Before I begin to review the day of rugby, I’d like to send out a huge thank you out to John Bradshaw and his wife Heather Ball for coming out to take photos of all the games played (John) and bringing out brisket sandwiches (Heather). This was a life savor, since it was the heat and schedule that was beating us more than any of the opponents we played on this day. I would also like to send out a thank you to Michael Shamoun’s parents for bringing out 2 more cases of water which was needed.
As of Friday night, we had 10 girls committed to playing, by Saturday morning the numbers had dropped to 8. The girls had traveled to play and borrowing players will have to be part of the game plan. On the guys side of things, I knew we would have roughly 23 players coming and 23 players is what we had. The challenge here would be depth in position during a long day of warm temperatures, and lot of rugby.
I’ll begin with the women and their first match of the day was against 2nd yearclub Angelo St (ASU).
The lineup:
- Vic, 2. Camille, 3. Ivy, 4. Ashley, 5. Cari, 9. Elaine, 10. Guest (Halie), 12. Mel, 13. Guest (Brook), 14. Andrea
The second half was pretty much even in terms of both sides moving the ball up and down the field. Running, tackling, passing and kicking, but it was ASU that sealed a victory by running in 3 more trys.
The lineup for game 2 (v Sam Houston St.)
- Vic, 2. Camille, 3. Ivy, 4. Ashley, 5. Cari, 9. Elaine, 10. Rachael, 12. Mel, 13. Brook, 14. Andrea
The lineup for game 3 (v UTSA)
- Vic, 2. Camille, 3. Ivy, 4. Ashley, 5. Cari, 9. Elaine, 10. Rachael, 12. Mel, 13. Guest (from Rice), 14. Andrea
The Guys side of the Tournament.
The lineup for match 1 (v Angelo St)
- Ryan, 2. Josh, 3. Caleb, 4. Chris, 5. Adam, 6. Manny, 7. Will, 8. Daniel, 9. Victor, 10. Andrew W. 11. Kevin M, 12. Edmund, 13. Nicky, 14. Octavio, 15. Brian
Coming for injuries or replacements Brandon for Chris, Chris for Manny, Manny for Daniel
The lineup for match 2 (v SMU)
- Michael G, 2. Josh, 3. Caleb, 4. Chad, 5. Brandon, 6. Chris, 7. Will, 8. Manny, 9. Kevin Z, 10. Andrew W., 11. Eric B., 12. Seth, 13. Myles, 14. Wade, 15. Brian
This match was a good match, with both sides being equal, but it was SMU taking the lead with good running and a stiff defense keeping UT Dallas out of goal. But it was Andrew Whiteis that found the goal line in the second half. SMU won the match 10 to 5.
The lineup for the last match of the day (v UTSA)
- Ryan, 2. Josh, 3. Caleb, 4. Chris, 5. Adam, 6. Will, 7. Wade, 8. Manny, 9. Victor, 10. Andrew W. 11. Edmund, 12. Seth, 13. Nicky, 14. Brian, 15. Octavio
This was a match for the ages, it’s been a couple of years since UT Dallas and UTSA met on the field since our epic state Championship 5 years ago and it seemed that they still hold a grudge about that victory by UT Dallas.
The match went on with both clubs defending in each other’s red zone and play was wide open between the 22’s. In the second half UT Dallas finally got on the board with some nifty running by Victor, but it was UTSA winning the game 19 to 5.
On the whole every one of our UT Dallas student athletes competed on the day, many of them played every game, some played out of position and yet they played hard and showed complete confidence in themselves and their team mates. I’m proud of each and every one of them, for playing all day. I was a tough day with some of the injuries we had and lack of numbers we had on the other side.
Next week, the girls travel to Ft. Worth to play a Friendly match with TCU and 2 league matches against ASU and LeTourneau University. Their games begin at 10:00am against TCU and I will post the other scheduled kick off times later this week along with an address to TCU.
Next week the guys travel to Denton to play UNT in a final Friendly match before our league season begins. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:00pm and I will post the address later this week for families and friends wanting to come to the game.
If anyone has any questions, concerns or comments they would like to make, please feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best to help with those question or concerns.