The USA Men’s Collegiate All-Americans fell three points shy (20-23) of a three-game sweep of the New Zealand Universities on Saturday at Steuber Rugby Stadium on the campus of Stanford University.

The USA Men’s Collegiate All-Americans fell three points shy (20-23) of a three-game sweep of the New Zealand Universities on Saturday at Steuber Rugby Stadium on the campus of Stanford University.

The All-Americans defeated the touring team 60-17 in the opening match of the tour last Saturday and 21-11 in the second on Wednesday. However in the final encounter, New Zealand played a very physical and opportunistic brand of rugby to win.

Big Dartmouth lock, Nate Brakeley, opened the scoring with a try in the opening five minutes and the Americans were off with a bang. They extended their lead through a JP Eloff penalty.

New Zealand answered back with a score and so it would go for the rest of the game, an American score and a response from the New Zealanders by try or by penalty.

Kyle Grossheider (Life University) scored next for the All-Americans, but the New Zealand Universities outside center scooted over for a try to answer back and the scores were 15-14, the hosts with a slight lead.

Peter Tiberio was back at his electric best and scored his fifth try of the series from a kickoff, throwing a convincing dummy and backing his speed to get to the line. That would be the last score of the game for the All-Americans. Gritty defense and last-gasp offense would define the remaining time for the hosts.

New Zealand evidently rated the All-American defense and opted for points whenever the opportunity arose. That tactic would prevail and three consecutive successful penalties gave the visiting Kiwis a three-point advantage that would hold for the remainder of the game.

The All-Americans didn’t go without a fight and built up some great phases in the waning moments of the encounter to try and salvage a win but a knock on derailed the buildup and the ref blew the final whistle to the chagrin of the Americans and pure delight of the Kiwis.

“This was a tough loss after a great tour,” said All-Americans head coach Alexander Magleby. “We played decently well in spurts, but we tired out a little it seemed.”

The All-Americans’ decision-making wasn’t always perfect, but that is a “learning opportunity moving forward,” according to Magleby.

The coach also noted that he and the entire All-Americans staff was very proud of the way the team trained and played the last two weeks.

The game will be webcast on a tape-delayed basis and will appear on USA Rugby’s UStream channel next week.

All-Americans
15 Duncan Kelm (San Diego State)
14 Peter Tiberio (University of Arizona, co-captain)
13 Seamus Kelly (University of California – Berkeley)
12 Gareth Jones (Temple University)
11 Kyle Grossheider (Life University)
10 JP Eloff (Davenport University)
9 Chris Saint (Penn State)
1 Mike Su’a (BYU)
2 Zach Fenoglio (Loyola Marymount)
3 James Besser (University of California – Berkeley)
4 Chris Parker (Texas A&M)
5 Nate Brakeley (Dartmouth)
6 Garrett Lambert (Life University)
7 Derek Asbun (University of California – Berkeley)
8 Ryan Roundy (BYU, captain)

Reserves:
16 Matt Crawford (St. Mary’s College of California)
17 Ray Forrester (BYU)
18 Nick Mostyn (University of Utah)
19 Mark Bonham (BYU)
20 Nick Civetta (Notre Dame)
21 Dave Martini (University of California – Los Angeles)
22 Jordan Badia-Bellinger (Claremont McKenna)
23 Pat Sullivan (Arkansas State)
24 Benji Goff (University of Tennessee)
25 Andrew Cooke (St. Mary’s College of California)

All-Americans
Tries: Brakeley, Grossheider, Tiberio
Conversions: Eloff
Penalties: Eloff

New Zealand Universities
Tries: 2
Conversions: 2
Penalties: 3