Norwich Beats Crimson Ruggers, 9-6

The Norwich Armadillos marched into Cambridge Saturday and beat back an aggressive Harvard Rugby Club defense to squeak out a hard-fought 9-6 victory.

Both teams failed to score a try as they beat each other back and forth between the 30-yard lines.

Norwich captain Duncan Hoge scored his team's only points with three successful penalty kicks, and Harvard's Johnny Waciume did the same with two 20-yard kicks.

Norwich is a military college in Vermont with a part-time coach. Its team racked up a 10-1 season last fall, beating top-ranked Army. The Norwich ruggers just returned from a two-week road trip to Wales.

The Harvard squad went into the game primarily looking for some competitive experience, but by the second half they found themselves fighting to upset the Armadillos.

In the first half, Hoge scored six of his points and Waciume looped the first of his kicks over the goalposts despite a stiff wind.

After Hoge converted his third kick early in the second half, the Crimson penetrated deep into Norwich territory on runs by Adrien Tew and Waciume, who then made his second kick.

Norwich dominated the contest until the final minutes of the second half. Fly half Mike Noble cut down a Norwich wing who was heading down the sidelines for a try and Ned Kuntz saved Harvard from another goal with a booming kick out of the Crimson end zone.

The Crimson scrum, which had been scrappy but loose all afternoon, got it together in the last ten minutes and helped the backs push into Armadillo territory.

Norwich stalled the drive, however, and Waciume missed two kicks from 35 yards out that would have given Harvard its upset.

"For the first game, I think we did pretty well," Crimson captain Tew said. "There were a lot of inexperienced players in there."

Noble, Tew and Waciume worked well together in the backline but never found a breakaway combination. Harvard's lack of practice showed in its difficulty with getting the ball out of its scrum.

"I'm very disappointed with our play," Norwich coach Rufus Boyett said after the match. "They gave us a lot of trouble when we tried to move the ball."