Ruggers gain experience at Invitational

The Penn State men's rugby team traveled to Pittsburgh Saturday with two goals in mind -- getting younger players some experience and beating Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

The Ruggers will have to settle for one out of two.

In the Pittsburgh Invitational Tournament, the younger Lions got much-needed experience as the B side won the second division championship against Slippery Rock with a final score of 12-7. The A side, however, was defeated by IUP 14-13.

"We played better," coach Terry Ryland said. "But IUP wanted the game more."

As for the A side, it reached its goal of facing IUP by rolling through its first two games against Pittsburgh and Oswego. The Ruggers beat Pittsburgh with a 52-0 victory and were equally successful against Oswego in a 51-0 win.

"Overall, the teams besides IUP and Penn State had a second division rating," Ryland said. "We as a better team have an obligation to play local teams like Pitt so they can evaluate their programs."

After the Ruggers gave Pittsburgh and Oswego a chance to evaluate their programs, IUP was waiting for a championship game against a team it had never beaten. Going into the game, Penn State lost hooker Keith Fitzpatrick and flanker Joe Pullara, two integral players, to injuries. Ryland said Pullara's loss was most damaging because he is the emotional leader of the team.

IUP took advantage of a weary Penn State squad, jumping out to an early 5-0 lead. But Penn State fought back to cut IUP's lead to one with a 6-5 score at halftime. In the second half, Penn State took a 13-11 lead with three minutes remaining, but after a penalty was called against Penn State during a maul, IUP capitalized with the eventual game-winning kick and brought the final score to 14-13.

Afterwards, Ryland said he was proud of his team's comeback.

"The young kids picked it up," Ryland said. "Being down with eight minutes to go, the kids showed a lot to take a lead."

He said he was especially pleased with the play of eight man Ian Scrymgeour and fly half Bill Eckhardt. Scrymgeour came back this weekend from a separated shoulder and Eckhardt, who was moved three weeks ago to fly half, proved to Ryland he was up to the task.

"It's a big change, but I feel OK," Eckhardt said. "There's a lot more pressure on the A squad. It's much faster and there's a change in intensity."

Eckhardt said he was impressed with Scrymgeour's performance throughout the tournament after coming back from the injury. He added Scrymgeour was the leader in the last game because he made the team want to win.

Scrymgeour said the team was down after the loss, but the game helped Penn State realize where improvements need to be made.

"We just couldn't execute," Scrymgeour said. "The loss showed us how we're not used to playing at a high intensity all of the time."