The Wolfpack met Carolina in Charleston at a tournament being hosted by the College of Charleston rugby club, on April 11^th. Among the clubs already mentioned, Wake Forrest was also in attendance. The tournament was the first of what is intended to be an annual tournament, hosted by the College of Charleston rugby club. A major player in making this tournament happen is Jim Lee, who funded much of the tournament, and has ties to all clubs in attendance.

The tournament started off with NC State playing College of Charleston. The Wolfpack could not seem to get anything going in this first game, and lost 13-0. The Wolfpack had three new players to the game start in this game, and all played exceptionally well, given it was their first game. A player who had a particularly good game was Greg Hesler, who was immaculate at full back. In the second game of the day, Wake Forrest beat UNC 19-7.

For the third game of the day, NC State squared off with their rival, UNC. As always, these games mean more to the players than just a 3^rd and 4^th place match. Both teams came out strong, and the first few minutes were fairly stalemate, until Robby Dow, at flyhalf, made one of his many breakaways during the game. Robby went into contact, and rolled the ball back to Phillip Burcal, flanker, who scooped it up and ran through a Carolina player to score the first try of the match. Shortly afterwards, Dave Hunt at outside center, broke a tackle, ran the ball to the outside corner of the try zone. Dave was able to center the ball right underneath the posts for an easy conversion kick. Dave put another try up, from about the same position on the field later on the game. Our fourth try of the game came from a superior Wolfpack forwards’ effort, from a lineout roughly 8 meters out, after Drew Lynch hit the back jumper. The forwards proceeded to maul right over the try line, and Bobby Lacy put it down for the score. The Wolfpack end up winning, 26-0.

Carolina’s athletes were not able to put anything together this game, especially in their back line, due to the exceptional tackling of Dave Hunt, Frank Davis and first time player Brandon Mosinan. Carolina’s forwards felt the heavy hitting of brand new player Eric Rountree, but he wasn’t the only forward running up to put a lick on the other team. The Wolfpack was blessed to have Joe Hogan back, who just served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Marines. Joe led the Wolfpack at scrumhalf to our win. Our “slobber-knocker” award goes to the player with the biggest hit in the game, but it was given as a joint award to all three of our new players, Eric Rountree, Brandon Mosinan, and Abe Harmon. They all hit with the intensity of a seasoned Wolfpack player, and gave them the award to let them know what we expect from them from here on out. The “bonehead” play of the game went to Abe Harmon, for dropping a sure try from a great Robby Dow play/ pass. Outperforming any other athlete on the field that day, in any of the games played, was Robby Dow at flyhalf, and he was our Man of the Tournament.

The last game was CofC against Wake Forrest, and Wake won it 26-6. There was a social with pig-pickin and beverage after the games hosted by CofC.

-Phillip “Yoshi” Burcal