So our news is no longer written by BLAM, but we have kept the blog name in his honor. Our first post this year is from Joe Decker.
Last Spring when the Carleton Men’s Rugby Club matched up against Luther at The All Saint’s Tournament, the referee gave The Oaks a handicap, because he claimed “Luther is just too big.” And they were quite large, so large that Carleton’s biggest player was about the size of Luther’s smallest. The ensuing game was painful physically and emotionally. Luther’s size left a few Carleton’s players injured, one having a broken nose, and the fact that Luther was still humiliating Carleton while the referee gave The Oaks some lead way, made the loss even more degrading. No one can remember the final score, but as you might imagine it was a lot to a little. However, that was in the Spring.
Last Sunday the Carleton Men’s Rugby Team faced up against Luther again on Carleton’s rugby pitch. Having graduated eight of the team’s best players and with only one week of practice under their belts, The Oaks were a little tentative about playing the team that not only beat them in the Spring, but beat all their opponents in The All Saint’s Tournament, taking home the trophy. The fear of being embarrassed once more even prevented The Oaks from advertising the match to the extent of which they do normally.
Despite their dreary predictions, the day was beautiful, and a few spectators had come out to support the maize and blue. About ten minutes after the whistle blew for kick off, those spectators witnessed what The Oaks deemed impossible: their first try against Luther, scored by Eddie Bearnot on a crash play. By half time, three more tries were added on top of that by Joe Decker, Galen Kast, and Josh Dripps while Luther remained scoreless thanks to the tremendous efforts of The Oaks’ forwards, spear-headed by Ebuka Amaefuna who single handedly won rucks against Luther’s giant players, while Josh Dripps and Warsame Galaydh performed flawless line-outs, turning the ball over to The Oaks nearly every time.
Although Luther scored straight away in the beginning of the second half, The Oaks held them for the remainder of the game. Huge efforts by forwards Danny Ulman, Josh Kirschenbaum, and Peter Toongsub made it impossible for Luther to break the Carleton line, while Josh Dripps and Eddie Bearnot added more Carleton tries to the board along with the conversion kicks by Ben Walker. When the match ended Luther put up 5 points to Carleton’s 34.
Needless to say The Oaks were proud and will remember that day of rugby forever. Saying that, they’d love some campus support for their next match against Macalaster this Sunday. There’s no better study break than kicking back and watching a rugby match, especially one like that against Luther.
