Match Report: MIT at Mad River
October 22, 2006

Final Score:

MIT- 25 Mad River-19

Well, I wasn't going to write this until later in the week, but hopefully you'll see why. As most of you are probably aware, the omens weren't good earlier in the week with us finally managing to have a roster of only 18 players (with injuries - but more about that later) on the long road trip to Vermont. It didn't look much better as I hiked on the Saturday in 30F weather and 3" of snow. Despite the beautiful start to the day on Sunday, it still looked gloomy as four players failed to make their transport in Boston (MITstudents huh?!). So starting roster was 14 players. However, no one wanted to ask the opposition for spare players in case that meant a forfeit - finally a good sign! With players out of position and a man down it still looked like we might have problems.....

To the game. MIT started as usual very flat and allowed our now traditional 2 tries (converted). We _must_ do something about this. The first 20 mins or so stayed at this point, with captain Cody smartly trying to gain penalty points. Mad River looked like they were going to be able to use their size and excellent short rucking work to force the gap wider, but they were sadly let down by their ball retention and high work rate of the MIT forwards continuously caused them problems. Things appeared to be changing when at about 25 mins first Anthony, then Matt crossed the line to almost level the score (one conversion), with Wiggie then following close after. At this point the heavier, less fit Mad River team were begining to look a bit tired and MIT began to use high speed rucking to build a platform for our backs to attack from. Unfortunately Mad River sneaked a try through just before half time, with MIT counterstriking with a penalty as the whistle blew. Score 19-22 to MIT - the second half was clearly going to be close. Mad River came out with much more passion in the second half, clearly playing to their strengths of a big heavy pack and strong centers. Despite this advantage they could not find a way past MIT. MIT's 7-man pack held, and on occasion drove the much heavier Mad River team, and the MIT backs tackled the snot (technical term) out of backs and forwards alike. One penalty for MIT at about 60 mins resulted in a nail biting one point difference as Mad River camped at MITs 5m for 10 mins, but they failed to capatilize and this close game ended with a deserved win for MIT.

Final score Mad River 19 (3 tries, 2 conversions) MIT 25 (3 tries, 2 conversions, 2 penalties).

Gents, its a game like this, when guys show up and drive 3 hours knowing that its going to be cold, that reminds me why I try to do this job! Thanks to everyone who showed up (or tried to!), the entire team deserved this game, winning on the basics and team spirit. Particular mention though to Dilan and Ernesto for both being clearly injured and still play well.

Now, how about HBS?!?!?