W&M Rugby, Alumni, Friends and Family,

 I hope this message finds you all well; I want to thank you all for your support over the course of this season, and to take this opportunity to update on where our club is going as we move into summer.  First my and the club's thanks; this past year we have seen more family, friends, and alumni on our sidelines than ever before cheering us on and following our season. This year, for the first time, the team has also live tweeted matches and posted game summaries on our Facebook page and website, letting even more of our friends and fans follow along with us. The team loves having all of you out with your suport, and we look forward to seeing you again when we start back up in the fall.

 It will be a busy summer as usual prepping for the fall season, but there are a couple of developments you may want to keep an eye out for.  This spring our vice-president, Sam Brown, has done a great job updating our website and getting individual roster pictures up.  If you have not seen the site yet, I highly encourage it, and the link is at the end of this email.

             This summer we will continue our effort to make following the team even easier with a shift to a new website design with even more news, pictures, and ways to become envolved with the club.  Our goal is to have that live come July, so definitely keep an eye out.

 Next fall the club will also be rolling out tailgating at our home games in the lot next to our field, hopefully complete with a grill going selling food and drinks, along with space to hangout, play some cornhole, and relax before matches.  Tailgating even football games has unfortunately never been huge in our time here at William and Mary, and rugby is happy to step up and give you all a game actually worth tailgating for. (Sorry football)  Details are still developing, but when we have them, we'll roll them out on our Facebook page and the new website.  It's going to be a great time, and I look forward to seeing you all there.

            Two dates to look forward to this fall, one for alumni and one for parents. September 20th to the 22nd is parents weekend, and the team will be continuing the tradition of hosting our members' friends and family for dinner. We started this last fall and had a great time, and I hope you all can join us again this fall.  For alumni, homecoming is October 24th to the 27th, and we'll be doing our annual alumni match against the current roster followed by a cookout.

 Lastly, I'll leave you all with a summary below of our season written by our captain, Kyle Lyons-Burke.  We had an amazing season moving up to DII, I'm proud of the noise we made in our new division, and I cannot wait to coming back next fall to make a statement.  I am incredibly proud to be a part of this club, and you all should be too.  Thank you again for all of your support this year, and see you around the pitch this fall.

Aidan Wojtech

President

W&M RFC

A quick summary of our season, by our captain Kyle Lyons-Burke:

            "This season, following a final ranking of 6th in the nation in D3, Tribe Rugby took the next step and moved up into Division 2, joining the Cardinals Conference.  In the Fall, we had our ups and downs, ending with a 2-2 record within the conference, and setting ourselves up for a shot in the conference playoffs.  After a Spring schedule in which we showed that we were more than equal to the task of competing with the top teams in the conference, we were unfortunately beset with a series of key injuries leading up to the start of the playoffs.  Tribe Rugby was unable to advance past the first round this year; however, we are a young team, we are hungry, and we have our eyes set on a regular season title in Fall 2013."

W&M: 20  Longwood: 20

Despite losing key players to injuries within the opening minutes of the game, the Tribe dominated possession for the majority of the first half and saw the score knotted at 13.  Colin "Snoop" Ponder scored both first half tries and Justin "Bleach" Williams converted a penalty kick.  The Tribe came out sluggish to start the second half surrendering a quick 7 points, but eventually found its groove.  Joe "Pretty Joe" Scholle scored a try in the waning minutes of the second half and Aaron "Snuggles" Skonecki made the conversion with a tremendous kick.  Although there were small lapses in concentration throughout the game, the Tribe did not lack energy and played with a purpose towards the end of the second half.  Next Saturday, William and Mary will face Washington and Lee at home at 1PM in a tune-up match for VMI.

Men of the match:

Forwards: Snoop (Colin Ponder) was a force on the inside the entire game, both offensively and defensively.  Whenever the Tribe were near the goal line, Snoop demanded the ball and came through with two tries, driving through multiple Longwood defenders to get the ball across the line.

Backs: Pretty Joe Scholle provided big runs throughout the day, stretching the Longwood defense.  He also had a strong game defensively, shutting down his opposite number and shutting down multiple overloads.  To top of his day, Pretty Joe scored the tying try in the waning minutes of the game, capping off a magnificent drive by the Tribe.

B-Side:  Airplane (Aidan Wojtech) was a defensive force for the B sides.  He made every tackle, putting his man down and, in one instance, chasing his man down to prevent a try.

WM: 12 Richmond Lions: 24

After a tough first half which had the score at 12 all, the Lions were able to pull away towards the end of the game.  The first William and Mary try was scored through great execution on a lineout by Boston Kyle, and the second was a tremendous play from our Flyhalf, Snuggles.  Bleach kicked the conversions, and was 1 for 2 on the day.  The team showed tremendous heart during multiple goal line stands, and lineouts were strong throughout the entire game.  Next Saturday, William and Mary will face a tough test at home against Longwood University at 1 PM.

Men of the Match:

Forwards: Sugartits (Sam Brown) did an excellent job all day at the lineouts, providing good throws which set up the William and Mary attack, as well as leading to the team’s first try.

Backs: Snuggles (Aaron Skonecki) used his kicks as a tactical weapon, pinning the Lions deep in their own end for much of the game.  He also kept the backline organized on the attack and made multiple breaks, one of which led to a highlight reel try.

The Tribe continued their dominating play in a friendly against UVA, winning by a score of 37-0.  The Tribe played their most even game of the year maintaing possession throughout both halves.  The stifiling back-line defense was once again on display shutting down UVA's potent backline.  Up front the forwards continued their dominating play stealing 3 scrums and 6 lineouts.  

Tries scored by: Junior Aidan "Airplane" Wojtech, Junior Captain Tiberius "Jacob Sprang" Payne, Junior "Boston" Kyle Lyons-Burke, Senior Captain Tilghman "Tilghman" Goldsborough, Senior President Charles "Seabiscuit" Gowan and Freshman Dave "Rabbit" Greene.  Both Airplane and Rabbit earned their Zulu's with their scores.

Sophomore Justin "Snakedick" Williams notched in one penalty kick and two conversions.

In a rematch from earlier in the year, Tribe Rugby came out with authority and squashed the Richmond Spiders 34-0.  The Tribe controling 66% of the possession and not allowing the Spiders to do anything.  The Tribe was defensivly stifiling and were able to successfully execute off of set plays to set up a truly dominating performance.

Tries were scored by: junior Captain Jacob "TPain" Sprang, senior President Charles "Seabiscuit" Gowan, sophomore Justin "Snakedick" Williams, sophomore Sam "Salty Milk" Brown scored his first try, and "Boston" Kyle Lyons-Burke scored two tries.

Sophomore fly-half Fletcher Souba went 2/6 on conversion kicks and 0/2 on penalty kicks.

Man of the match was senior Charles "Seabiscuit" Gowan, for solid tackling, harassing defensive lineouts and dynamic offensice runs.