themselves. It was a very exciting day, although a lot of work had been accomplished in making sure everyone had rides down to Austin. Alessandra worked her fingers off texting/emailing everyone to get the last girl a ride, due to an unforeseen work commitment by one of the ladies, job well done Alessandra.
Saturday morning, half an hour before our first match of the day, found that we had 15 ladies ready to play UTSA.
Got them into positions, final briefing, then let them go. UTSA could not field a side entirely of UTSA students, so they joined forces with Sam Houston St. to field a 15’s side. Our girls came out, tackled well, attacked well but in the end it was the experience of the Sam Houston women that proved to be the difference. Not that I was keeping score, but when league begins in 2 weeks, we’re hoping that all the other clubs will be able to field a 15’s side.
The lineup for this match:
1. Malissa, 2. Gisselle, 3. Guadalupe, 4. Alessandra, 5. Lisa, 6. Ariel, 7. Candria, 8. Vic, 9. Marie, 10. Alyssa, 11. Carmen, 12. Judit, 13. Emily, 14. Andrea, 15. Sarah
The 2nd match of the day was against another combined side, Rice and Lamar University taking the field against UT Dallas. This match was a lot better in terms of equal experience, with both sides having to tackle/defend and look for weaknesses in the defense to exploit. This by far was a very entertaining match to watch, because both sides were doing exactly how they had been coached.
The line for this match :
1. Malissa, 2. Gisselle, 3. Guadalupe, 4. Alex (guest), 5. Lisa, 6. Ariel, 7. Candria, 8. Vic, 9. Alyssa, 10. Makayla (guest), 11. Carmen, 12. Judit, 13. Emily, 14. Andrea, 15. Sarah
Marie came on in the second half for Carmen.
Trys scored on the day were by Ariel (2), Marie (1) and Alyssa had 2 Conversions.
After the tournament, the Rice women and UT Dallas women met and enjoyed a joint team dinner at Amaya's Taco Village in Austin. It was great watching the girls intermingle and talk about what they had learned, and in general exchanging ideas.
The men took the field immediately after the women against UTSA in what is always a very entertaining match, especially since this was the first match of the year. With a combined veteran/rookie roster taking the field, this gave the rookies a good opportunity to gain valuable time while the veterans a chance to help and guide the rookies along in a good match. Again I wasn’t concerned about winning, these matches don’t count and we were using them as a
step to the next phase.
The line up for this match:
1. Maika, 2. AJ, 3. Nate, 4. John, 5. Elliot, 6. Conner, 7. Matt, 8. Chris, 9. Andrew, 10. Vince, 11. Michael, 12. Ola, 13. Jake, 14. Marc, 15. Joe
Coming in for the 2nd half – Cameron for Andrew, Reese for Vince, Dominic for Ola, Nicky for Jake.
The match itself was very good, saw some good things out of everyone on the field, a couple of highlights, Michael made a try saving tackle on a UTSA ball carrier who thought he was going to score after getting past our fullback, but Michael wasn’t going to allow that. One lowlight, Vince managed to break his hand in this match and will be
out 6 to 8 weeks. Chris and Conner both took shots to the head and was sent to be checked out with Vince. Conner was cleared of any injury, but Chris will miss the next match until he is cleared following the concussion he got Saturday.
The next match of the day was against the tournament host , St. Edward’s University. Again, the goal of the afternoon was to get valuable game experience for the new players. So with that being said, we took the field against St. Ed’s in a very good match. Both sides played very well, St. Edward’s used a good number of subs since it was open substitutions, while I chose to limit the subs unless needed. Both ways worked for each club, but it was St. Edward’s getting the best of us on this day. We had no one that scored, and will have to change that when we face them this coming Saturday.
The line up for this:
1. Jonathan, 2. Otto, 3. Ryan, 4. Weston, 5. Daniel, 6. Eric, 7. Zebra, 8. Jake, 9. Cameron, 10. Reese, 11. Alejandro, 12. Dominic, 13. Nicky, 14. Tommy, 15. Graham
Mohammad came in for Zebra.
In keeping with the spirits of Dwight, Stephen Knadle in getting a yellow card in this tournament Tommy got his yellow card, and just like Dwight and Stephen. Tommy was the victim of an overzealous referee, and that’s all I say on that.
The final match of the day was the traditional 75 Central Expressway rivals SMU. In this final match, I decided to empty the bench. I used every player dressed to play. The SMU side came out to play and for the first time in a long time, they had a complete side with undergrads and replacements. More on them when we face them later in the season.
The match was good, both sides exchanged ball movement, but it was UT Dallas that I believe put more points on the board than SMU, again I wasn’t keeping score.
The lineup for this match:
1. Jonathan, 2. Chris (another one), 3. Maika, 4. John, 5. Weston, 6. Christian, 7. AJ, 8. Jake, 9. Andrew, 10. Cameron, 11. Alejandro, 12. Dominic, 13. Matt, 14. Michael, 15. Graham
Everyone was used in this final match of the day. Trys and conversions made on the day were by the following, Cameron (2 Trys, 1 Conversion), Andrew (1 Try), Alejandro (1 Try), Michael (1 Try), Zebra (1 Try).
Michael, Andrew and Zebra all scored their first Trys with UT Dallas rugby club.
This coming Saturday (9/28/13) your UT Dallas Men will host St. Edward’s University in a friendly match on Field 6 on the UT Dallas campus. Kick off is set for 3:00pm and we’ll probably play three 30 minute periods. That should be enough to get everyone a run. See you all out there.