The North Carolina Rugby Union Men's Collegiate All-Star program went 2-0 on Sunday against the Palmetto Rugby Union Men's Collegiate All-Stars at John Roberts Field at Furman University. Seven Wake Forest players represented the NCRU with Wake sophomore Sal Scifo captaining the NCRU Emerging side from openside flanker to a 16-15 thriller over Palmetto's Emerging side. Scifo was a late addition to the team when Wake freshman Ryan Tacon had to withdraw with illness. Scifo was joined on the Emerging side by teammates Todd McFadden, Ty Pierce, Matt McCurdy and Tim Zage. McCurdy and Zage, typically flankers, played all 80 minutes in the midfield for the Emerging side and performed admirably.
In the Elite game, Wake Forest was represented by freshman flanker Liam McIntyre and junior wing Brandon Turner. The Elite side ran out 46-19 winners over Palmetto Elite in a game that was never really close. One of the game's highlights came early in the second half when McIntyre made a break from inside the NCRU 22, drew two defenders on the sideline and off-loaded neatly to supporting flyhalf Graham Joseph (UNC-W) for a beautifully worked try. Pierce came on as a reserve in the Elite game.
In all it was a very successful weekend for all the NCRU players who attended the camp. The coaching throughout the weekend was fantastic, with the NCRU's Jeremy Linne and Josh Sutcliffe and Palmetto's Nigel Platt and Geoff Mason lending their expertise to all the players. A special thanks is necessary for John Roberts of Furman and Nigel Platt of Palmetto for organizing the weekend. The Wake Forest participants all returned to Winston-Salem as much better players for the experience and Turner and Pierce will look to carry their newly-refined skills into their match with the South U-20 program on November 28 in Atlanta against the New South Wales U-20s. The rest of the Wake players return to their off-season workouts in preparation for the challenging ACRL season that awaits them in the spring.
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