Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

from USA Rugby:
Photo credit: Rodrigo Alonso

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Penn State University Women’s Rugby Team ran away with the match against Stanford on Saturday at USA Rugby’s National Guard College Championships, containing the home team’s speed and scoring 39 consecutive points on the reigning champions to walk away with a 46-7 victory and clinching their fifth Championship title in 13 years.

In what has become a true rivalry between these two teams, Penn State marks its second win against Stanford in their last five meetings in the Championship finals at Steuber Rugby Stadium, and secures the biggest margin of victory since Stanford’s 53-6 beating of PSU in 2005.

“The key to our success this year has definitely been our defense,” PSU’s Coach Pete Steinberg said. “We’ve been working with defensive specialist Peter Baggetta and I think you can definitely see the hard work paying off.”

In fact, in the past seven playoff games, Penn State has only allowed three tries; and following Stanford’s one and only try against PSU in the 15th minute of the match, the Penn State Lady Ruggers stifled the typically perilous Cardinal offense.

“Once we were able to shut down their game in the first half, we knew we could wear them down and then get around them,” Steinberg added. “We have learned how to play more physically during our tours to South Europe and I think we were able to do just that. We also had a bit more depth in our roster, providing we were able to rest a few players yesterday.”

Penn State proved that they had a lot of gas left in their tank and as Stanford found itself down players in the second half due to yellow cards, PSU capitalized and scored five tries in the last 25 minutes of the match.

“The balance of power lied with them,” Stanford’s Coach Jonathan Griffin said. “Penn State just plain out-played us today. We showed a lot of character, but they were the better team.”

For more information on the USA Rugby National Championships, visit www.usarugby.org/goto/usar_championships or contact Sara John at sjohn@usarugby.org or by phone at 719-310-2606.


USA Rugby National Guard Collegiate Championships Results - Women’s Division I

Friday, May 1, 2009
1:00 pm: Stanford 31, Brown 12
3:00 pm: Penn State 33, Navy 0

Saturday, May 2, 2009
5:00 pm: Division 1 Women’s Championship-- Penn State 46, Stanford 7

Go here for full results leading up to Round of 16 (or Sweets 16s).