The Trail

Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Paul Wicks The rugby team looks to keep running away with victories.

The Rugby team won their first game of the semester on Saturday, Feb. 25th on the road against Reed 23-3. This now puts the rugby team at 1-2 for the semester.

The game did end short due to an injury of a Reed player, who went to the hospital. This was due to a scrummage that was won by the UPS team, and a Reed player was cleated in the neck unintentionally. Both teams were physically matched evenly, however the Loggers played shorthanded this game, missing key players junior Dana Wikstrom, junior Lloyd Odden and senior Ian Schmucker.

Senior Andrew Chow scored 12 points, with a try and by going three for four in field goal kicks. But sophomore Jack Baber was the star of the show, scoring 3 tries in the game. He was voted Man of the Match against Reed. The next game for UPS will be on Mar. 3 against Willamette.

The season appears to be picking up after the team's first win of the semester. Junior Brandon Henry gave the team a lift, playing and starting in his first rugby game. Currently a varsity soccer player for UPS, Henry was encouraged by friends to come out and play. Bumping heads with another player in the first two minutes, Henry battled through a swollen eye to play the rest of the game. Teammates were impressed with his performance, given it was his first game and he was not too familiar with the rules quite yet.

"Brandon had some great tackles and runs. I was pretty impressed because he's inexperienced and still doesn't really know the rules but does a lot of right things on instinct," Wikstrom said.

Henry's experience on the UPS soccer team helped him transition well to play cohesively in another team sport. Cantolini and Henry's teammates have high hopes for him. It will be interesting to see what Henry can do with more experience.

The rugby team has many home games this semester. There has been a lot of fan support in the past few games and the team still encourages individuals to come, whether they have friends that play or if they like to watch a competitive club sport. It's remarkable that the rugby club was sustained all these years as an organized club for UPS, and it's because people still care about this sport.

• Peter Yi counts as three fans.

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