Wake Forest played Rugby 15s today for the first time since a season-ending win over Virginia Tech last April, taking on UNC-Wilmington in a controlled scrimmage at Poteat Field. The Seahawks are one of the top D2 teams in the nation and provided tremendous opposition as the Demon Deacons sought to shake of the rust and prepare for their upcoming ACRL opener against University of North Carolina in 2 weeks.
UNC-W certainly looked to be the more polished of the two teams on the field today, showing cohesion that they had built during a full fall season of exhibition 15s. Wake Forest meanwhile, without the services of two-time ACRL All-Conference players Johnny McMurray and Ryan Tacon, and featuring a completely new front row from last year's 15s squad, struggled to compete in the scrum and had very little continuity on offense. However by day's end, the Deacs had shown considerable improvement and had identified the areas where the most work is needed over the next two weeks.
"That's why we arranged this scrimmage, to get a lot of live reps against a good opponent," said head coach Patrick Kane. "I thought the format was great for us and we really appreciate UNC-W traveling up here to play. I hope they were able to get as much positive out of the day as we were. They are a well-coached bunch and are going to be very difficult to beat once they start their regular season in the Southern Conference."
While the day was mostly positive for Wake Forest, the optimism was tempered by a broken collarbone suffered by senior Wes Bloomer in the first 10 minutes of play. Bloomer, who was coming of a tremendous 7s season in the fall, was expected to be one of Wake's most potent backline players on both offense and defense. Now it appears he is lost for the season and will finish his Wake rugby career on the sidelines. "Wes's injury was just one of those things that happen in a contact sport. The play was rather routine, he just got tackled and went down wrong. The whole team is disappointed for him because he has worked really hard to turn himself into a great rugby player," said Kane. "But Wes has a great attitude and before the scrimmage was even over, he was talking to me about ways he could still contribute to the team this season."
Losing Bloomer will be a big blow to a Deacon squad that was already lacking depth, but some new players took the field for the first time today and showed significant promise. Junior Dwain Hodges, sophomores Conor Murphy and Drew Turchin, and freshmen Joe DeCaminada and Johnny Passarelli all played their first ever rugby game and looked more like veterans than newcomers, with Murphy even dotting down one of the few tries Wake Forest managed on the day.
In all 25 players donned the Wake jersey during the scrimmage. The team will now turn its focus towards the Tar Heels and will be looking to avenge a stinging 29-17 loss in last year's ACRL opener.
Wake players vs UNC-W today:
Rob Kelly, Sr.
Jim Kavalec, Sr.
Wes Bloomer, Sr.
Ty Pierce, Sr.
Jack Zimmerman, Jr. (Capt.)
James Watson, Jr.
Tim Zage, Jr.
Jaime Drewery, Jr.
Bryce Lambert, Jr.
Liam McIntyre, Jr.
Andrew Estes, Jr.
Dwain Hodges, Jr.
Franco Cima, Jr.
Christian Gutowski, So.
Cameron Hume, So.
Drew Turchin, So.
Conor Murphy, So.
Scott Goldman, So.
Max Wohlmuth, So.
Tommy Kinzer, So.
Garrett Johns, So.
Iain Dormer, So.
Erik Pedrow, Fr.
Johnny Passarelli, Fr.
Joe Decaminada, Fr.
Tries: Watson, Murphy, Kelly, Zimmerman
Unavailable due to Injury: Ryan Tacon, Johnny McMurray, Pierre Duncan, Matt McCurdy, Ted McGuiggan
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