2001 Collegiate All-Star Results
November 17 - 18
Tampa, FL

Reported by: Mark Williams, South Collegiate All-Star Coach
Overall it was a very god day of rugby. All six of the South LAU's fielded teams and were reasonably prepared to compete. Every team had players with a lot of potential, the games were hard fought, mostly competitive and all players demonstrated good sportsmanship.

Georgia 17 -- North Carolina 7
North Carolina competed well -- lead by number #8 Thad Teague (ApSU) and All-American wing *Edwin Rios (WCU). In the end, they could only penetrate the Georgia defense once when flyhalf Derek Cool (UNC) slipped though for a try. Charles Ouko (NCS) added the conversion. Georgia was lead by their back row including outstanding games from *Wessel Ousthuzen (GSU) and Matt Botwin (UGA). They also had a good performance from their mid-field and center Matt Lyons (AU) scored a try, but it was flyhalf John Mulliken (CU) who lead all scorers with a penalty kick, two conversions and a try.

Mid-South 0 - Florida 15
The returning champion Mid-South team lead by All-American **Cayo Nicolau (MTSU) - were frustrated by a stubborn Florida defense and an inability to turn opportunities into points. The Florida pack established a hard-nosed go forward mentality lead by captain *Simon Williams (UF) who was rewarded with a try. The forward play was often times finished off with nice runs from the backs and flyhalf Matt Pippen (USF) scored a try and some nifty moves by the big center *Jason Philpot (USF).

Deep South 27 - Palmetto 15
The Deep South won their first game ever aided by some North Carolina players like Danny Westerman who put together the day's first hat trick (3-tries). Other Deep South tries were scored by Prop Charles Collen (?) and winger Turtle (Need to identify this player??) and winger Justin Mazlara (?) added a conversion kick. It was Palmetto's first appearance at the LAU competition and they did very well with a young scrappy team. Palmetto was lead by
scrumhalf Brad Burns (CC) and center Rich Sorensen (USC) who added a penalty kick and a conversion kick. Flanker Robbie Burkett (USC) also scored a try.

Mid-South 50 - Palmetto 3
It was one-way traffic as the Mid-South was anxious to avenge the earlier loss. Palmetto competed hard especially early on aided by a Rich Sorensen (USC) penalty kick, but it was all Mid-South from there. Hooker Dusty Brown (MTSU) had a try, second row Jason Barnes (UT) had a pair of tries, flanker Kevin Trussel (UT) had two conversion kicks, scrumhalf Jeremy Linne (UT) had a try, *Cayo Nioclau - two conversion kicks, *Derek Wolfe (MTSU) a try and
Brian Melroy (UT) a hat trick of three tries from wing.

North Carolina 43 - Deep South 12
The Deep South were looking for two in a row and they scored first in each half as flyhalf Gray Strickland (USM) demonstrated some nice runs for two tries. Center Zala Der..(???) made one conversion kick, but otherwise it was all North Carolina. North Carolina had depth with over thirty players in attendance eager to compete. Tries were scored by Brian Elder (UNCC), Jason Tucker (UNCC), Ben Andrews (UNCW), Garret Paige (ECU), Thadd Teague(ASU),
Derek Cool (UNC) and Brent Vaughn (ECU). Pat May (ASU) slotted three conversion kicks.

Georgia 14 - Florida 10
Georgia played outstanding defense and in the end held off several late minute charges by the home team. The Georgia forwards were equal to the task and Jack Andruski (CU) scored a try. Florida was again lead by good forward play and prop *Tom Pierce (UF) and flanker *Mark Allen (USF) scored a try each. In the end it was the kicking game that let Florida down as they made no conversions and several transition kicks went astray. One such kick
landed in the hands of center T… Owens (?) who scampered in for a try. T… Parker (?) made both conversions to give Georgia the win. Georgia had been second the last three years and played very well as a team to win the 2001 SOUTH COLLEGIATE LAU CHAMPIONSHIP.

It was a good day of rugby and I can only hope that the competition will continue to improve each year. I hope that all the coaches return and work even harder next year to organize and prepare the teams. Take the time now to organize next years LAU camps and make sure every team knows not to schedule games and to support the program. This kind of planning is a must for the program to ultimately succeed.

*Returning South All-Stars
In many cases I had to guess at the spelling of names etc as provided on the
rosters so Please excuse errors.

2002 LAU Seeding & Current Coaches
1. Georgia - Randy Joseph
2. Florida - Jerry Morrone & Jim Orandash
3. Mid-South: Marty Bradley & Curt Huckaby
4. North Carolina -- Jim Osborne
5. Deep South - Tom Alderton
6. Palmetto - Mark Hirselj & Jeff Smolka

South Collegiate LAU Competition - November 16 & 17, 2002 (TBD)
Top four teams compete in a semi-final round with bottom two teams playing each other. Winners of top four team matches play each other in finals for first and second place. Losers of top four play the bottom two teams with the highest of those seeds playing the loser and lowest seed playing the winner between the bottom two teams. Each team will play (2) 30-minute-half Games. South Collegiate LAU Champion and seeding for next year will be based
in the following order: tournament play, won-loss record, head-to-head competition, most tries, most converted tries, coin toss. Ties shall be settled in the following order: a ten-minute sudden death period, most tries, most converted tries and finally a coin toss (highest seed calls).