Rugby: Beating 2 enemies at once

But what an exhibition it was. The men’s club rugby team won all three of its games without allowing a single point en route to a New Jersey state title, while the women fell to No. 3 Brown to finish in second place for the Ivy League championship.

Men’s coach Richard Lopacki was hesitant to highlight any contradiction between a fundraiser for medical research and a contact sport tournament, citing rugby’s culture of collegiality. But when asked how his team compiled its dominating record, beating Rowan, Montclair and William Paterson by a combined score of 87-0, he was quick to praise the physicality of his defense.

“For us, defense isn’t just about defending; it’s also about being very aggressive when the other team has the ball,” Lopacki said. “Every single contact is an opportunity to steal the opposition’s ball, so I tend to think of it as very much an area of combat ... Everything we’ve been doing has been to be much more aggressive about challenging for possession at all times.”

The men’s aggression was evident on offense as well. Strong passing and quick wing play allowed the Tigers to stretch the defense. At times they turned the corner and, as freshman wing Colin Sylvester said, “footraced to the try line.” When they were unable to employ this strategy, the Tigers used the size and athleticism of junior tight head prop and former football offensive guard Dustin Davidson to pound the ball down the middle.

“It’s such a massive difference from my days as a football player, because if my football coaches had learned that there was a play to get me the ball, they would have had a heart attack,” Davidson said. “It executed just how we planned it ... We really gained a lot of yards — or meters, I suppose — running those plays.”

Both the team and visiting alumni were impressed by the men’s execution, and their dominance was evident on the score sheet. The women’s team, meanwhile, kicked off its weekend slate on Saturday with a similarly emphatic 28-0 win over Cornell.

The Tigers pulled out a dramatic victory in their second game against Dartmouth when senior fullback and captain Angela Yue recorded the winning score as time expired in the 17-15 decision. The win set Princeton up against the Bears for the Ivy League title on Sunday.

“I don’t think we played our best [against Brown],” Yue said. “We definitely tried our best. It was very difficult because we had so many injuries ... And I think it’s always tough when you play two-day tournaments, because there will be injuries on the first day, or you’ll be sore, or things just won’t be working properly the next day.”

Despite the 58-0 loss, both the men’s and women’s teams said they are feeling good about their performances heading into the home stretch of their seasons. And for both squads, it was a chance to play for a cause that has affected the Princeton rugby community.

Stuart Rickerson ’71, rugby alumnus and the namesake of the Rickerson tournament, is a pancreatic cancer survivor. Tournament director and former women’s team captain Elaine Bigelow ’10 lost her father to the disease her senior year of high school.

According to Bigelow, the weekend raised more than $20,000 from T-shirt sales, donations and the club’s online portal. The funds will be donated to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

“We feel it’s the right thing to do because of the importance of bringing awareness to the whole disease,” Lopacki said. “But it’s also really good for us as part of the University community to actually put something back into a community that has a real need for it.”