PORTSMOUTH, R.I. – The sport of rugby brings out the beast in everyone. The Beast of the East tournament, held each every spring, elevates that claim to another level of beast-dom. Seventy-nine teams congregated for the onslaught of matches that test any rugger’s mettle.
While the UMF men’s team won the tournament in Division III last year, the squad had lost eight of 15 starters heading into this season. Head Coach Tony Solis anticipated a challenge for his young team.
“We knew we were taking a very inexperienced squad down to defend the D3 title,” Solis said. “It would be a tall ask of our young guys to hang with some of the bigger and more experienced teams down there.”
The men’s team began their Saturday action by facing Holy Cross. Solis wasn’t wrong with their size. The outweighed Beavers showed fantastic pace and grit in attacking Holy Cross at every chance and moved the ball with crisp passing that Holy Cross wasn’t ready for. Their offense proved to be too much for the talented Holy Cross side, earning the Beavers a 24-10 victory in their first match.
The second game for the men’s team proved more difficult. University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth displayed a speed on the edges and superb kicking in windy conditions that would be difficult for any team to defend. The young Beavers fought at every chance, giving UMD all they could handle, but ended up dropping the match 17-0.
Finishing with a 1-1 record on day one of Beast awarded the Beavers with a Sunday match against Salem State, playing in a path for the plate. The men’s team scrimmaged Salem St. this spring already, ending with a disappointing loss to the hard-running Vikings. With the bad tasting bark from their previous match with Salem St. still fresh, the Beavers had a chance to exorcise their recent demons.
UMF forced physicality on the Vikings at every turn. With big hits and brilliant ball movement the Beavers chomped through Salem St. The Vikings tried to counter but found their offense run stagnant against UMF’s fierce defense line. The Beavers got their revenge in the end with a 20-7 victory
The UMF men’s rugby youth movement found their next task daunting. Playing in the plate championship against Wentworth Institute of Technology proved to be a learning experience for the Beavers. WIT featured seasoned talent that displayed a high level of offense that proved to be too much for UMF. WIT claimed the plate championship over UMF 24-0, but the result showed coach Solis great promise despite the result.
“Overall I think we played really hard,” Solid beamed. “Our team effort was high all weekend long, which is great because effort is something that’s quite difficult to teach. Our effort was highlighted by the number of different guys on the weekend who put their hands up and made huge plays for us when we needed them.”
The UMF men’s team will look to continue their rugby rampage at the annual Maine Cup for state bragging rights in Portland at Deering High School on Saturday, April 29.
