New York Athletic Club improved to 4-0 with a hard-nosed defeat of Life University Saturday in New York.

NYAC has to come back from a 15-5 deficit to accomplish the task, but did so to remain undefeated.

The AC opened the scoring with a try, but a penalty kick from Tui Osborne and tries from Shaun van Rensburg and Jason Davilia put Life up 15-5 midway through the first half.

The AC scored twice, though, to take back the lead, the second from a chargedown of a 22-meter dropout that made the score 19-12 NYAC at halftime.

In trhe second half, the AC took control, scoring three tries while Life got just the one penalty kick.

"We just realized we needed to keep our composure," said NYAC captain Mike Petri. "We weren't playing the way we were supposed to be playing. We were being too loose with the ball. That made us give up penalties and they caused us some problems. And we said some words between ourselves under the posts after that second try and to a man the guys turned it around."

Petri gave much credit to the forward pack, led by second rows James Denise and Brian Doyle.

"Brian has really stepped it up and has put his hand up as the best second row in the country, in my opinion," he said. "James is inspirational. The forwards really did themselves proud."