Maggie Casey and Paul Day
A group of burly, gray-haired middle-aged men showed the men's club rugby team the value of experience Saturday at King Field.
In a back-and-forth match that featured the youthful breakaway speed of Marquette and the seasoned grittiness of the social squad of Chicago Westside Condors (nicknamed the Frogs), the veterans pulled away to win, 32-22.
"Our strengths were definitely our speed and our youth because we were playing a bunch of older guys," junior forward Andrew Palmer said. "The scrums were the hardest scrums we had all year. Those guys really stuck us."
Although the Marquette players occasionally chuckled at the sight of their opponents tripping over their aged feet, the Frogs' ability in the scrums was no laughing matter. Most of the Frogs' tries came from methodically-organized mauls and scrum drives that Marquette found difficult to break down.
"We were playing guys with 30 years of experience, a lot of foreigners," junior flyhalf Patrick Meier said. "Overall we played them really hard, but in the last 10 minutes we kinda lost our intensity."
Marquette surrendered an early try, but senior back Steve Jandernoa out-ran the Frogs' defense soon after to tie the game at five. Then, Meier displayed clever improvisation on the fly when he executed a rarely-used "grubber kick" in which he kicked the ball a short distance forward on the ground to sophomore back Kyle Dillon. Dillon promptly returned it to Meier, who then weaved past the Frogs' defense for a 10-5 lead.
The Frogs continued the fluidity of the match by taking a 12-10 advantage with another strong maul to Marquette's tryzone. The Golden Eagles responded quickly when sophomore back Tom Collins burst through the middle of the field on a long solo run and took back the lead, 17-12. After a sustained period of pressure, the Frogs tied the match entering halftime.
The Frogs used their strength to go up 22-17 early in the second half before freshman back Rick Daignault tied the match again. Collins fed Daignault on the break, and the freshman sprinted down the sideline for a quick score.
Fatigue became a factor for both teams, and experience won out.
"It was an older side, and they were going to beat us with experience, and it showed at times," head coach Joe Redding said. "Our fitness was not where it should have been today."
After the Frogs went up 27-22, they recovered an errant kick from Marquette in the tryzone to seal the victory.
"When you play a team like this, they've been playing for years and years, so they know all the dirty tricks," assistant coach Brent Vanharen said. "But we played really well until we got tired."
Despite Saturday's result, the team has amassed a __ record this spring.
The rugby team will compete against several Wisconsin schools in the Milwaukee Cup at the LakeFront Saturday.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on May 2 2005.