MIT weather the storm to defeat Old Gold

Teams:MIT vs Old Gold FRC
Played:09/14/2019 @ MIT
Score: 18 - 10 MIT win

On September 14, 2019, MIT traveled to Moakley Field in Boston, MA to take on Old Gold RFC. The 2 teams have had many close battles over the years and MIT knew that this week would be no different. The weather forecast called for clouds but no rain, so of course it began raining as soon as kickoff rolled around.

The first fifteen minutes consisted of the teams exchanging knock-ons and hard hits. MIT won their own scrum inside Old Gold territory. The backs executed a designed play that put fly-half James into space. James fed winger Paul, who took the ball into contact. MIT then worked the ball back to the opposite side of the field from Inigo to JLB to Nick. Inigo then passed to winger Eric, who stiff-armed his opposition and scored in the corner. The conversion was missed. Brian nearly added another score with a long run but was tackled short of the line. Old Gold responded 5 minutes later. After a MIT penalty, MIT were slow to retreat ten yards and Old Gold tapped and went through a disorganized MIT defense line for the try. MIT responded with a try of their own. With a scrum in center field, scrum-half Inigo drew in his defender and put fullback Alex S. into space. Alex did the rest of the work and touched down to make it 10-7 in MIT’s favor.

At half time, coach Evan and coach Aaron, AKA the boy with the dragon tattoo, praised the defense, which was much improved from the week before. Old Gold tied up the game early in the second half after a penalty kick. The game was back and forth until John G. kicked a penalty for MIT to put them ahead 13-10. Old Gold were content with kicking off set pieces to try to challenge MIT’s back 3 in the wind and rain. Fullback Alex S. did an excellent job of retrieving the kicks and working with the wingers on counter-attacking. On one sequence Alex fielded a kick, counter-kicked, chased down the kick, and tackled the Old Gold receiver out of bounds. Winger Paul had the premature celebration of the game, as he chased down and dove on a kick that he thought was a try, only to be informed that he had counted his chickens 5 meters shy of where they were to hatch. Flanker Joel made his first start since ACL surgery and had an excellent game. He was a big help organizing the defense and tackled anything that moved. The second half was tight, with MIT frequently penalized for dissenting with authority, leading to their captain abdicating his position mid battle. With 5 minutes remaining, Old Gold had the ball inside their own 5 meter line. Center-turned-8-man John G. poached the ball from the breakdown and slung it out to scrumhalf Inigo, who fired it out to inside center JLB who ran over for the try. The sun came out in the last minute of the game as MIT earned their first victory of the season.

Men of the match: Nick (forwards) Inigo (backs)

Next match: MIT host Providence RFC on Saturday, September 21, 2019 at Briggs Field. Kickoff is at 1:30 PM