Wagner
4. Cole Van Harn
5. Mike LaCivita
6. John Palladino
7. Chening Duker
8. Travis Sawyer
9. Evan Noon
10. Jared Bosma
11. Chris Hopfner
12. Ben Clemens
13. Kevin Linder
14. Jack Sligh
15. Vino Ravichadran
16. Nick Bishar
17. Even Rourke
18. Dave Hiltzik
19. Kenny Andutan
20. Chris Padmos
21. Grady Bridges
22. CJ Stock
Tries: Scolnick 42′, Duker 60′
Conversions: Bridges 42′, 60′
In the second game of the day, UMRFC’s A-side played T&TRFU’s President’s Selects team and quickly fell behind as T&T scored four times in the first 20 minutes to go up 20-0. The structure of the select team combined with their fitness made it a challenge for the men in blue. U of M kept at it though, working down the field, but they lost the ball to a lineout, and shortly after, T&T scored again to make the score 27-0. UMRFC tried again and again but kept losing the ball to T&T, and they scored two more times before the end of the first half to make the score 37-0. The selects were quick to punish slow Michigan support at the breakdown and stole plenty of U of M ball.
The half was a good break for Michigan and provided spirited play to start the second half. Both teams went back and forth with the ball before T&T scored again after 10 minutes. The Selects continued to attack with speed out wide and extended the lead to 61-0. After some stout U of M defense, Drew Vecchio and Kenny Andutan made good runs with the ball to get to T&T’s end of the field. After a penalty was called against T&T, Joel Conzelmann passed to Vecchio, who was able to get close to the try line before he offloaded the ball to Evan Rourke to score. With UMRFC finally on the board, T&T scores two more times to make the score 71-5 and final.
A tough defeat for U of M but one with plenty of value. National caliber players provided obvious examples of where the Wolverines can improve.
1. Brennan Arnett
2. Evan Rourke
3. Nick Bishar
4. Matt Pilon
5. Drew Vecchio
6. Dave Hiltzik
7. Kenny Andutan
8. Mike LaCivita
9. Chris Padmos
10. Grady Bridges
11. CJ Stock
12. Christian Mentzer
13. Jared Bosma
14. Max Arevuo
15. Joel Conzelmann
16. Nick Fehrman
17. Spencer Scolnick
18. Cole Van Harn
19. Chening Duker
20. Travis Sawyer
21. Evan Noon
22. Ryan McDonough
23. John Palladino
Try: Rourke 71′
