Men's Rugby Closes Action at Bermuda 7s

Hamilton, Bermuda - Following day one the Brewers took the field against Bermuda I, whose players are drawn from the 4 clubs on the island. This was certainly the deep end for the Vassar squad that had 3 rookies playing just their third game of 7s ever and even the juniors and seniors on the team have only played a handful of 7s games. Fortunately, the weather was a tad better with no rain and spirits were good.

Vassar College 0 v 35 Bermuda I
The scoreline shows a solid win for Bermuda and that it certainly was as the hosts scored 5 tries to run out winners. In addition, the Bermuda team probably left a couple of chances on the field. It would also be fair to say that they had another gear if they needed it but Vassar also deserves credit for some good periods of possession and some rabid defense. It would be fair to say that Vassar was playing against a number of the Bermuda national team.

The problem for the Brewers was that while they could move the ball and keep it live there was little penetration. The Bermuda defense was quick to react and stifled any halfbreaks or promising offloads. Vassar's TJ Usher probed and was closed down, Sawyer Bivins tried to break the line and Eli Schair-Rigoletti also made huge efforts.

Phil Knowlton played solidly and Kiran Mullen tried to make things happen but Vassar lacked the structured attack that would create opportunities. Freestyling just wasn't working against this level of athlete.

But credit the Brewers for not throwing in the towel and hustling for the full game.

Team: 1 Phil Knowlton 2 Kaiden Tocher 3 Sawyer Bivins 9 Eli Schair-Rigoletti 10 Kiran Mullen 12 TJ Usher 14 McCarthy Barber.
Subs: Will Smith, Miles Yum, Finn Smith, Max Czekaj.

Vassar College 0 v 30 Rowan University
Vassar was unable to muster the intensity required after such a huge effort in the previous game. Six of the small squad of eleven, Tocher, Bivins, Usher, Schair-Rigoletti, Mullen and Barber had played 3 full games with cameos from Taaffe, Finn Smith, Yum, Knowlton and Czekaj. The opposition had brought a squad of 14 rotating and resting players and Rowan had played some 7s prior to this weekend.

The Vassar team fell behind by 3 tries in the first half, two of which were from ugly Vassar errors from which they never recovered. It was a cruel finish to what had been a hard tournament. The good news is that this was always going to be a time to learn and Vassar now has a series of benchmarks to measure improvement. Attacking structure and basic decision making are key to progress and next weekend the Tri-State Conference Tournament will be a great opportunity to put those lessons to the test.

Team: 1 Max Czekaj 2 Kaiden Tocher 3 Sawyer Bivins 9 Eli Schair-Rigoletti 10 Kiran Mullen 12 T.J. Usher 14 McCarthy Barber.
Subs: Miles Yum, Phil Knowlton, Finn Smith, Will Smith.

Next: Saturday March 28, 2026 at Tri-State Conference 7s hosted by SUNY-New Paltz

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Players Mentioned

Max Czekaj: Senior

Phil Knowlton: Junior

Finn Smith: Junior

Kaiden Tocher: Senior

TJ Usher: Junior

Kiran Mullen: Senior

Eli Schair-Rigoletti: Senior

Miles Yum: First Year

Sawyer Bivins: First Year

Players Mentioned

Max Czekaj
: Senior

Phil Knowlton
: Junior

Finn Smith
: Junior

Kaiden Tocher
: Senior

TJ Usher
: Junior

Kiran Mullen
: Senior

Eli Schair-Rigoletti
: Senior

Miles Yum
: First Year

Sawyer Bivins
: First Year