University of Mary Washington men's rugby competed at the Collegiate Rugby Championships this past weekend.
The Mother's entered the 32-team premier division as a 4 seed in the Southern region. They opened with a win against No. 5 Aquinas, 21-0.
Tries were scored by RJ Berlington, Aiden Hayward and Thomas Howard. Conversions were made by Ruaridh Woodland-Broome (2) and Luke Willis (1).
The next match was against the No. 1 seed Walsh University. The Mother's started slow as Walsh scored on the opening kickoff. The halftime score was 15-0 to the No. 1 seed.
Walsh scored again in the second half as the Mother's attack struggled to retain the ball.
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Showing a "no quit" mentality, David Fitzgerald scored at the end of the match for a final score of 20-5.
After that second-round loss, the team moved into the Plate bracket, competing for ninth place.
They matched up with fellow CRAA program from the West Coast, University of San Diego.
Muzi Chirwa, David Fitzgerald and Oscar Fenby scored in the first half, with Woodland-Broome and Fitzgerald making conversion kicks. The halftime score was 19-0.
Lindsay opened the scoring in the second half and Woodland-Broome converted, making it 26-0.
San Diego never gave up and scored two tries at the end to make the final score 26-12.
Day 2 started against Clemson University.
The rain started to come down and the Mother's struggled on attack, making multiple handling errors. Clemson scored once in each half from chip-and-chase kicks. The final score was 10-0.
The final match of the tournament was against Rugby East foe Southern Virginia. This match was for 11th place in the tournament. SVU entered the tournament as a 2 seed in the West bracket.
SVU opened the scoring after racing down the sideline and converting to make it 7-0 with 2:30 left in the first half.
Shortly following the kickoff from SVU, senior Nicholas White bumped off a defender and raced down the sideline to make the halftime score 7-5 SVU.
SVU opened the scoring in the second half about two minutes in to make the score 12-5.
On the ensuing kickoff, Lindsay caught the kickoff, stepped one defender and raced to the try line to score.
Callum Dodds added the conversion to tie the score 12-12 with three minutes remaining.
SVU punched right back on the next kickoff and raced down the sideline to score in the corner. The score was 17-12 SVU with under two minutes remaining.
With one minute left, SVU broke the line but RJ Berlington made the chase-down tackle and forced a turnover to the Mother's. As time expired, Nick White got the ball on the edge, stepped a defender and raced toward the line. He was caught just before the line but released the ball and picked it back up and dove over the line to even the score at 17-17. Dodds' conversion to win it hit the upright and stayed out, so the match went to sudden-death overtime.
The Mother's had to kick off in overtime and played strong defense with big tackles from Chirwa and Berlington. Eventually regaining possession, Muzi Chirwa chipped a kick over the defense and kicked it again toward the try line. RJ Berlington picked up the loose ball and dove over the line to give the Mother's the win in overtime and 11th place in the tournament.
On the weekend, Fitzgerald led the team with 12 points (two tries, one conversion).
White, Berlington and Lindsay all had 10 points (two tries each).
Woodland-Broome had eight points (four conversions).
Fenby, Chirwa and Howard all had five points (one try each).
Dodds and Willis had two points (one conversion each).
The Mother's finished with a 3-2 record and plus-15 point differential.
This ends the 25-26 campaign as the team heads home for summer to prepare for the fall 15s Rugby East campaign.
