A tight first half of rugby turned into a blowout as Syracuse failed to fight back against a second-half run from Binghamton.

In its second-to-last regular season game, the Hammerheads (2-3) lost to BU (3-2) 44-13 on Saturday afternoon in Binghamton after scoring only three points in the second half.

“We really were not as competitive as we hoped to be,” head coach Bob Wilson said. “[Binghamton] played very well. We didn’t play quite as well as we could’ve and it ran away from us a little bit.”

A successful 22-meter kick by second row junior Jack Faure and a try from sophomore back row and team captain Angus Bishop kept the Hammerheads’ deficit to 12-10 at halftime.

The second half, though, was all Binghamton. Syracuse’s lone three points came on a 50-meter kick from Faure as Binghamton put 32 points on the board.

Both Bishop and Faure were sidelined by injuries – head and shoulder, respectively – in the second half, and prop Chris Galvin, a graduate student with 12 years of rugby experience, was substituted out of the game during the second half for tactical reasons.

While he approved of this decision, Bishop said that the team on the field lacked experience, and contributed to the Hammerheads’ struggles.

Bishop said that “it’s about 99 percent locked up that (the Hammerheads) won’t be able to make it” to the Empire Rugby Conference championship game. Despite these less-than-favorable odds, the team plans to work hard and fix Saturday’s mistakes this week in preparation for its final game against Colgate.

“I think we’re going to be working hard on our discipline,” Bishop said. “And then I think we have to do a better job of securing our ball…We gave it away a bit too easily.”

Published on October 18, 2014 at 7:37 pm

Contact Kevin: kjpacell@syr.edu