On a beautiful fall evening with temperatures in the low 70’s and good winds blowing from the south, your UT Dallas Rugby Club took on cross town rivals SMU, in their 4th league match of this season.
The match started as scheduled with a very competent referee in the middle of things. The reason I’m stating this is because earlier in the week, we were having difficulties getting one for this match, but in the end, Traci Schmidtke accepted the invitation to come to UTD from Austin to referee our match.
The line up for the match:
Props – Erbold Uran and Nate Pyle, Hooker – AJ Paradowski, Second Rows – Michael Janus and Weston Hearne, Flankers – Mohammad Nadeem and Ahmad Moayyed, Number 8 – John Bradshaw, Scrumhalf – Cameron Brussard, Flyhalf –Vince Dutton, Inside Center – Dominic Prestia, Outside Center – Trevor Smith, Wings – Marc Hudak and Alejandro Chinchilla, Fullback – Steven Shaffer.
Reserves: Ben Bales in for John Bradshaw (injury 10thminute of match), Marcus Burnside in for Steven Shaffer (beginning of second half), Luke Lewis in for Trevor Smith (beginning of second half), Justin Thompson in for Alejandro Chinchilla (beginning of second half), Brian Martinez in for Vince Dutton (60th minute of match), Brandon Miller (60th minute of match), Auturo Sifuentes in for Marc Hudak (60th minute of match).
The match was a good one; SMU was better prepared than the last time we played them in a league match. Both teams were moving back and forth on the field, but it was UTD who slotted the first points of the match. From there the lads never looked back, SMU through a lot at the lads, but they responded very well to every challenge they faced. Traci was in top form, calling penalties against both sides, and due to the fact that she maintained the Texas Rugby Union policy of only one coach inside the ropes, since Bear does more talking to the lads than I do, he was the coach inside and I roamed the spectator side of the ropes. Bear did a great job barking out instructions to the guys and that’s part of the reason the lads responded as they did.
The first half ended with UT Dallas holding a commanding lead over SMU, 47 to 14. The second half began and after replacing 3 players, not because they weren’t playing well, they were playing spectacular rugby, it’s was just time to bring in some fresh legs to keep our defense and attack going forward and not allow SMU to get back into the
game. Which is exactly what they did, they kept the pressure on SMU, with Cameron Broussard running what seemed like circles around the defense. Vince had his way up the middle and around the ends of that same defense
to name a few, but it was the entire forward pack that did most of the damage against SMU. They constantly won
possession from every ruck, maul and scrum. Without those guys doing all the dirty work, the backs wouldn’t have had the success they had.
Some of the forwards, both Flankers Ahmad and Mohammad played very well chasing the ball carrier down and were endless in their duties. The front row, Erbold, AJ and Nate took care of their opposite front row in scrums and were instrumental in a number of pick and go’s during the game. Second Rows Michael and Weston were equally impressive. Michael making his first start in a league match played very well, his line out was good and he was all over the field. Weston took this evening to do more pick and goes and basically got around the field more than I’ve ever seen him do. Normally Weston is the kind of player who’s always there doing the dirty work, but he’s like a ghost, you know he’s there, you just don’t see it. John Bradshaw started out at number 8 due to Sunshine being sick and played the first 10 minutes before suffering a cut that required stitches and Ben Bales came in to replace him and was very steady in his play, thanks.
The second half was pretty much like the first half; UTD never gave up in their pressure and with constant pressure kept SMU always defending. UT Dallas was able to score 3 more Trys and kept SMU from scoring any more. The final score UT Dallas 73, SMU 14.
Try scorers, Cameron Brussard (3), AJ Paradowski, Vince Dutton (3), Marc Hudak (2), Dominic Prestia and Luke Lewis. Totaled as a team 11 Trys. Vince Dutton was 9 for 11 on conversions.
Next weekend your UT Dallas Rugby Club travels to Norman, OK to play a friendly match against the University of Oklahoma. This is a match that we want to use to keep our edge against higher divisional clubs so that if we continue our winning and wind up in the playoffs we’re able to compete against clubs that may be bigger or better (on paper than us. As I get details about next week’s game, including directions I’ll post them.
The University of Oklahoma Rugby Club is not only a Premier Collegiate Club but they also have a division 1 side. They play agaisnt clubs all across the country like Texas A&M, LSU, Cal to name a few, but for our match we will be playing against their 2nd and 3rd side players. This will give their guys an opportunity to get some valuable match experience as well as your UT Dallas Rugby Club.