This spring tournament was held at UMASS Amherst. Despite the beautiful sunny conditions, the fields were horrendously muddy, both having standing water. All four teams played two 60 minute games.
Providence College 15 - 5 Amherst College
This game got off to a bad start when Providence College wore black and Amherst College wore black jerseys with a dark purple stripe. After about 5 minutes in the mud, both teams were wearing black. I did my best to manage the colors but it really made things difficult. Fortunately it was clear who was the better side so it did not effect e result.
Refereeing wise the most hotly contested point of the weekend was "Bridging" and it's materiality. There were a couple of instances in the first game were I had the coach yelling from teh sideline about it, where I had determined it immaterial. It was causing confusion with players.
Providence College 27 - 12 UMASS Amherst
This game was on the better field (though still with standing water) and teams with different color jerseys: Red/White and Black.
An excerpt from the UMASS Amherst rugby website:
"The next match against a Providence College, a match fit team. They had toured on Spring Break to Bermuda for three matches, added a match vs BU, which they won 32-0 and and defeated Amherst College earlier in the day 15-5. This too, was an exciting match, though PC showed the ability to maintain possession as well as forcing turnover ball. We fell to 0-17 at the half. We fought back and never lost our sense of determination. We began to get our act together and matched them at every turn. Tries were scored by Nick Petmezis and Connor Carroll in a 12-12 second half battle. We lost too much of our own possession, where PC showed great concentration on ball retention and the ability to strip ball from our hands. The 17 point 1st half hole we dug, proved to be too great and we lost 12-27."
The most important take away from this game was the UMASS coach's comments about bridging. He was adamant that I had penalized some immaterial bridging or "killing" the ball. The coach, however, makes some good points...his side lost this game at the tackle, they were simply not aggressive enough. Did I allow Providence too much leway and credit at the tackle/breakdown? I don't think so.
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