Faded Red Rugby

Alumni Weekend 2011 Recap – Another Z-Side Victory

Breaking with past tradition, this year’s rugby alumni weekend coincided with Cornell’s regular homecoming weekend. It was a bold move to go head-to-head with the football team, but we still managed to gather a sizable crowd for a beautiful day of rugby. In all, three games were played, featuring the current Cornell A and B-Sides, the Johnson School squad and the always formidable Cornell Rugby Alumni Z-Side. In total, nearly 150 players, alumni, friends and family took part in alumni weekend, by far the largest turnout to date.

In the game of the day, the Cornell A-Side took on the old men of the Z-Side. It was a fierce match, but ultimately, the Z-Side would not be denied. After a slow (possibly hangover-induced) start, the Z-Side was down by 20. Like 2010, the A-Side took advantage of disorganized Z-Side back play to attack the wings and charged ahead with several long trys. With the game threatening to spiral out of control, the Z-Side resorted to it’s larger (fatter?) pack to slow the game down and grind down the A-Side defense. The strategy worked, and a string of trys quickly followed. By the end of the day, the Z-Side had secured a 55-27 victory, eerily similar to the 54-25 final in 2010.

The festivities continued beyond the field of play, as the Cornell A, B and Z-Sides all retreated to a buffet dinner and drink-up. Man of the match awards were handed out, donations were collected and the entire group received a stirring and heartfelt pep-talk from Cornell Rugby’s new head coach. For a taste of the weekend activities, please enjoy the match photos below:

Z-Side Post-Game Photos

Game Faces

Scrumming Down

The Class of ’86

Post-Game Handshake

Alumni Weekend 2010 Recap – After Slow Start, Alumni Z-Side Takes Care of Business

After spending a little too much time at the Palms on Friday night, the alumni Z-side came out flat against a young, but game, Cornell A-side. The result was a fast and devastating attack by the A-side backs and a 20-0 lead for the youngsters after only 20 minutes. The Z-side eventually got onto the board in the 25th minute, making the score 20-5. However, the response from the A-side was quick, and in the 27th minute, they scored again to bring the match to 25-5. With 53 minutes of rugby still left to play, the Z-side looked to be in for a long and painful afternoon.

At this point, the pace of the action was slowed as the Z-side focused on ball control, using a series of rolling mauls and forward crashes to stop the momentum of the A-side. The new strategy worked brilliantly, and with 17 seconds left in the first half, the Z-side scored a try and conversion to bring the score to 25-12. Going into halftime, the Z-side was now in striking distance for a comeback and the A-Side attack was now nonexistent.

In the second half, the match turned in favor of the Z-side in stunning fashion. Led by three trys from JoJo Bucci (’05) and strong runs from eventual man-of-the-match Tim Powers (’05), the alumni scored 42 unanswered points – leaving no doubt who was actually in charge. Those scoring trys included Avi Giladi (’04), Alex Cwirko-Godycki (’04), Eamon Molloy (’05), and Randall “The Goose” Luce (‘??). The Z-side was also boosted by strong kicking from Dan O’Connor (’05) and a much needed 2nd half appearance from John Friedman (’07) who flew in from Singapore to shore up the back line.

After the game, both the A-Side and Z-Side enjoyed a healthy chicken wing lunch provided by game sponsor Wings Over Ithaca. As they ate, the second game of the day kicked off. In game two, the alumni Double Z-side took down the Cornell B-Side by a score of 17-5. The event then wrapped-up with a raucous banquet at the “always classy” Chinese Buffet.