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                         Sept. 27, 2002

Ruggers gut Norwich; A's 23-6, B's 79-0

By Cadet 2nd Class Brett Walker
Rugby PAO

From the very opening kick at Norwich Saturday, the pitch was alive with seething, intense, hard competition. The forward packs of both teams seemed surprisingly equal in strength, speed, fitness, and skill in loose play, but every line out and scrum was clearly dominated by Army’s pack. The A-side won 24-6.

Both teams went scoreless for the first 15 minutes of the first half. The scoring drought was eventually broken when a penalty called against Army roughly 24 meters off of the goal line resulted in a successful penalty kick for Norwich. The penalty kick put Norwich ahead 3-0.

Army eventually retaliated to those points with an open play drop kick through the uprights by sophomore fly half Liam Marmion. Eager to diminish the distraction of being behind, Marmion made a good decision to put points on the board and tied the game 3-3.

Not long afterwards, the NRU kicker managed to score another three points off of a penalty kick from 22 meters out. That kick would prove to be Norwich’s last points of the day (for A-side, B-side, and C-side). Never-the-less, the Norwich ruggers did finish the first half with a 6-3 lead.

The score remained constant, NRU up by 3, for roughly the first 20 minutes of the second half. However, with 20 minutes left to play, Army’s fitness finally made a difference. The Norwich ruggers began to slow down and break down. That allowed Army to make their move. The first move was made by junior flanker Brandon Kint, who punched the ball into the goal by running over an ill-fated fullback who tried to stop him. The try was set up by scrum half and senior captain Shannon Worthan when he picked the ball off of the back of a 5 meter scrum, drew his defender, and shoveled the ball to Kint. Marmion successfully made the kick.

The next try also came from a 5 meter scrum. This time, instead of being picked off of the back of the scrum, the ball was spun out. The ball passed through the fly half to the inside center – junior Eric Stanbra. Stanbra lowered his shoulder and drove the ball home into the center of the goal. Marmion’s kick was good again.

The final try of the game was perhaps the most exciting. With a score of 17-6, and the ball deep in their own territory, the Norwich fullback attempted to punt the ball out. Army junior fullback Micha Ziegelhofer made a great effort and managed to dive towards the kicker and block the kick. Senior winger Timmy Lawton was right there to recover the loose ball and run it all the way into the goal. Marmion posted the final points of the game with another good kick making the final score 24-6.

The B-Side match against Norwich was more of a routing. From the very first minute to the very last, Army dominated every part of the game. There is not much to say about a game so one-sided, except that it gave a lot of new players an opportunity to experiment with new things and gain experience. Army won 79-0.