Men's Rugby: Ruggers fall to Columbia in road Ivy game

The Tigers looked sluggish at the game’s outset when they allowed Columbia fullback Conor Russomanno to snake through the defense for a try run of nearly 40 meters.

Before 15 minutes of game time had expired, the Lions had extended their lead to 12-0, and they led Princeton for the rest of the game.

Princeton surged back in the middle of the first half, keeping the ball in Columbia’s end of the pitch with high energy from the Orange and Black forwards.

When the Lions committed a penalty in their own end, the Tiger forward pack put this mistake to good use, setting up a maul off the resulting lineout.

Though Columbia’s forwards outsized Princeton’s, the Tigers drove in this maul for a try that was touched down by senior captain Zak Deschaine.

Just before halftime, Columbia tallied a third try when it counter-attacked a shallow Princeton kick.

Flanker Derek Lipscomb received an offload pass and took the ball all the way down the sideline, untouched by any Princeton defender.

Lipscomb, who is one of Columbia’s most dangerous runners, was held in check by the Tigers for most of the game.

Still, he took advantage of this one opportunity to devastating effect for Princeton.

Just as the first half was ending, junior fullback Pete Davison exited the game early because of a concussion, damaging Princeton’s comeback chances. Senior wing Mitch Adwon had also left the game earlier in the first half with a cut that required stitches.

If yards gained were a rugby statistic, Adwon and Davison would almost certainly be leading Princeton in that category.

Without these two potent offensive threats, Princeton’s offense stalled at the start of the second half.

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In the 47th minute, Columbia mounted a goal-line stand, taking back the momentum for the next 20 minutes.

Though the Tigers struggled to sustain their offense in this time, they dug in on defense and put together an extended goal-line stand of their own.

Russomanno eventually slashed through for his second try in the 65th minute, giving Columbia a 22-7 lead.

In the game’s last 10 minutes, Deschaine brought the game to its final tally when he took in a tap-and-go penalty. The Tiger captain has four tries in as many league games.

This late offensive surge was not enough to overcome the early hole Princeton dug for itself.

The slow start was to blame for the loss; after going down 12-0, Princeton outscored Columbia 12-10, even with the injuries to Adwon and Davison.

“It’s disappointing because this [along with the Brown game] was another game we left feeling like we could have won,” said junior Spencer Ryan, who recently moved from flanker to scrum-half. “We didn’t play well enough to win.”

Columbia moves to 3-1 in Ivy League play and maintains its second-place spot in the standings.

Next weekend Princeton will take on another 3-1 team in Harvard, as well as 2-2 Yale.

With Adwon’s injury, each member of the Princeton “Deep 3” that contributed to a successful spring 2010 season — Adwon, senior wing Adam Nassr and junior fullback Juan Mazzini — is now inactive.

Senior prop John Veras, who has emerged as a reliable starter this season, said he hopes to see the trio back in action as soon as this weekend.

“We could really use that speed and power coming out of the back and those potent counter-attacks against Harvard and Yale,” Veras said.