After a muddy two days, Minnesota emerged from an eight-team field to claim the Midwest U24 All-Star Tournament in Rockton, Ill. The team, coached by Rebecca Radtke, defeated Michigan 21-0, 2016 champion Ohio 10-7 and Iowa 17-10 for the title.
Minnesota Rugby Union president Becky Reynolds (who is also the Midwest VP of Collegiate and Youth) served as tournament director and indicated that 2017 was the first time in several years that eight teams participated. Last year saw five LAUs supply six sides.
“It is great to see areas that have not had an All-Star team for a long time – like Allegheny – restart their program and for new conferences – like Prairie States – start an All-Star program in their first year of competition,” Reynolds praised. “The only state within the Midwest Union that did not have a team representing it was Indiana.”
Minnesota is among the regulars at the LAU all-star tournament, finished third in last year’s event, and won the title last in 2015. Radtke, who is in her second year as head coach, indicated that the program receives good buy-in, as demonstrated by the 60 players who showed up to the first player camp. The all-star coaching staff doubles as the University of Minnesota staff, and so in the interest of fairness, a third party is involved in selections. Twin Cities Amazons coach Roger Bruggemeyer oversaw the first two player camps, and then Radtke joined the third camp, to which 30 players were invited.
Radtke chose Rachel Aufdembrink as the Minnesota captain. She is the current flyhalf for U of M and understands the pattern that the all-star team endeavored to employ. The team only had a walk-through the day before the tournament, but that circumstance didn’t prove as influential as the weather, which forced a field change.
“The combination of weather and a very short field – it had to be 50 meters across, not 70 – meant it was going to be a forward-heavy game,” Radtke said. “Coming into it, we had planned to utilize our backs more than in the previous year, but the field and weather changed things.”
Minnesota was able to use the backs a bit in its first game against Michigan, and saw Winona outside center Megan Wolff distinguish herself.
“She’s a hard-striking 13. She was hitting the line at pace, and my flyhalf was doing a great job offensively of holding their 10 and 12 to give her those gaps,” Radtke said. “On the last two games, my 12, Kristin Tanner, stepped up on defense and the ball never got the past their 12 because she just stuffed everything at the line.”
But other than that, the pressure was heaped upon the forwards.
“Lanoira Duhart, our No. 8, absolutely stepped up her game defensively,” Radtke praised the Winona State player, who was the coach’s pick for MVP. “Tamara Schmidt, too. But the forwards across the board really had to step up their game. Some players, the ones in their first year, this was a good experience in regard to that head-on-head, forward-on-forward type of game.”
That set up a semifinal against Ohio, which had defeated Minnesota handily in 2016. Ohio wanted to play fast and wide, but again, the weather and muddy, short field made that difficult. Minnesota leaned on its fast-launching defense to secure a 10-7 win and berth to final.
Iowa had also gone 2-0 on day one, defeating Illinois 10-0 and Wisconsin 13-5 to advance to the final. The Sunday title bout was the final game of the weekend, so the pitch was torn up. Another ground-and-pound game awaited.
“I think they were excited,” Radtke said of the forwards’ take on the pressure. “The weekend motto was, essentially, ‘This is a forward’s dream come true,’ with this weather. I’m fortunate enough to have forwards – I look at them like they’re psychotic; they love that head-on-head competition. And this was a game where they would get all the glory. It wasn’t a game built on the forwards and the backs do all the scoring. We were going to live and die by the forwards, and they took ownership of that.”
Minnesota had success early in both halves, and that’s where the team scored two of its tries. Iowa started to pick up momentum later in the game.
“If the game was 10 more minutes, it could have easily been in Iowa’s hands, or a tie,” Radtke said. “They were knocking on our try line for the last seven minutes.”
But Minnesota held on for a 17-10 win and Midwest title. Wisconsin finished third with an 8-7 win over Ohio; Illinois beat Michigan 7-0 for fifth; and Allegheny finished seventh with a 10-8 win over Prairie States. See below for full results:
MIDWEST U24 ALL-STARS
Quarterfinals
Minnesota 21-0 Michigan
Wisconsin 28-0 Allegheny
Minnesota 21-0 Michigan
Ohio 22-5 Prairie State
Semifinals
Minnesota 10-7 Ohio
Iowa 13-5 Wisconsin
5th Place Semifinals
Illinois 10-0 Allegheny
Michigan def Prairie State
7th: Allegheny 10-8 Prairie States
5th: Illinois 7-0 Michigan
3rd: Wisconsin 8-7 Ohio
Final
Minnesota 17-10 Iowa