Rugby impresses in Division I competition

If you spent the last three weeks wondering what a scrum is, who’s a hooker, or why a… If you spent the last three weeks wondering what a scrum is, who’s a hooker, or why a successful scoring attempt is called a try, you were probably watching the men’s rugby team.

And if you weren’t, you missed out.

The Pitt men’s rugby team opened its season with four straight victories, most notably defeating Indiana University of Pennsylvania, one of the nation’s top teams, according to head coach Dan Talbert.

The season began for the Panthers with a 56-0 win over Franciscan. Pitt’s B-Team also picked up a win against Franciscan, on the road. Franciscan’s C-Team, however, defeated the Panthers 18-0.

On Sept. 13, Pitt played two home games, handily defeating Clarion 59-0 in the first game. Following the victory, the Panthers turned their sights toward IUP.

“Knowing we’d need some rested guys against IUP, we sat seven of 15 starters against Clarion,” Talbert stated in an e-mail to rugby alumni.

IUP opened the match against the Panthers with a 3-point penalty kick. Pitt tied the game at three when Jeff Shellenberger hit the first of his three penalty kicks for the Panthers.

Talbert dubbed Shellenberger the Man of the Match for his “clutch penalty kicks” and ability to keep IUP’s fullback in check.

Before the half was over, Pitt scored again, with Scott Derrig picking up a try off of a run to the 3-yard line by Brad DiCola.

Shellenberger kicked the two-point conversion to make the score 10-3 at the half.

In the second half, IUP scored two tries but missed both conversions. In between the IUP scores, Shellenberger put in his second penalty kick.

Talbert said that although IUP had a reputation for having strong backs, they didn’t get much through Pitt’s defense.

“Their backs were supposed to be their strength, but ours looked better on offense and held them to all but a couple of inside runs on defense.”

With the score tied at 13 and one minute left in the game, Shellenberger kicked his final penalty kick of the game to propel the Panthers to a 16-13 win.

“We talked a lot about finding out what defense they run early on, then trying to use it against them,” Talbert said.

“This was easily the most gratifying win for [me] as a coach,” Talbert said.

“[Flyback Brian Shamus] called a terrific game, and his kicking got us out of a lot of jams. [He] lulled them to sleep [by] going wide play after play in the first half.”

The Panthers continued their success with a 68-0 win over Pittsburgh-Johnstown, scoring 10 tries in the match. Pitt’s B-Team also won, 19-7.

The Panthers are next in action at home on Sept. 27, against West Virginia.