On Saturday October 24, Michigan hosted Iowa University at Mitchell Field for some good ol’ rugby. Feeling fresh after a bye week last week, Michigan was eager to get on the field and make a statement.
Top 23:
Michigan dotted the ball down within the first minute after full back Andre Cargill made a pass to wing Tohy Rakatovolona. Tohy broke around the outside and slipped a tackle, Matt Kasten came in support from the opposite wing position to receive an offload from Tohy and saw nothing but open space ahead oh him. Kasten dots down between the posts and the kick from Tohy is good. Wing life. Michigan leads 7-0. Michigan scored again just 5 minutes later after winning possession back by wheeling scrum just 10 meters from the Iowa try line. Forwards did what they do best, smash and bashed, until 8 man Jeremy (Dozer) Reid dozed his way across the line. The conversion kick from Tohy is on target, but just short. Michigan leads 12-0. Fly half and captain Zack Burns scored the next try after the freshman outside center Kevin (Sparky) Watt slipped his way through the middle of the field. Watt was brought down just short of scoring a try, but an in from the side penalty from the following ruck resulted in a quick tap and go that went to Burns, who slipped a tackle and touched the ball down with ease next to the post. The kick from Tohy is good and the score is 19-0. Burns would score again near the 20 minute mark after the Michigan defense kept strong pressure up against Iowa in their own end of the field. The kick from Tohy is just wide, and the score is 24-0. Just a few minutes later Michigan scores again from an Iowa lineout. Flanker Chening Duker snatched the ball intended for Iowa hands out of the air and passed the ball to scrum half Albert Foo who had literally just been subbed in for Guy Burke. The ball moved through hands all the way across the field until it got to Andre Cargill, who burst around the outside and made a 40 meter break look easy as pie. Kick from Tohy is good and the score is 31-0. Tohy would be next to score after hitting a line with extreme space and exploiting a gap in Iowa’s defensive line. Tohy touches the ball down untouched and makes his kick. Score is 38-0. Iowa couldn’t be counted out yet though. After getting the ball back from their own following kickoff, Iowa was able to keep the ball dangerously close to the Michigan try line for nearly 10 minutes. Michigan did a good job of keeping them out, but a quick step from their outside center resulted in a missed tackle from the Michigan defense, and Iowa made it into the middle of the try zone. Their conversion was good and the score is 38-7. As the first half was ending, Iowa was trying desperately to get out of their own half and get more points on the board, but a strong tackle and immediate counter ruck from Chening put posession back in Michigans hands. After the quick turnover, Michigan moved the ball quickly across the fields through the hands of forwards and backs until it landed in Cargill’s hands on the wing. Cargill has only one defender to beat in 5 meters, and he does, touching the ball down in the corner. Tohy snipes the kick and gets the extra points from a tough angle. Score at half is 45-7.
The first try of the second half came from Chening Duker. After a big break by Michael Shay in the #4 shirt, a few phases of ball movement in Iowa’s end were enough to tire them out, and Duker pick the ball up off a ruck and blasted past a tired defensive line and made an easy try. The kick from Tohy is good and the score is 52-7. Iowa nearly score again 20 minutes into the second half after a big Iowa prop gets tackled and rolls right back onto his feet to break the line. He was only meters away and looked as though he was going to score but a good chase from Shay and a big ol’ slap at the ball with his tackle knocked the ball from Iowa’s hands and a knock-on was called. The ball was in Michigan’s half for approximately 15 minutes before Iowa managed to get into the try-zone, but there were some generous calls from the sir to assist this. Their conversion is good and the score is 52-14. Michigan quickly responds with another try from Tohy on the wing. Conversion is missed and the score is 57-14. The next try came from Tomer Chen, who made a quick tap and go from an advantage penalty and scores after a 5 meter run. If I’m being honest it was a little anti-climatic, but still worth 5 points. Conversion from Tohy is golden and Michigan furthers their lead 64-14. With 8 minutes left in the game an absolutely phenomenal try cam from the combined efforts of forwards Mike Shay and Jesse Fenno. Shay gets the ball from scrum half Foo, and pops it to Fenno who is running a hard unders line. Jesse breaks the defensive line and runs for 30 meters before getting wrapped up. As Fenno is going down he flings the ball to Shay one handed who makes the catch, runs 40 meters, slips a tackle from behind and scores between the posts. Conversion is good and the score is 71-14. The final try came from Duker after Michigan won back a scrum from a knock on just meters from the try zone. The conversion from Tohy is good, and the game ends. Final score 78-14.
Lineup:
1: Lee Moore
2: Jackson Wagner
3: Nick Azzopardi
4: Nick Mattes
5: Jamie Demers
6: Travis Sawyer
7: Chening Duker
8: Jeremy Reid
9: Guy Burke
10: Zack Burns
11: Tohy Rakatovololona
12: Cole Van Harn
13: Kevin Watt
14: Matt Kasten
15: Andre Cargill
16: Sam Cipriani
17: Evan Rourke
18: Mike Shay
19: Jesse Fenno
20: Colin Walters
21: Albert Foo
22: Tomer Chen
23: Nate Fisher
Footage:
Academy:
Iowa travelled light to Ann Arbor, so the Academy match was between the Michigan Academy team and Iowa mixed some of our own boys as well.
There was a lot of back and forth play for the first five minutes with both sides making strong efforts in the break downs and going for counter rucks and poaches. Full back Uygar (OG) Ozdemir found a gap in the defense though after the ball gets moved across the field. OG touches the ball down in the middle and the kick from Justin (Mouse) Malin is good. Score is 7-0 Michigan. 4 minutes later fly half Tomer Chen would score again after an excellent line from Kyle Gruebnau combined with his continuously driving feet to gain territory. The conversion from Malin…there gentle way of putting this…completely shanked. Michigan leads 12-0. Colin would follow up immediately with and excellent break down the wing, tip toe-ing on the sideline to slip defenders and running 60 meters to score a try. The conversion is just wide and the score is 17-0 Michigan. The rest of the half was very exciting as both sides were fighting hard in the rucks and getting poaches as well as breaks, and even featured a long string of excellent offloads from forwards and backs that made it to the try zone, but the ball was knocked on before it could be touched down. The score would remain 17-0 at the end of the half.
The second half nearly started with Iowa scoring right off the kick off when one of their players made a step to create a gap in the defensive line. It was just between him and OG playing full back, and the Iowa player beat OG around the outside. Still determined, OG put on a chase and pulled the player down by his jersey just 5 meters from the try zone, forcing a knock on and saving a certain try. Iowa scores again off of a penalty tap and go that went directly into the hands of one of their props. He runs at the line with ferocity and a tackle is not even attempted. He runs 40 meters for a try and the kick is utterly flubbed. Score is 17-5 Michigan. The next would come from Tomer Chen once again as he shakes a few tackles and runs 50 meters fro a try. Conversion is missed and the score is 22-5. Iowa would respond with a Michigan player though, as scrum half Albert Foo put in some serious work and makes it to the edge of the try-zone. Kick is missed and the score is 22-10. The final try of the game would come from freshman Lyric Kleber, who picked the ball of a ruck and went to the exposed weak side. Conversion missed and the score is 27-10. In the final minutes of the game, big Will Coleman makes a huge break for Michigan, and it is finished up with a diving try by Matias Ferro. Conversion is missed and the final score is 32-10 Michigan.
Lineup:
1:Alex Carson
2: Kyle Gruebnau
3: Sam Cipriani
4: Ben Cotsarelis
5: Robert Dunne
6: Nate Fisher
7: Will Biel
8: Jason Anthony
9: Albert Foo
10: Tomer Chen
11: Alex Bourdeau
12: Juan Aguirre
13: Justin Malin
14: Colin Walters
15: Uygar Ozdemir
16: Will Coleman
17: Lyric Kleber
18: Ryan Hart
19: Rob McMahon Gibson
20: Mike Rawetzki
21: Matias Ferro
22: Cameron Zamanian
23: Humraj Singh
Footage:
