Hampden-Sydney, VA  The Hampden-Sydney Rugby team fell to the University of Richmond Spiders 19-10 in their home opener on Saturday at Johnny Ellis Field. Jake Brown opened the scoring for the Tigers with a try in the first five minutes. The conversion failed, giving H-SC a 5-0 lead. Richmond tied the match with a try in the twenty-seventh minute of the first half and went ahead 7-5 with a successful conversion. In the second half Richmond scored in back to back tries in a rush and added one successful conversion to go up 19-5. With five minutes to play Thomas Nichols scored a try for the Tigers and the conversion was unsuccessful bringing the score to 19-10. The Tigers continued to mount a comeback but were unable to score.

The Spiders represented the second quality opponent in as many weeks for the Tigers. Richmond, along with VMI and Christendom, represented the Cardinal Collegiate Rugby conference this past spring in the National Collegiate Rugby 7's national tournament in New Orleans. Christendom went on to finish second in the nation in the tournament. As is the tradition between Richmond and Hampden-Sydney, both teams gathered after the match for a meal and a celebration of the sport of rugby. 

Adding the tie with Washington and Lee and the first-match forfeit by Longwood, the ruggers record now stands at 1-1-1 going into fall break. Up next for the Tigers will be an away match at Emory and Henry on October 15th at 1 pm.