With a win on Friday night over Bowdoin, the Tufts Rugby Football Club has earned a spot in the semifinals of the Div. III New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) Championships for the third straight year.
Finishing its regular season with a record of 5−1 and atop the Boston sub−division of the North conference, the team earned the playoff game against undefeated Bowdoin, representing the Maine sub−division. Both teams looked strong entering the matchup, but it was the Jumbos that controlled the game, shutting out the Polar Bears, 26−0 on Bello Field under the lights Friday night.
"The game went really well," sophomore Peter Wells said. "Bowdoin is a really good team and they were very competitive, but we were able to shut them out, and I thought the team was very passionate and really busted our butts out there."
The Jumbos came out strong, getting onto the scoreboard early and earning their first try just five minutes into the game.
"We had two scores really early on, so that kind of set the tone for the rest of the game," senior co−captain Gabe Perrone said. "It boosted our confidence and we really kept that momentum going throughout the game."
Tufts continued their domination in the first half, scoring four tries and three conversions. The closest Bowdoin came to putting a mark of their own on the scoreboard came just before the end of the first half.
"Bowdoin had the ball in our end probably 10 yards from our try−zone for a good five minutes, and we really had to step up and play some good defense. The forwards played great and [freshman] Ed Bell made some good tackles," Wells said. "That would have been a big momentum change if they scored before half−time, so it was really good that we held strong."
And with that defensive stand, Tufts ended the first half up 19−0.
The Jumbos continued to control possession of the ball in the second half, though they added less to the scoreboard than in the first, earning one try and one conversion.
"During the second half, we still had the possession advantage, but Bowdoin's defense made some adjustments that made it harder to score," coach Maurice Kauff said. "Defensively, we were able to apply enough pressure that Bowdoin's offense couldn't ever really get going with any consistency."
In what Kauff described as "overall the best performance of the season," the Jumbos found their strength from all the players across the board.
"We had an all−around good game, defensively and offensively. The forwards set the tone and we capitalized off their positive play," Perrone said. "We won almost all the set pieces, including [Bowdoin's], so that helped us keep the ball for most of the game."
The Friday night game drew a good crowd to support the Jumbos, fueling a fire in Tufts to defend their home field.
"It definitely helped that we had a lot of fans, parents and alumni," Wells said. "It was a really good environment, and we were really positive going into the game, and we managed to stay that way. It was very cold and it got tense between the teams at points, but we kept our heads on straight."
The Jumbos hope to carry Friday's momentum into the semifinals this weekend. The team will travel to Keene State Saturday for their matchup again Eastern Connecticut State University, a team that Tufts defeated 24−17 last fall in the first round of NERFU play−offs.
"[Last year, Eastern] was very physical; they weren't the most skilled team, but they were big physical guys who knew how to kick and how to run," Wells said. "We're not going to win by just out−muscling them or being super−athletic. We're going to have to play good−technique rugby in order to win."
Meanwhile, Keene State will face off against Salve Regina, 2010's NERFU's champion that advanced to the national championships. The winners of each game will meet in the finals on Sunday at Keene.
"The current crop of players has been in this position for the last two seasons, so it's not unfamiliar territory going into the final four of our division, and they've seen all the teams in the final four before," Kauff said. "I expect both of those games to be really competitive. It sounds like we match up pretty closely to Eastern Connecticut."
Because this is the first time that the Jumbos will see these three schools this fall, they will focus more on themselves and less on how they match up to their competitors, according to Kauff.
"What we're really focused on is just tucking up the things we need to improve and making sure we execute our game plan to a high level," Kauff said. "We want to make sure our players are comfortable identifying what other teams are doing and knowing how to adjust and account for things that we may not have seen before."
Tufts last advanced to the finals of the NERFU Championships in 2004, when they earned the runner−up spot.
"I feel very confident that we have a good game plan, good coaches and good players, so if we do what we are training to do, we should be able to win," Perrone said.
The winner of the NERFU Championships will take on the top team from the New York Rugby Union for the Northeast Div. III Championships on Nov. 19. The winner of that event will compete in the national championships in April.
Tufts has its sights set high for the rest of the season, and looks to seeing how far its new coaching staff and new style of play can bring them.
"Basically from the moment we met the coaches, we fell in love with them," Wells said. "I really believe that we are where we are right now because of Tom Collins, Jamie Green and Maurice Kauff. We were already at a pretty high level, but they brought us to a completely new level, with their passion and their knowledge and their commitment to the team."
"The other coaches and I are really pleased with the team. They're a good bunch of athletes, a good bunch of people, and they really come together in an excellent way," Kauff added. "They take a lot of pride to put on the Tufts' jersey and they're very much looking forward to the next time putting it on."
