It was a beautiful day for rugby, the temperature in the mid to high 60's, no wind and cloudy, gosh I love rugby days like that. UT Dallas had approx. 28 players on the pitch by 1:00pm and a few more arrived shortly after that. I spoke with the UD coaches and referee of the match and we all agreed on 4 quarters of 20 minutes will be the order for the day.
With so many players present and each one of them competing for a position, it is difficult for me to list each player, so I'm going to hold off this week. What I can say is that I saw some good things that makes the spring season a bit easier to work with.
The match kicked off on schedule, 2:00pm and was a very good game. Both sides were moving the ball up and down the pitch with good ball movement and defense. It was UD that scored first, with a Penalty kick late in the first quarter. As far as the scoring goes, it was all UD that did the scoring, the final score was roughly UD 18, UT Dallas 0.
Before the match, I told the guys I didn't care about the score, the score was not an issue, playing together was the key to our success and scoring Trys didn't mean success. I think we are off to a good start, with roughly 30 players attending practice and games, I believe we have what it's going to take to get us back into the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row.
Next weekend will be a busy weekend for both the Men and Women's Rugby at UT Dallas. The Women will travel to College Station to play in the first 7's tournament hosted by Texas A&M Women's Rugby Club of the spring season. The women will play in 4 of 5 scheduled tournaments all set at different weekends throughout the spring. Those tournaments are listed on our schedule in this web site. I will post the address to Texas A&M later this week.
Also next weekend the Men take the field against Letourneau University in Longview. Letourneau has been in the league for a number of years, and while we did have the advantage the first few. Letourneau has turned the tide by beating us on the field the past 2 years. This match marks the beginning for both clubs the first league match for 2017. I will post the address to Letourneau later this week.
This is an exciting time for both the Men and Women as we prepare for the upcoming spring, but early last week USA Rugby announced their selection for the 2016-2017 Collegiate Academic All Americans Honor Roll.
To let everyone know, UT Dallas has had 2 Academic All Americans:
2011-2012 - Nathan Sohadaseni
2013-2014 - Lauren Featherstone
But this year UT Dallas will have 3 Academic All Americans and they are:
With a cumulative GPA of 3.5
Melanie Bowler and Elaine Lai
With a cumulative GPA of 3.9
Wadih "Daniel" Eljuri
Congratulations to Mel, Elaine and Daniel for your hard work in the classroom and on the field.