Off-Season

In my last blog i mentioned working out and getting ready for next season. I have a website that you guys can look at that will show you the type of workouts i will be initiating in during the winter. here ya go..............
http://www.netfit.co.uk/rugby-cornwallwen.htm
Other notes,
Our team recently received our trophy for our championship win over Umass Lowell. Our rugby formal was a success with no problems and a safe outcome. There will be a very good amount of our senior players leaving this semester and i just wanted to give a shout out to those leaving. You guys were great and we'll all miss you. If you want to look at some of the gear we use in the game of rugby you can browse the different products at the website i use to buy all of my rugby gear. Here you go......
http://www.worldrugbyshop.com/?gclid=CK74lKXU3aUCFaRn5Qod3FKi2g
You can look at our overall standings of this past season by going to this website......
http://nerfu.org/
Click college men, then D3 and we are in the Western division

Info

Now that the fall season is over it is time to relax and recover from all the hard hitting that occured over the course of the season. I will be starting my workout routine that is specifically for my position as a back. This workout mainly consists of cardio and lower body strength. Mainly running on a treadmill and doing various leg workouts such as squats, deadlifts, hardened sprints and so on. Time to get ready for the Spring season which will consist mainly of tournaments which equals at LEAST two games over the course of 48 hours. Endurance is key in these type of tournaments. For those of you who would still like to know how to play rugby and the various rules here you go....
http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Rugby

Plymouth State D3 Plate Champions

We traveled to University of Mass, Lowell this past weekend and played Stonehill College on Saturday beating them by two tries. We came out fighting and scored two quick tries and kept them in the dust the rest of the game. After playing i realized how cheap Stonehill College plays. They would punch and headlock in the rucks and left one of our best forwards with a large laceration on the left eye which needed stiches. Our second game on Sunday was for the championship and we played Umass Lowell. They were a very good team and used there backs size to their advantage as they were much larger than Mike Armstrong and I. We came out swinging as we did against Stonehill scoring two quick tries but the game got much harder after that as we were only able to score one try after that. Umass came within 5 points of us but a penalty kick by Armstrong sealed the deal as we won 22-14.

2 More Games

This past weekend we traveled to Colby College in Maine and wreaked havoc on them winning 27-10. I started at outside center and our inside center Mike Armstrong scored two tries who is the player of the game. The forwards scored the other two tries. It was my first start at outside center and i played well, making all my tackles while not messing up any passes. Our next game is a weekend travel where we play Saturday and if we win we play Sunday. If we win sunday, we will be the Div III Plate Champions two years in a row.

5-2

Unfortunately, we lost our chance at the Cup. Keene beat us by one point this past weekend. We played hard, the backs really took this one as the forwards made some key mistakes that helped us lose this one. We will not be fighting for the plate instead of the cup. The cup is the championship for the lower seed teams. We won the cup last year and hope to do it again this year.

5-1

Easy game last weekend against WPI, what we were expecting towards our dominance over their team. The final score was 43-5. The top scorer was Kevin Cloutier with 2 tries. I feel like we could have beat them by more but we seemed to play down to their level, which we have done in the past. Our big game is next weekend  against Keene State College, which is a win or go home type of game. We have the potential to win big this weekend. It seems like it will be a backs game as Keene States backs are their weakness. If we were to lose this weekend we will be out of national playoffs and will be places in the plate championship game. We made the plate last year and want to go much farther this year. I would rather lose in the national playoffs then make the plate championship.

4-1

Unfortunately, we lost this past weekend against Babson College. It was a hard fought battle but our forwards were overpowered and the kicker for Babson did a very good job kicking the ball into our 22 meter line where they pounded the ball in numerous times when they had the wind to their back. Our backs got it together in the second half scoring a couple of time but by that time it was too late. Our defense let up 37 points while we only scored 17. Our next game should be a gimme win against WPI as they are the worst team in the league. Our next game, however is a must win against Keene State College if we want to make playoffs and eventually make Nationals.

4-0!

So this past weekend we played Amherst College and didnt play as well as i had hoped. We won but we came out of the gates down 7-0 due to a mall down near our own 22 that we were not ready for. We held them from there on out not letting up anymore tries as we tied the game up going into the half. Out of the half we came out dominant scoring on them six more times to finalize the score at 49-7. Our forwards did most of the work on the tries from a combination of pick and go plays and hard hitting rugby. I played for about 20 minutes as i came halfway through the second half. I played well besides a knocked ball on the opposite side of the field. Now were 4-0 and will be playing our hardest game of the season this upcoming saturday.

3-0

We won our third straight against Castleton which we went into sort of knowing we would win due to past years outcomes. We won 40-12, and played a hard fought game. Plymouth State Rugby is sort of known to be scrappy, but this game we played strong headed not giving up many fouls dealing with illegal moves.

2-0

My rugby team has played 2 games and so far we are undefeated. Our style of game play is much different then last year due to the fact that our team is a strong backed team as last year our forwards did most of the scoring. I did get a very good amount of playing time, i have scored my first try in the game against Williams College where we won 41-14. My scoring try was on an offload by our eight man Kevin to give me space around near the sideline where i was able to evade a tackle and score. We play Castleton State this weekend, which in the past they were never a strong contender so i am expecting a win but i do not want to jinx myself. Wish us luck!!

Introduction

So to introduce myself, my name is Connor Sousa and i play for the Norsemen Rugby Football Club at Plymouth State University and it is my second year playing for this college club. We are a great team as we won the plate championship last year and missed the Division III championship by one game. We look like a Div III championship team this year all we need to do is practice hard and take it seriously and we will come home with the Div III trophy. I will be constantly updating this blog so you know the up to date information about our team.