UMF rugby teams compete for playoff spots

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Jack Neary swings the ball wide to launch a UMF attack. (Photos by Emily Leonard Photography)

WATERVILLE – On Saturday the University of Maine at Farmington men’s rugby team took its perfect 4-0 season record to Waterville to take on the similarly undefeated Colby College men in a battle which would decide the Maine collegiate champion.

In a heart-stopping back and forth encounter the Colby hosts scored a try with just three minutes remaining to take a 31-24 lead that looked like it would make them well-deserved winners. The UMF men had other ideas and rallied to score a try of their own with just one minute to go to knot the score, and then improbably took the game’s last kickoff 75 meters from the Colby try line and ran through a series of phases until standout center Jack Neary sliced through the Colby defense to score a try between the posts on the game’s final play.

The UMF men were led up front by its extraordinary trio of loose forwards: captain Jake Murphy, Cormac Miller and Tommy Young. In the backline, Neary and teammates Jake Roberts and Killian Miller were omnipresent in both attack and defense.

For the UMF men, the win earns them the right to host this coming Saturday’s semi-final playoff match with Salem State at Prescott Field (game time TBD but probably 1 p.m.). The Colby men will travel to Holy Cross for their semi-final match, but if both teams are victorious they will meet again for all the marbles in two weeks’ time in rematch that should have local rugby fans circling the day on their calendars and the teams two coaches making sure there’s a defibrillator somewhere nearby.

UMF Captain Jake Murphy, at right, lines up a Colby ball carrier before stopping him in his tracks. (Photos by Emily Leonard Photography)

In other rugby action Saturday the UMF women hosted Colby-Sawyer in a match that went down to the wire before the visitors pulled out a 32-22 victory. Missing a number of injured backline players, the UMF changed up its game plan and kept control of the ball through long passages of play with a relentless forward attack.

The UMF ladies were led by the relentless running of center Erin Buckland and her halfback partner Selena Garside, and the powerful forwards were anchored by the strong play of Bri Leonard, Sarah Haas and Audrey Kahrs.

The UMF women finished the regular season a disappointing 1-3, but they hope to have a number of injured starters back for their playoff run which will begin next weekend when they play away in New Hampshire.

UMF, at left, drives up and under Colby-Sawyers scrum. (Photos courtesy of Beth Snow)

 

Bri Leonard of UMF fires a pass from the back of a Beaver ruck.
UMF’s Selena Garside (left) passes the ball to teammate Erin Buckland against Colby-Sawyer College.
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2 Comments

  1. Congrats, ruggers! Really happy for you, especially, Tommy. Way to bring the intensity. Keep on keepin’ on! :)

  2. Proud of you gents. When you have the players and the coaches there is only one thing to say… Just win baby!

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