The Bulldawgs traveled to Greenwood, SC on Friday, Sept 4 to face the Lander Bearcats for their season opener. The Bearcats recently moved up from D1AA to D1, and have a mix of foreign-born players from top-tier rugby nations, in-state rugby players, and players who are new to the game. It was clear that they were well-trained, as they executed the out-the-back attack so common at the professional level today. But unfortunately for them, that wasn’t enough to defeat the Dawgs.
Simply put, UGA’s strategy and style of play was too much for Lander to handle. While the match got chippy at times, our boys stayed composed and focused on executing our gameplan, and were rewarded with a solid 41-22 victory.
Our forwards man of the match was 8 man, Zach “Spoon” Dabney. In addition to scoring two tries and making many tackles, Spoon created a try with a stellar counter ruck that won us possession and resulted in an immediate try. The backs man of the match was Nico Marchini, who was a force to be reckoned with on both sides of the ball, scoring a try AND taking it upon himself to defend the Bearcats’ strongest attacker.
Huge kudos also go to our B-side, who closed out the evening with a 13-0 shutout victory in an abbreviated 3rd period. B-side Man of the Match Munil Vaishnav and newcomer George “Gus” Zerzsenyi both scored tries, and Joey McLane flexed his skills by casually slotting a drop goal off of a Lander goal-line dropout.
The match replay is available on our YouTube Channel. Note: the lights at Lander weren’t great, so it starts getting a bit dark at the end of the A-side match.
NEXT MATCH: The Dawgs get a well-earned week off before playing host to Tennessee Tech on Sept 19th. This clash doubles as Parents/Family weekend, featuring a post-match cookout over at the Lake Herrick pavilion for parents, family members, and significant others. We fully plan on extending our winning streak and want to pack the sidelines for this home fixture — hope to see everyone there making noise!
Match Photographer: Onyx Mills
