HAMMER TIMES VOL 11 ISSUE 5

REGULAR SEASON ENDS UNDEFEATED

In the last regular season game of the year, Rochester traveled to Geneva, NY to play against William Smith College. The cold temperatures and muddy field didn't stop the Hammers from coming out to play a good game of rugby. In the first half of the game, Rochester had technically clean rucks and scrums, scoring a couple tries within the first few minutes of the game. As the clock went on however, the weather and lack of focus got the best of us, and the team began to play sloppily and let in a try at the beginning of the second half. The final score of the game was 27-5. The game seeded Rochester first in their conference, giving them a bye week for the last weekend of October, and automatically advancing them to the semifinal game versus Cortland this coming Saturday. If the team wins, they will be playing in the finals this coming Sunday against the winner of the Bonaventure-Colgate semifinal game. Following conference finals, the Hammers are aiming to advance to regionals, taking place in either Ohio or New Hampshire, depending on their seed.

PRACTICE INTENSIFIES

Over the past few weeks, the team has been having increasingly more difficult practices, pushing the players to their limits. We are now focusing more on the technical and strategic aspect of rugby more than ever before. However, this doesn't mean we don't have time for fun! We have been implementing relay races at the end of practice to exemplify the final push needed in the last few minutes of the game - though the games don't normally require pencil rolling in the mud for ten yards. We even had a costumed practice on Halloween!

SWAG TABLING

Next week, the team will be tabling in Wilson Commons to raise money for the team as well as a portion of the proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald House. It will run Monday-Friday, from 10AM to 11PM. The table will consist of a 50/50 raffle, swag merchandise sales, and a canned food drive. If you are on campus, come check us out and take up the chance to rep the best rugby team around!