Down in New Rochelle, New York on Saturday, Dartmouth squared off against the Iona Gaels. It was a wet, wet day down in New York, and both teams were coming in with undefeated records: Dartmouth at 3-0 and Iona at 2-0. With a wet rugby match, though, anything could happen on the pitch.
The first ten minutes of the game yielded no points. With such a wet day, both teams had trouble hanging onto the ball, so it was a slow muck of scrums and tackles.
Eventually, Iona had a scrum at their 10-meter line on the left side of the pitch. After picking up the ball, the Iona scrum half passed to the fly half, who sent a low-flying kick into Dartmouth’s end. The ball flew diagonally to the left and took a quick bounce before the 22-meter line. Then, the ball took a slow pop up before dribbling across the touch line. With the 50-22 rule, this earned Iona a lineout. Despite Big Green’s best efforts, Iona won the toss-up and began a maul. The maul took the Gaels just shy of the try line, and a second effort put 5 points on the board for the home team. Conversion no good, 5-0 Iona.
Another left scrum for Iona formed near the 50-meter line. The Iona scrum half slipped through the line and took off toward the try zone. Rocky Dutta ’26 made a heroic effort, but it was just too late. The conversion was no good, and the score was 10-0 Iona.
Late in the first half, Dartmouth made several jabs that flirted with the try line, but none were successful. No more action came that half, and Dartmouth went into halftime at a deficit.
An Iona attack down Big Green’s right sideline added another try onto the board, though the conversion was no good. A few minutes later, Iona successfully converted a pen kick to make the score 18-0.
After a high tackle committed by Iona gave Big Green a chance at a lineout in good field position, hopes were high for a try. The resulting maul didn’t go anywhere for Dartmouth, but the Men in Green kept pushing. Rocky went down with the ball near the try line, and Jack Swords ‘GR lined up with the ball. He called for backup from seniors Zach Brown ’24 and Owen Lee ’24, and Swords put Big Green on the board. This was to be the last points of the game, and Dartmouth fell to Iona with a final score of 5-18.
In wet weather, anything is possible, and the Gaels proved a worthy opponent. The one positive of the day was that the DRFC never gave up. Dartmouth is still a good team with high aspirations for this season. Next week, Dartmouth will take on the Fairfield Stags in Connecticut.