SALEM, VA –The Hampden-Sydney Tigers had an early-morning match with the University of Richmond; on the line was third place in the Challenge Cup bracket of the NSCRO Tournament for the CCRC. The previous day the Tigers had beaten Emory and Henry 41-27 in a play-in game for the final four and then lost to Washington and Lee 12-40, while the University of Richmond had lost to Roanoke College 14-17. Hampden-Sydney and Richmond had met once before, on October 21 at Hampden-Sydney, where the Spiders had come away with a win. The story that day was sloppy play from both sides, a strong kicking game by the Spiders, and a less-than-stellar effort from the Tiger players. Our players were committed to avoiding a similar outcome.

The Spiders got on the scoreboard first in the 6^th minute. Just as in the game before, the strategy the Spiders planned to use was kicking for territory and set pieces to secure possession. This strategy paid off for them early on when the Tigers gave away a penalty when a tackling player did not roll away after the tackle. The Richmond fly-half kicked to touch just outside the Tigers' 22m and the Spiders set up their lineout. They took the ball cleanly and set a maul; initially no Tigers contested the maul, which means there is no offside line and the maul is not formed, but one of them went in eventually. The players did not commit to stopping the maul and the Spiders drove down to within five meters of the Tigers' goal line before the back of the maul rolled off and set the ruck. Two Richmond players quickly picked up the ball and drove in for the first try. The Richmond kick was good and the Spiders took the early lead, 0-7.

This tactic caught the Tigers more off-guard than anything, but they were quick to adjust and shut down a mauling attack for the rest of the game. It is unfortunate that we gave away a try so easily, when it could have been prevented with more decisive play. The Tigers responded three minutes later. Richmond knocked the kick restart on and the Tigers won their scrum and put the ball in play. Fly-half Ciaran Lewis took the ball back inside, setting a ruck close the Tiger forwards. In the next phase, a Richmond player was penalized for playing the ball on the ground, giving the Tigers a penalty just inside the 22m near the 15m line. The Tigers tried to take the penalty quick, but the referee stopped this to have a word with both captains. The Tigers again set up and got the ball into captain Lawson Omer's hands, who—once again—fended off the first defender and broke two more tackles on his way into the goal in the 10^th minute. Brennan Vaught's kick was good and the score was tied, 7-7.

The teams battled pretty evenly for the next five minutes until center David Miller conceded a penalty for a high tackle on Richmond's fly-half. This is remarkable because this is one of the few high tackles in the tournament not punished with a yellow card (another follows later). It is also worth note because just two minutes later a Spider forward was given a yellow card for kicking at a Hampden-Sydney player in a ruck near the touch line. The Tigers had a penalty and were playing with a man advantage. They worked the ball from inside their own 22m to inside the Richmond 22m with hard running, good, support, and the aid of a free kick on the lineout (for Richmond lifting early) and two more penalties, one at the ruck and one for a high tackle. Immediately off that penalty, Dakota Reinartz passed to Lawson Omer who was tackled around the neck by Richmond's flanker. This time the referee sent the player off with a yellow card. The Tigers now had a two-man advantage. The Tigers worked the ball to the near side of the field and then back to the wide side, where wing Dylan Cate was tackled into touch near the Spider inside five meters of the goal line. Richmond won their lineout but the kick to clearance was partially blocked, then fielded by fullback Brennan Vaught who ran it to the far side of the field. He was tackled but a Richmond player was offside at the ruck, giving the Tigers a penalty five meters out on the 5m line. The pass went to second-row Jonathan Abkemeier, who took the ball into contact and set the ruck. Richmond was called for diving over at the ruck and the Tigers had another penalty. Taking the penalty very quickly this time, the Tigers went wide trough fly-half Ciaran Lewis to center David Miller, who outflanked the defenders and slid in for his first try of the day during the 25^th minute. Brennan Vaught's kick was good, growing the Tiger lead to seven, 14-7.

Hampden-Sydney kept the pressure up after the kick restart, working down inside the Spiders 22m, aided by two Richmond penalties. In the 30^th minute, inside ten meters of Richmond's goal line, the Tigers turned the ball over in a ruck. The Spiders retreated into the try zone before trying to run it out. The Richmond player was tackled under his goal posts about two meters from the goal line, but the Tigers dove over the ruck trying to secure the ball and score a try. Instead, they gave a penalty away and gave Richmond the opportunity to get a clearance kick and their own lineout. They won their line and kicked for territory again, but Brennan Vaught fielded the kick and kicked it back; Vaught was in front of his 22m and the kick went straight into touch, so the lineout should have been to Richmond where Vaught kicked it, but the assistant referee running touch judge on that side thought Vaught was behind his 22m and awarded the lineout to Richmond where it went into touch. This mistake was a lucky break for the Tigers, but they failed to capitalize on it. Richmond won the lineout and kicked into touch on the far side; the Tigers won their lineout but wing Ian Fraser was penalized for leading with his elbow into contact near midfield. The Richmond fly-half's kick failed to find touch, but wing Dylan Cate kicked it back. Two phases later, Richmond kicked again, pinning the Tigers inside their 22m, but giving them the lineout. Hampden-Sydney won the lineout and moved the ball into attack. In the second ruck, David Miller was penalized for not releasing. The Richmond captain took the kick immediately while Hampden-Sydney players were right on him. His strategy, no doubt was to catch the Tiger players offside and secure another penalty. Unfortunately for the Tigers, one of the players knocked the kicked ball back toward a Hampden-Sydney player. The referee considered this a cynical foul and awarded a penalty try in the 36^th minute. At the time I considered this call a bit harsh, but in reviewing the film, I believe it was the right call.  I do not believe our player *intended* to disrupt the kick or taking of the penalty, I believe he just saw the ball in the air and thought he could play it. Since his action materially prevented the other team from using their legal advantage, it is certainly within reason to award a penalty try. With this, the score was even again, 14-14.

The final minutes of the first half and much of the second half played out the way the game described above went. The Tigers were playing a "cleaner" game, as in, fewer penalties, and in general could move the ball up the field through phases of attack. When they made mistakes, however, Richmond was quick to capitalize, which often meant kicking the ball for territorial advantage. On attack, Richmond was good at possession but not stellar in advancing the ball through passing, running, rucking. Instead, they preferred to kick for territory, trusting in their set pieces to do the work. While this strategy had worked significantly better for them in the first meeting, it wasn't doing much to gain them ground against the Hampden-Sydney defense in this match. One reason for this is their temporary two-man disadvantage and the nearly fifteen minutes of the first half playing man-down. However, they similarly failed to crack the Tiger defense in the second half, which they played entirely at even strength. The other reason for their attacking woes was that in the second half the Tigers began to get more traction against their lineouts; two were called not straight and the Tigers won a handful through good timing and execution.

The second half, though reasonably even, was a series of ebbing and flowing. The Tigers kicked to restart the half and kept the Spiders pinned in their own half for the first three minutes, until a Tiger penalty gave the Spiders a clearance kick and lineout. The Spiders then spent the next twelve minutes in the Tiger's half, sometimes advancing inside the 22m only to lose ground. The Spiders' attack ended in the 16^th minute when the Spiders attempted a penalty kick for points from about two meters inside the Tigers' 22m line but near the far 5m line. The kick went out the back, but the referee did not blow a 22m drop immediately. Fullback Brennan Vaught, who had fielded the kick, touched it down and ran it out to take the 22m drop. When he ran out, however, a Richmond player—who had made the identical mistake the day before—tackled Vaught, giving the Tigers a penalty. Ian Fraser's kick failed to find touch, but Richmond committed a penalty at the ruck on the return, giving the Tigers another penalty at midfield. This kick did find touch and the Tigers had a reprieve from playing defense in their own half of the field.

Several minutes later in the 23^rd minute, the Tigers had their first promising scoring opportunity of the half. The Tigers had taken the ball into the Spiders' 22m on a long run by Lawson Omer, but Spencer Parrish was taken into touch on the pick-and-go at the ruck. Richmond won their line but the ensuing kick was charged down and knocked backward into touch, giving Richmond another lineout, this one even deeper in their own territory. Lawson Omer won the lineout from Richmond and tipped it to Will Wilson, who took the ball into contact. On the next phase, Dylan Cate (who was playing scrum-half in relief of Dakota Reinartz) passed to David Miller who took the ball, cutting back on his run and muscling his way into the try zone. The referee, however, called the try held up and awarded a 5m scrum to the Tigers. The Tigers won their scrum, but the ball came out of the back and was passed sloppily to David Miller; a lack of support at the ruck turned the ball over and ended the Tigers' attacking opportunity.

In the 28^th minute the Tiger lineout throw was ruled not straight, giving a scrum to Richmond. Richmond won their scrum but the ball came out the back, forcing the scrum-half to chase it down. Two phases of zero-ground gained forced Richmond to work wider passes and the Hampden-Sydney defense disrupted this, ending with a high, floating pass that the Richmond wing mishandled, causing it to go into touch for a Tiger lineout about ten meters from the Richmond goal line. The Tigers ran a short throw play and set the ruck immediately. Lawson Omer picked the ball out of the ruck and advanced forward, being tackled well short of the goal line; however, the Richmond tackler did not roll away and conceded a penalty to the Tigers. The Tigers podded up for a penalty play and the pass went to second-row Jonathan Abkemeier, who ran the ball in from just over five meters out, being tackled by two Richmond players at the goal line but succeeding in scoring the try in the 32^nd minute. Brennan Vaught's kick was good and the Tigers took the lead again, 21-14.

This lead did not last very long. The kick restart hung in the air long enough for Richmond to make a play on it, and while the ball appeared to have been knocked on by the Richmond player, in the ensuing scramble for the ball, a Tiger player was penalized—justifiably—for playing the ball on the ground. Richmond kicked immediately to touch and had a lineout at the five meter mark. Richmond won their line and set the maul; the Tiger forwards stopped the forward progress of the maul, but Richmond got the ball out to their backs. Their fly-half skipped the inside center, passing to the outside center, who then offloaded to the supporting inside center. The Tiger defenders were just enough out of position to fail to make the tackle before the Richmond back could down the ball. The last try of the day came in the 35^th minute. The kick was good and the game was again tied, 21-21.

The last few minutes were anything but boring. The Tigers kicked off to Richmond, who knocked the ball on, giving the Tigers a scrum. The Tigers won their scrum and worked through nine phases of possession; in the tenth, Lawson Omer picked the ball out of the ruck and drove forward, crossing the try line. Once again, however, the referee did not see a clean downing of the ball and called the try held up, awarding the Tigers a 5m scrum. The Tigers lost the ensuing scrum and the Spiders kicked the ball away and it was fielded by fullback Brennan Vaught, who ran it back, being tackled—arguably—high by the Richmond wing. In the sixth phase, the Tigers worked the ball wide to wing Ian Fraser who was, again, tackled around the neck. The referee gave penalty advantage and when none was found in the next phase, gave the penalty about four meters beyond the 22m and about twenty meters from the touch line. My initial reaction was to take the kick quickly and try to make something happen, but Coach Brammer said we should kick for points. I agreed and signaled to Lawson to kick for points by making the gesture of pointing at the uprights. Lawson misunderstood and thought I was telling him to kick to touch where I was standing. Eventually, Coach Brammer sent the tee onto the field and everyone understood what we meant. Brennan Vaught lined up the kick, taking his time. When he kicked it, it looked great on the way up, then seemed to die in the air a little bit, but it was good. The referee blew the whistle for the successful kick and then again to indicate the end of the match.

This was a pretty big win for the guys. It's always sweet to get a "revenge" win against a team that had beaten you in the regular season. It is even sweeter when doing so means the best finish this team has had in five years. It might be even better when it's a buzzer-beating kick. What I found most satisfying is the way this team won. This game was not as close as the score would let on. Richnond's first and third tries should not have happened, and could have been prevented if our players were as on their toes as they were the rest of the game. Furthermore, we conceded a penalty try when setting up our defense may have been enough to prevent giving the try away. On attack, we had two tries called held up and, while we had one eventually turned into a try, the other only resulted in a delayed penalty kick. I do not say these things to take anything away from Richmond; they're still a quality, well-coached team. I say these things to celebrate the way these players came out and gave their all for eighty minutes.

We finished this season at 5-4, just over .500, which, I suppose, isn't really something to brag about. Last fall's team, however, won just two games, including multiple blow-out losses. Our loss to W&L (the biggest of the season) was a significantly better showing than most of our losses last fall. I regret not doing better for our Seniors: Ian Curley, Ian Fraser, Austin Hardman, Conor McCabe, David Miller, and Dakota Reinartz. One or two games in the regular season going differently means we're a #2 or #3 seed, not facing a play-in at #4, and not playing two matches on Saturday.

All in all, it's hard to be disappointed in our record or our performance. When we started this season, my hope and expectation was to play better rugby than we played in the spring or last fall. We surpassed that goal on opening weekend in the first half against William and Mary. Since then, everything else has been a pure bonus. I admire this team's work ethic: putting in five-days-a-week the entire season. I admire this team's resourcefulness: finding solutions and flexibility when facing a number of season-ending injuries among starters, not to mention the dozens of smaller injuries week in and week out. I admire this team's heart: coming back to take the lead in all but one loss on the season. I admire this team's commitment: it was clearly our best for attendance and they're already asking me about offseason training. We may not win it all next fall, but that's got to be the goal.