A special thank you goes out to all the parents, fans and girl friends that made the trip and spent the day watching and supporting your Comets. Thank you for bringing out water, Gatorade, and food for the guys, I know they really
appreciated this and you all for your continued support.
The first match of the day was against SMU our cross town rival. They showed up prepared and ready to play.
Our lineup was: Props – Erbold and Nate, Hooker – Otto, Locks – John and Weston, Flankers – Mohammed and Ben, #8 – Steve (Sunshine), Scrumhalf – Stephen Boeding, Flyhalf – Brian, Inside Center – Dominic, Outside Center – Chad, Wings – Marc and Nobie, Fullback – Ross. Replacements Cameron for Stephen Boeding (banged knee), Evan (guest player for Cameron – head wrap needed attention), AJ for Otto, Jimmy for Ben, Luke for Chad.
This being the first match against anyone other than ourselves and the first half was evenly played, moving the ball up and down the field, both attacking and defending very well. The first half ended with the score 0 – 0. The second half began and was similar to the first half with one big exception. Midway through the half, we began making good passes and shooting gaps given and Evan took advantage of SMU’s wing not making the tackle and exploited the side line. As SMU began to smother Evan, Sunshine came in support and Evan made the pass to him and Sunshine took it the final 40 yards making SMU players miss their tackles on him and he scored under the posts. Brian made the conversion to bring the score to UTD 7, SMU 0 and that’s how the game ended. Good first win of the day and the year.
The second match was against Midwestern St. (MSU) and they were short handed but still able to field a side in this tournament. But it was UTD taking control of the match from the get go.
Our line up: Props – Erbold and Alex, Hooker – AJ, Locks –John and Jimmy, Flankers – Ben and Ahmad, #8 – Steven (Moonshine), Scrumhalf –Austin, Flyhalf – Vince, Inside Center – Brandon, Outside Center – Luke, Wings –Arturo and Alejandro, Fullback – Steven Shaffer. Replacements – Trevor for Luke.
As I stated UTD was in control of this match from the beginning, but MSU was still a worthy competitor and didn’t lie down for us. We had to earn every point we got and played very good defense along the way. The first half came to an end with UTD ahead 12 – 0. The game ended with UTD ahead 26 to 0. Trys were scored by AJ (2) and Vince (2) along with 3 conversions.
Due to one club backing out of the tournament in the last hour, the tournament schedule had to be revamped, this forced clubs at some point to play 1 back to back games. While the host club played 2 rounds of back to back games (this was tremendous and they’re very good hosts of the tournament and run a great tournament). Our third match of the day was against the tournament host, St. Edward’s University. They are a very well coached club and in 4 years have won Division 3 championship, division 2 championships and now are competing in division 1. But they are rebuilding since having a number of players graduate, but regardless of this, we came to play.
Our line up: Props – Alex and Nate, Hooker – Otto, Locks –Yis and Weston, Flankers – Mohammed and Ben, #8 – Sunshine, Scrumhalf – Cameron, Flyhalf – Brian, Inside Center – Dominic, Outside Center – Chad, Wings – Marc and Nobie, Fullback – Marcus. Replacements Brandon in for Dominic, Luke A. for Ben.
In this match, we were in it for the first half. The lone UTD Try was scored by Chad on a beautiful kick and chase.
He was able to ground the ball before it went dead in the back of the end zone, but was unable to convert that Try so the half ended UTD 5, St. Ed’s 5. Due to the heat and back to back games and the fact that St. Ed’s does have a very good program their experience was a bit better than us and that experience was the main factor in the second half. They opened the half with a series of passes and support by all their players and when the match was finally over, St. Edward’s had 29 points to our 5. Still a very good showing by our lads, again without even talking about it, they didn’t give up and played hard the entire 40 minutes of the game. This also happened to be our first loss of the day, not too shabby considering for many, this was their 2nd game against another opponent.
The fourth and final match of the day was against UT San Antonio, which is always a very tough and physical match.
Our line up: Props – Erbold and Jimmy, Locks – John and Weston, Flankers – Ben and Ahmad, # 8 – Moonshine, Scrumhalf – Cameron, Flyhalf – Vince, Inside Center – Dominic, Outside Center – Luke, Wings – Marc and Alejandro, Fullback – Joe.
Since tournament rules allowed coaches to freely substitute players in and out and it being the end of a long day. Bear and I decided that we were going to use every player on the team at various points in the game. With that being said, just imagine this rugby match looking like a basketball game. Multiple subs at different parts of the game and in fact not only were we doing this, but UT San Antonio was doing the same thing.
This was a very good and exciting match from the beginning, both sides going back and forth, but it was UTD who struck first and often. Trys were scored by Vince (2) and Austin (1) with Vince making 2 conversions and the final score UTD 19, UTSA 0.
In the 3 matches against division teams, your UTD Comets didn’t give up a point and are playing together as a team. This is very uplifting for us to see and they seem to be really enjoying the atmosphere of being a team. I’m finding out that a number of these young men had never played team sports before trying rugby and it’s great seeing them begin to blossom and get what it takes to play this great game.
We have next weekend off and will be working hard for our first league match against the University of Dallas (UD). The match is scheduled for Saturday, October 6th, with kick off about 6:00pm. In my next blog, I’ll give you more info on UD and how we’re preparing for that match and field updates for you.
As always if anyone has questions or concerns, please contact me.