Women's Rugby Bounces Back Big Against Brown

Coming off a loss last weekend, the Harvard women’s rugby team (2-2) was in need of a boost as it entered Saturday’s contest against Brown.

“Practice this week was very tense,” co-captain Xanni Brown said. “We were told very clearly at the beginning of the week that we needed to step up our effort, and that was what was expected of us to compete at this varsity level. We didn’t practice in our jerseys all week, we didn’t play in them today. We weren’t playing at a Harvard varsity level. I think that actually helped light a fire under some of the girls. We were out there like we used to be, that rag-tag Radcliffe team playing in whatever t-shirts and socks we could scrounge up.”

Going back to its roots, the Crimson looked and played like a new team, tearing past the Bears in a 57-7 routing. Harvard’s win was a major upset against the perennial rugby powerhouse.

“We set very high goals for ourselves in terms of our team energy and team effort, and I think it totally came out on the field,” co-captain Ali Haber said. “It’s what we were looking for. It was incredible to beat Brown. I’m pretty sure we haven’t beaten Brown in like 10 years, according to our alums.”

The Crimson was quick out of the gates, getting its first try on the board when co-captain Brandy Machado powered through the zone less than seven minutes in. The try and subsequent conversion put Harvard up 7-0. Junior Anabiet Abasi and co-captain Brown added scores to help the Crimson’s lead grow to 26-0 before the Bears finally got on the board with a try to round out the first half.

“The biggest thing you could see all over the field was ball retention,” Brown said. “Whenever we had players going into contact, into rucks, or anything, they had players right behind them, and we were clearing Brown out of the way and keeping the ball. That’s what led us to get quick, clean play and move it all around the field so much.”

Despite a commanding 26-7 lead at the half, the Harvard offense continued to surge in the final forty minutes of the game. Brown led the Crimson charge, as the senior picked up three straight tries to start off the second half, for a total of five in the contest.

“The game that we played today was such a good team game,” Brown said. “Every opportunity that we had was created by everyone on the team doing their job, and doing it at a 107,000 percent effort. It was so great to be a part of.”

Diligent practice after last week’s loss resulted in some technical improvements for Harvard, but the big difference-maker in the team’s performance was a rekindled fire and renewed spirit.

“Sometimes to reach higher, you have to fall a little bit lower first,” Haber said. “We’ve always had this potential, but we were just nowhere near that. We realized that, and our coaches helped us realize that. We worked really hard this week, and we are just all on the same page, which came out in the game today.”

The Crimson now has a weekend off to rest up before it hosts Princeton. Harvard hopes to continue to shake up the League standings with a win against another traditional rugby powerhouse.

“Princeton has been our other challenge [besides Brown], at least for the time that I’ve been on the team,” Haber said. “[But] the results of games in the conference have been really whacky relative to the last couple of years. Princeton has already been beaten by Brown and Dartmouth, so we have confidence that we can go out there and do it as well, hopefully keeping up our high level of energy and cohesion on the field. What we’re working on these next two weeks is keeping up that energy, keeping up that effort.”

The Crimson looks to capitalize on its solid play of late and build momentum as it pushes towards the latter part of the season.

“We realize we can do it now,” Haber said. “That’s our standard from here on out.”

--Staff writer Brenna R. Nelsen can be reached at brenna.nelsen@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @CrimsonBRN.