A weary BGSU Rugby team arrived back in Bowling Green last Monday as they completed a fourteen-day tour of South Africa. Bowling Green was one of only three teams from a field of over 200 applicants to be granted official tour status this year by the South Africa Rugby Football Union. The Falcons were chosen based on their record and past tour history of Great Britain in 1987, 1995, and 2000.

As guests of the SARFU, the Falcons were assisted in finding accommodations and matches, and given access to two former Springboks, who conducted coaching sessions and gave critiques following BG’s matches. Bowling Green’s tour party consisted of 33 players, two coaches and 19 family members.

“No matter where we went, the local people identified us as the American rugby team that they had heard about,” head coach Roger Mazzarella said. “Rugby is a cultural religion in South Africa, and there was intense interest regarding our ability to play ‘their’ game.”

Bowling Green spent time in three of South Africa’s rugby hotbeds – Johannesburg, Nelspruit and Durban.

The walls of the South Africa clubhouses are covered with the jerseys of famous players and visiting clubs. Hard looking men in ill-fitting uniforms stare out from team photos in the Nelspruit clubhouse that date back to 1897. Glenwood, the Falcons’ second opponent, founded in 1879, was playing rugby while British rule was far from consolidated in the country.

Probably ranking right at the top of everyone’s list of the trip’s highlights was attending the South Africa vs. Australia Tri-Nations match. The tourists joined 72,000 rabid green-clad fans at what club advisor Martha Mazzarella called a Hollywood ending. Playing short-handed and behind a good portion of the match, the Springboks came back to win 33 ” 31 in the very last second.

“We went with the purpose of finding just how we rank as a team with the rest of the world, to get ready for another national championship run, and to show our guys what rugby as a sport could become in our country,” BG captain Pete Cromly said. “The scores don’t indicate how much we learned or the value of the experience and how it will pay off for us later in the season.”

The community, used to seeing the BGSU team generally stomp every opponent it faces into the ground, may be surprised to learn that the Falcons lost seven of their eight matches. When asked to assess the level of the competition they faced, Mazzarella placed the opposition at the very best in South Africa.

“Every single club we faced was a division champion and about ninety percent of the players were professionals,” Mazzarella said. “RAU and Glenwood are the main feeder clubs for the Springboks. Seven of the Springboks that took the field against Australia were from RAU.”

The Falcons lost to Nelspruit 38″7 and 29-0, Rand Afrikaans University 49-0 and 64-7, and Witwatersrand University 28″10 and 18″5. The Falcons split with Glenwood RFC, winning the first match 19″17 but losing the second 29″0.

“We were in every single one of those matches except the matches against RAU,” Mazzarella said. “I’m proud of the way the guys never quit and never stopped sticking the opposition.”

Bowling Green’s defense was the number one item of discussion on the sidelines and in the clubhouses.

“In twenty years of playing rugby, I have never been hit as hard as I was tonight,” Wits University captain Conan Oliver said at the last post-match reception. “I assume it is your football background, but we just don’t see tackles as hard as that in our country.”

His words would be repeated in one form or another throughout the tour. Mazzarella singled out Vinnie Staropoli, eight man Tim Laubensheimer and props Doug Ulrich and Kris Black for hitting the South African ball carriers hard. Mazzarella also praised freshmen Fred and Chris Ackermann, James Kuper and Anthony Wanzer.

“All three played rugby in high school and showed a maturity and ability on the field that is very rare for a first year player. Fred even started three matches with the 1st XV and that is rare for a freshman at a skill position like eight man. They also were singled out for praise by the opposition and our South African coach, Gerrie Germishuys.”

Mazzarella noted that the club could not have been blessed with more of a larger-than-life figure than Germishuys , who carries hero-like status in South Africa.

“Even though he hasn’t played in fifteen years, people were constantly coming up and asking him to autograph programs, jerseys and even napkins. He signed each item with a short note and went out of his way to make the autograph seeker feel special,” Mazzarella said.