Rugby: Inaugural Ivy campaign finishes in narrow victory

Few things can salvage a losing season like a last-second, come-from-behind road victory against a bitter rival. The men’s rugby team got exactly that Saturday when it beat Penn 14-10 at rain-soaked Franklin Field to close out the season on a high note.

This is the second consecutive time that Princeton has beaten Penn in thrilling fashion. Last May, in the opening round of the Ivy Tournament, Princeton bested its former Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union rival by scoring a sudden-death try in double overtime.

This past weekend, Princeton got out of the gates quickly, driving deep into Penn territory to open the game. This possession ended in a penalty kick that went just wide of the left upright. Despite threatening several other times, Princeton could not get on the scoreboard and trailed 5-0 at the end of the first half.

At halftime, Princeton shifted its lineup by putting senior flanker Cameron McLain, a player respected for his hard-nosed defense, on the pitch. McLain immediately made his presence known by sticking the Penn player who fielded the opening kickoff.

After a few more fruitless opportunities, Princeton took the lead 20 minutes into the second half when sophomore fly half Ben Tsui fielded his own up-and-under kick in Penn’s try zone. The kick took a fortuitous bounce on the Franklin turf, going over the head of Penn’s Jamie Besant. Tsui converted to make the score 7-5.

Penn answered minutes later when Mike Tully ran in a ball that came loose out of a scrum. Tully cut behind a pursuing Princeton defense to give Penn a 10-7 lead.

Rather than cling to a three-point lead, Penn continued attacking, looking to exploit a perceived weakness in Princeton’s defensive line.

“The entire time their sideline was shouting, ‘Attack the fly half!’ and I was playing fly half,” Tsui said. “But I don’t let that stuff get to me.”

Listed at five feet, six inches and 130 pounds, Tsui may look like a liability on defense, but as Penn should have remembered from its loss to Princeton in May — in which Tsui withstood a string of brutal hits to torch the Quakers with his tricky moves and quick feet — the athlete plays without fear. This, along with the staunch tackling of standout freshman outside center Philip Halsey, kept the Tigers within striking distance.

With a minute remaining, Penn committed a penalty inside its 22-meter line, leaving the Tigers with a difficult decision to make: Down three points, they could take a penalty kick to tie or put everything on the line and hope to score the winning try.

“After playing so hard for 80 minutes, we didn’t want a tie,” senior scrum half Josh Grehan said.

When sophomore inside center Pete Davison kicked the ball out to set up a lineout, it was clear that Princeton was going for the win.

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As they have done with great success all season, the Princeton forwards set up a maul off the won lineout, gaining almost 10 meters before junior hooker Zachary Flowerman took the ball, tiptoed down the sideline and dove in for the score, out-muscling a Penn defender. Flowerman’s try was his 10th of the season. Sophomore fullback Juan Mazzini split the uprights on a difficult conversion from the sideline to give the Tigers a 14-10 lead.

“It felt great to have all eight forwards in on that winning try,” junior lock Will Harsh said.

Princeton held off Penn for one more possession before the final whistle sounded, setting off an eruption of cheers from the visiting sideline.

Grehan was named Man of the Match, largely because he disrupted the Penn attack by harassing the opposing scrum half.

“Every time Penn’s scrum half got the ball from a scrum, Josh was on him,” head coach Rich Lopacki said. “This was absolutely critical, because if they had been able to get clean ball, it would have only been a matter of time before they rumbled over and scored.”

Lopacki also pointed to the play of Harsh, who replaced injured junior second row and captain Zak Deschaine at lock, as key to the victory.

“We’ve often called on Will to step in for injured guys this season,” Lopacki said. “I really enjoyed seeing him become a better and better rugby player. He made a real difference.”

Lopacki said he believes it was the focus of his players that gave them the edge over Penn. “We were more single-minded,” Lopacki noted. “We knew what we needed to do, and we did it. It’s the team that can keep its head and keep its composure at the end that will win the game.”

The Tigers finish the season fifth in the Ivy League, ahead of the three teams they defeated and behind the four teams they lost to. Princeton just missed the four-team playoff that will determine which teams advance to the Northeast Regionals.

The Tigers are looking forward to the spring season, when they will have a chance to defend the New Jersey State Championship and the Koranda Cup.