Individual Game Recaps Davis Lackluster in Tie vs Cardinal 3/8/2008 Saturday March 8, 2008 UC Davis 19 Stanford 19 The Davis Men’s Rugby team played a disappointing game Saturday and tied the lower ranked Cardinal. Inconsistency has been a problem for this talented Davis team, and this was certainly the case as Stanford came to Davis’s field and pushed the Aggies around for much of the match. Injuries caught the Aggies badly this week, as backs Christian Buck, Tarick Abu-Aly, and captain Julien Howsepian were all out of action. Continuity looked off in the backline, and Davis came away with a disappointing result. The Stanford forwards came ready to play, and wanted to make the game a tough, slow struggle. The Cardinal took advantage of a botched kick return by the Aggie backs to score the first try of the game. Things went from bad to worse for the Aggies. Their first touch on the ball after the try was a pass that was intercepted by a Stanford back and returned 50 meters for the try. The Aggies have been in tough spots all year and were not going to quit. Yet the usual brilliance that helped correct mistakes was missing this game, and the Aggies at times were certainly missing the leadership of their captain. Davis was able to get two tries before half-time, one from inside center Tom Warner and one from wing Tyler Harrisson. When the half-time whistle blew the Aggies were down 19-12, not out of the match but definitely not the best team on the field during the first 40. The second half, unfortunately for Davis, was not much different than the first. Stanford kept the ball in their forwards, and the Aggies were too slow getting the ball out wide. Finally, with about ten minutes left in the half the Aggies showed a glimpse of their usual exciting style of play. Fullback Danny Nolan took the ball from a scrum and darted up the field before off-loading to wing Ryan Gamba, who was in support. Gamba passed the ball outside to center Jake Mayers, who quickly dished to Harrisson, who is impossible to stop in the open field and ran in for the try. The game ended with a score of 19-19 after some questionable officiating at the end and a lot of words exchanged between the two teams. Overall this was a game the Aggies would like to forget and move on from. UC Davis (1-15) Colin Clark, Jacob Litinesky, Gus Brown, Levi Ryan, Reid Robinson, Sam Shackleford, Johnny Volan, Mark Miller, John Parshall, Milt Williams, Tyler Harrisson, Tom Warner, Jake Mayers, Danny Nolan, Ryan Gamba TRIES: Warner, Harrison (2) CONVERSIONS: Harrison (2) UC Davis Men's Rugby Club 232 Activities and Recreation Center University of California, Davis 95616 Copyright 2006-2007, Julien Howsepian