2007

“ThreePeat” summed up the 2007 rugby season as the boys from Greenwich made an impressive third straight appearance in the USA Rugby U19 National Championship tournament out in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The Cardinals proved once again that they were the best in Connecticut and finished second in the Metropolitan Union, losing only one match to Xavier, NY.  The team secured the #2 seed at Northeasterns and fought their way to the final and lost a hard hitting battle to Xavier 15-7.  The team posted an impressive 12-2 regular season record going 6-1 in the Met Union, highly regarded as the strongest union in the Northeast.  The Cardinals had a strong showing at the annual Cherry Blossom tournament in Washington DC winning their first two games on Saturday and losing a close game in the semi-finals to a strong club from Ontario, Canada- the KCI Raiders.  The Greenwich Cardinal offense was awesome as it tallied 569 points before playoffs and averaged 41 points a game.  The defense was equally impressive giving up an average of under 6 points a game and registering six shutouts in the first 14 games.  Captains John Caldwell, James Dailey and Marcos Gowland were the skippers for this year’s tremendous season.  The program had 77 active players and fielded a 2nd side that would beat the majority of the teams in our league.  This was all possible because of the consistent and determined coaching of John Porter and Joe Petrone.  This year’s Hall of Fame inductees will be: an original Big Blue player and current alumni supporter/liaison, James Leahy; and our present coach- and first under nineteen All-American from Greenwich High School, Joseph Petrone.  The Cardinals finished fifth in Tier B at the USA National championships.