< Back | Home

After a strong regular season, the 20th-ranked Oregon State rugby team will take on a tough Chico State squad on Friday and will play the winner of the Utah and Washington State game the following day. The winner heads to Pennsylvania for the NCAA Championships.

Rugby awaits Regional showdown at home

The four-team tournament will begin on Friday with the Beavers taking on nationally ranked Chico State at Peavy Field at 1 p.m.

By: Noah Tinker

Posted: 4/4/07

The Oregon State men's club rugby team will host an NCAA regional tournament this Friday and Saturday at Peavy Field. The 20th-ranked Beavers will play the 17th-ranked Wildcats of Chico State at 1 p.m. Friday.

The winner of the contest will face the winner of the match between fourth-ranked Utah and unranked Washington State, which follows at 3 p.m. Friday.

Coach Duffin McShane has been practicing his team hard over the past week in preparation for the tournament.

"Our main focus has been working together as a team, our defense and controlling the ball at the point of contact," McShane said.

McShane has paid special attention to how his team plays on defense and exploiting his opponents' defense.

"I'm a big believer in the ability of a defense setting the tone," McShane said. "But we also need to focus on getting the ball out from the point of contact in the scrum within three seconds in order to create gaps in the opposing defense and not exert ourselves too much or tire ourselves out."

Earlier in the season, the Beavers and Wildcats played to a hard-fought tie after OSU had established an early lead. Friday's matchup will allow the two sides to decide once and for all who is the better team.

McShane relishes the opportunity and sees the earlier outcome as a fluke.

"We dominated them," McShane said.

In order to pull off the win, the Beavers will have to "increase our pressure and move the ball from the point of contact faster," according to McShane.

Club President A.J. Kinhnaruth attributes the outcome to a lack of overall experience. "We were really young back then. We had a lot of brand new guys," Kinhnaruth said.

However, he believes this time will be different.

"A lot of the freshmen have really stepped up in the past few months, and that's going to make a really big difference."

If the Beavs do come away with the victory, they will most likely face Utah. The Utes won the OSU Invitational back on Oct. 29 by beating the Beavers 40-27. The Beavers had shocked Utah, which was ranked second in the nation at the time, by going into halftime with a 13-12 lead, and they needed every second of the second half to pull out the win over a scrappy Beaver squad.

The winners of Friday's two games will play each other on the following day at noon. The winner will go to the NCAA national tournament in Pennsylvania as part of the Sweet 16.

Kinhnaruth notes that the team's confidence is high after finishing undefeated in the league, which was capped by a 57-0 thumping over the University of Oregon. He cautions, though, that they are taking each game seriously.

"We're not overconfident. We're not overlooking Chico, because they are a tough team," Kinhnaruth said. "And they play in a really tough league in northern California, so we're just preparing for the game right now."

The Beavers hope to take advantage of playing on their home pitch in order to pull out the two required wins in the single-elimination tournament.

"We really hope we can get a lot of fans out to encourage us," McShane said. "That's why I'm happy one of the games is on Friday - you know, it's a good lunch break to come watch the Beavers play."

"We really draw on our fans," Kinhnaruth said. "Just looking over and seeing people cheer is a big deal, and it's fun too to have the school cheer us on. "