The match is on, set for kick off at 2:00pm at Glenco Park, see match day directions for the address.
0 Comments
Saturday, January 27th your UT Dallas Rugby Club took the pitch against a new university to the Lonestar Conference, Abilene Christian University (ACU).
The day started out just like every other day, except while I was in route to UT Dallas, I get a text that the fields are locked. After a couple of phone calls and texts, the fields were open and the guys quickly put our pitch together and began their warm ups. Kick off was on time and the weather was cooperating (sunny and a mild 64 degrees, but it did get cooler when the sun went down). Captains met at mid field for the coin toss and boom, the match began. Line up: 1. Yahve, 2. Jarvis, 3. Joey, 4. Aly, 5. Calvin, 6. Andrew, 7. Steven L. 8. Caleb, 9. Talhah, 10. Lewis, 11. Josue, 12. Edmund, 13. Tristen, 14. Octavio, 15. Eric Reserves 16. Andrew D., 17. Ethan, 18. Travis, 19. Andrew M., 20. Michael, 21. Jackson, 22. Grafton, 23. Manny ACU came out of the blocks on fire, they controlled the ball, pace and action for the first 20 minutes of the match, but UTD had a line out awarded to them. We threw and won that line out, passed to Flanker Andrew Palet, who tore through the ACU defense to what was going to be the first score of the match, but NOOOOO. Andrew lost control of the ball on his way to grounding the Try, referees words "knock on in goal". From the ensuing scrum, the other flanker Steven Larsen got the ball and slotted the first Try of the game. It was a good match to watch, both sides was playing well and to use the words of our trainer Robin, these guys are really knocking heads. She had to look at a number of players from both sides and hand out ice for their wounds and aches. The first half ended with UTD up 32 to ACU's 0, a couple of substitutions were made and the second half began. ACU while they are into their first full season of competition, they played like a seasoned club that had been in the conference for a number of years. Their coach Nikki had them working together, while my coaches Bear motivated the forwards and Pete and Daniel fine tuned the backs for another exciting half. The second half was pretty much like the first half with UTD scoring multiple Trys and we managed to keep ACU out of goal. The final score UT Dallas 55, ACU 0 Scoring on the day was Jackson (3 Trys), Steven L. (2 Trys), Lewis, Eric, Aly, Edmund all scoring 1 Try each. Lewis Hopkins did convert 5 of 9 Trys on the day. Next/this Saturday Feb. 3rd, we will play a friendly match against the Dallas Harlequinns U23, while this is a friendly match, we need to use it like a league match. This is our only tune up match before the playoffs. When we last played the Quinns U23 they put up sick numbers against us, 63 points to be exact. With former UTD players now playing with the Quinns, it lends itself into a brand new non league rivalry almost like the Alumni game. The match is scheduled to be played in Dallas, and as soon as I know the location and time of the match, I'll post that info. Just a heads up, the Lonestar Playoffs/Championship will be held at Angelo State University the weekend of Februrary 24th and 25th in San Angelo, Texas. When we know more info on what hotel and such we will pass that info on as well. This past Saturday, your UT Dallas Rugby Club took the pitch in a friendly match against UNT. This match was the first of the 2018 year and a way to shake off the dust from this past winter's break.
Originally, this was supposed to be a round robin type tournament with UT Austin, UNT and us all playing 2 matches, but UT Austin backed out last minute Friday afternoon. So with that being stated, we were still committed to playing 2 matches against the same school. Our match was moved up an hour earlier, and we had the personnel there ready to play. The line up for 1st match 1. Yahve, 2. Jarvis, 3. Joey 4. Calvin, 5. Ali, 6. Andrew P., 7. Steven L., 8. Caleb, 9. Talhah, 10. Lewis, 11. Josue, 12. Edmund, 13. Tristen, 14. Jackson, 15. Eric Reserves: Ethan replaced Jarvis in the second half It was a difficult match for us because of the height and weight discrepancy between our 2 clubs. But our guys fought the entire 80 minutes of the match. The final score unofficially was UNT 64 to UT Dallas' 3 - thanks to a penalty kick made by Lewis in the second half, to keep us from being shut out. The second match also was against UNT and the line up for that match was: 1. Brandon, 2. Angel, 3. Grafton, 4. Alex Wilson, 5. Alex Willis, 6. Andrew M. 7. Syed, 8. Travis, 9. Talhah, 10. Andrew D., 11. Eric, 12. Ola, 13. Tristen, 14. Josue, 15. Jackson In this match, the guys played quite well against the larger, faster UNT second side. While this was a good match for some of the guys to finally get some game time. It was a good match to watch. What I mean by this statement is that it was good to see some of these guys challenge themselves against and opponent that is equally skilled. I may not have liked both results, because we lost that second side match as well. But we weren't kept scoreless in this match either. Daniel came in a part time reserve and managed to score a try for our B side. This coming Saturday (1/27/18) we play our last league match of the 2017-2018 Lonestar season and we're hosting Abilene Christian University (ACU). Currently ACU has a 3 win, 1 loss record and should be a decent test for the guys before going into the playoffs at the end of the month. More on the playoffs later, but right now our guys have to find a way to rebound from this past weekends match. In the past, a loss like this provided us the wake up call for the guys to regain their peak performance. Abllene Christian is in their second season, but that doesn't mean anything when clubs step up on the field. Kick off for this match is set for 4:30pm next Saturday and will be played at UT Dallas. See you there. We've had a couple of good weeks of practice and called practice off this past Tuesday with the winter blast that came into North Texas.
Well, It's back to practice Thursday evening and this Saturday (1/20/18), the UT Dallas Rugby Club takes the pitch in a small round robin. Taking on UNT and UT. This should be a good weekend for us to shake off the winter layoff and prepare against 2 formidable opponents. UNT competes in the Tier 1 conference of the Lonestar Conference and are in the top 2 of leading the tier. We plan on using this weekend to see how we can get back into form from this past fall season. UT competes in the Red River Conference and since their season doesn't start until a week of two after this friendly. But in the past when we have played UT, it was a good match, but we came up short. This weekend, we will play UNT 2 at 3:30pm and UT 2 at 5:00pm. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone out at the UNT campus, the address is posted in the Match Day Directions. On January 27th, we'll conclude our season with a home game against Abilene Christian University, but more on that after our round robin this weekend. First, let me wish everyone a Happy New Year, I hope you all had a good time bringing in the new year. Suzi and I had a nice quiet dinner a couple of drinks and waited for midnight.
One of the last things I told the lads after the SFA game, was to ask Santa Claus for sweats, warm ups anything they could use to keep warm on the cold practice nights. I hope they listened to me and Santa was good to them. He was for me, I got a couple of warm weather things, yippee. We ended the fall half of the season going 6 wins, 0 losses and was very successful in the games we played. In fact, according to Competition Management System (CMS) here are our stats. Games played 6, Games Won 6, Games Lost 0, Points For 424, Points Against 32, Point Differential 392, Points 30 Top 4 Tier 2 Rankings and record UT Dallas 1st place (6-0) Letourneau 2nd place (4-1) Abilene Christian 3rd place (3-1) Southern Methodist 4th place (2-3) It has been a fun fall half of the season, and now the reality of the new season. It's been a great 5 years having Daniel Eljuri on the field, we (Bear and myself) met him when he first joined the club. Didn't know a rugby ball from a football, but in those years, he worked hard and transformed his body and mind into a devastating intelligent rugby player, who has made USA National Honors by being an Academic All American and being selected to the first ever Lonestar Conference All Star Team in their tour to the Caymen Islands. Another player, Andrew Whiteis, who we met 4 1/2 years ago, when he walked onto the rugby practice field. From the first tackle practice and ball handling drills. We knew we had someone special and Andrew proved to be a fierce competitor, good leader and team-mate. Daniel and Andrew both are such good leaders, they were selected captains and with their help they ran the club during games, when it's out of the coaches hands or voice. We (all the coaches) wish Daniel and Andrew all the best in their future, be it on the rugby pitch or in the office. They are truly fine gentlemen and now they'll get to play with the undefeated Alumni side next fall, when we play the annual Alumni game. The Spring Season This spring, we have two matches that are on the books: January 20th we travel to Denton to play UNT and UT in a 3 club round robin (details will be coming as we get closer to that weekend) January 27th we host Abilene Christian Univ. in the last home league match of the 2017-18 Lonestar season. (more details will be coming as we get closer to that match) February 24th and 25th - the Lonestar Conference Playoffs begin, the venue will be decided later this month and details will be posted as we get closer. My vision is to fill the open weekends between the Abilene Christian match and the playoffs. I've sent 2 emails off to clubs we don't play or not in our conference, but haven't heard anything from them yet. If they are unable, then I'll continue to look for someone to play. See you on Game Day. |
Practice Times
Men Tuesdays 6 - 8 pm Thursdays 6 - 8 pm Women Mondays 8 - 10 pm Wednesdays 8 - 10 pm Archives
August 2018
|