This past weekend, your UT Dallas Men's Rugby Club traveled to UT San Antonio for the Lonestar Conference Playoffs (LSC).  This year with 14 clubs in the LSC divided into 2 tiers of 7 clubs, the LSC took the top 5 tier 1 clubs and the top 3, tier 2 clubs attending this 2 day tournament.
   The rankings for the tier 1 clubs are: 1. Angelo St. 2. St. Edward's, 3. UTSA, 4. UT Dallas, 5. SFA.  The top 3 tier 2 are 1. Tarleton St., 2. Letourneau, 3. Prairie View A&M.
   UT Dallas began the day with a rematch against Angelo St. the line up:
1. Caleb, 2. Josh, 3. Ryan, 4. Christopher, 5. Connor, 6. Will, 7. Daniel, 8. Jake, 9. Andrew W., 10. Edmund, 11. Franklin, 12. Andrew D., 13. Nicky, 14. Eric, 15. Zac
Reserves, Brandon, Steven, Seth, Lucas, Not Playing - Brian
   UT Dallas came out hard and ready to play, but we were under sized compared to the ASU players.  UTD never gave up and fought the good fight, but in the end it was ASU with the victory.  The lone bright side to this game, was Daniel taking the ball from and ASU forward and running in for UTD's lone try of the day.  The final score ASU 45, UTD 5.
   In the second match of the day, pitted UT Dallas against Letourneau (LTU), the line up for this game
1. Caleb, 2. Josh, 3. Brandon, 4. Christopher, 5. Connor, 6. Will, 7. Daniel, 8. Jake, 9. Andrew, 10. Edmund, 11. Franklin, 12. Andrew D, 13. Seth, 14. Eric, 15. Zach
Reserves: Nicky, Seth, Lucas all came in the 2nd half.
   In this match, LTU kicked off to UTD, and the ball was spun out to the backs.  Andrew Do found a crease in the LTU defense and sprinted 80 yards to score the quickest, first and opening Try in UTD history.  Andrew Whiteis made the conversion to take a 7 - 0 lead.  On the next kick off, the ball moved with the forwards.  They did a great job of securing possession, then off to the backs.  Andrew Do found another opening and off he went to score the second Try in the game.  Andrew missed the conversion, but UTD had a 12 - 0 lead at the half.
    But that would be all the scoring for UTD, Letourneau came out in the 2nd half and scored 26 unanswered points to win the game. 
    That would pretty much put the story of UT Dallas Rugby season in one weekend of rugby.  The lads never gave up, they played their butts off.  I know I can speak for Bear, and both of us are extremely proud of how they all came to practice week in and week out.  They came to play rugby, and based on what we have and saw.  Our future is looking bright, with a number of returning players and the returning players keep recruiting new players.  We should have more fun next year.

    On the Women's side, they traveled to Denton to play in the 2nd of 3 tournaments.  The ladies that went to Denton are Cari, Ashley, Camille, Gisselle, Alyssa, Bayley, Mel, Marie, Elaine.
    The girls won the first 2 games against Letourneau and Sam Houston, but lost to UNT and ASU. on the day out of 8 clubs competing.  The UT Dallas Women's Rugby Club finished 4 in the competition.  I will post all the girls that scored in another blog.
    Great going girls, you played very well and I'm very proud of how you go out there and compete.  I'd also like to thank Jonathan and Jacey for taking time out of their day to go out and help the girls in that tournament.
    The girls have one more tournament (April 2nd) in Huntsville, more info on that as we get closer.  The men's season is done, I hope that they continue to grow in the game by going out and joining a Men's club to keep on improving their skills and learning new things from those clubs. 

    On an unseasonably warm and unusually early February morning, coaches and members of the UT Dallas Rugby Club made their way onto the campus of St. Edward's University.  This was the first rugby game played on campus in over 40 years and it was huge not only for St. Edward's Rugby Club but also for college rugby in general.
    The players warmed up and prepared mentally for the season finale.  The line up:
1. Caleb, 2. Josh, 3. Brandon, 4. Chris, 5. Conner, 6. Will, 7. Daniel, 8. Jake, 9. Andrew, 10. Edmund, 11. Eric, 12. Nicky, 13. Zac, 14. Franklin, 15. Brian
16. Ryan
   When the referee blew the whistle to begin the game, both sides came out swinging.  There were hits and then there was bigger hits.  Some by UT Dallas and some by St. Edward's (SEU), but there was a lot of rugby to be played.  UT Dallas managed to gain possession a few times during the first half, and a few times threatened to score a couple of Trys, but the St. Edward's defense tightened up and was able to come away with the ball to end our threat. 
    SEU attacked the UT Dallas defense, we bent and sometimes we bent farther than we thought we could, but we didn't break.  SEU didn't find goal until well after 20 minutes into the first half and then again nearly 30 minutes into the half.  That would be all the scoring in the first half, with SEU leading 12 to UT Dallas 0.
   The second half would be a tale of 2 halves, while we fought harder in the first half, we fought hard in the second half, but it would be the constant onslaught of pressure being put on us from SEU and us missing a number of players to come in and help out.  SEU ran in 6 Trys and SEU converted 4 of those for a combined SEU score of 50 to UT Dallas' 0.
    All during this 3nd half, UT Dallas Rugby Club players could have easily given up, but they didn't, they fought, they never gave up, they came to play 80 minutes of rugby.  And because of this, they were rewarded, Jake intercepted a pass from SEU backs and rumble 22 meters to score UTD's first and only Try of the game, Andrew converted it and then the referee blew the whistle to end the game.  Final score SEU 50, UT Dallas 7
    The game was a good one and not taking anything away from St. Edward's, but it is hard to swallow if you're UTD because I think we have just as much talent as the top clubs in the Lonestar Conference.  I can't pinpoint the reason why and how we're where we are, but we will be preparing for the playoffs, which will be played next weekend (2/27-28/16) on the campus of UTSA.
     The schedule has been made and there will be 8 games played on Saturday between 10:30am until 5:00pm and then the final few games to be played on Sunday along with the championship. 
     More info and a schedule will be posted later this week as the seeds are finally posted and schedule set.  I will also post directions and info related to these playoffs later this week.

    Well, here it is, the last league season match of the year.  We've had some fun times and we've had some kick in the tails kind of days.  Now we have St. Edward's as our last hurdle of the year, but what's different about this game, is St. Edward's will be hosting their first rugby match on the campus of St. Edward's, kick off is set for 11:00am.  The match will be played on or in the St. Edward's Soccer Stadium.  The address and directions will be posted in the Venue Directions section of this web site.
     As far as St. Edward's goes, our past hasn't been good for us, in some lop sided scored, but every club can be any club on any given day.  Our guys have been practicing and I think they may be ready to take SEU on.
     Your UT Dallas Rugby Club has already made the playoffs, just who we'll play and when is still to be determined and when I know more, I'll pass on that info.  The playoffs will be played in San Antonio at UTSA.  More on that later.

   

   Yesterday (2/6) your UT Dallas Rugby Club traveled to Longview to take on Letourneau (LTU) in a friendly match.  Since LTU joined the Lonestar Conference (LSC) we have played them in league play and while we got the best of them the first couple of years.  They had been steadily improving and last year they beat us for the first time, we were able to get a win back against them later in the season.  But those were league matches and this year the LSC has grown so much that we 2 tiers or divisions.  UTD is in tier 1 and LTU is in tier 2 and while UTD has moved up the ranks from 6th place out of 7 clubs to currently 4th place.  LTU has been at the top of tier 2 and taking care of business.
    Back to the game, LTU had decided to run the first half with a lot of their players that don't get much opportunity to get playing time, and I decided to do exactly that as well.  So below is our starting line up
1. Caleb, 2. Josh, 3. Brandon, 4. Chris, 5. Conner, 6. Will, 7. Bryan, 8. Daniel, 9. Lucas, 10. Andrew, 11. Talhah, 12. Nicky,13. Seth, 14. Franklin, 15. Zac
Coming in the second half -
Andrew moves to Scrumhalf, Brian in at Flyhalf, Eric in at Wing, Daniel moves to Flanker, Jake in at #8 and Myles at Hooker, Steven in at Outside Center.
    The first half was furious with both clubs running and attacking, it was a very entertaining half, and it was UT Dallas to score first.  Andrew Whiteis scored on a quick penalty tap to weave in and out between the LTU defense to ground the ball, we missed the conversion and took a 5 to 0 lead.  But LTU was fired up and came back to score 12 points in the first half to take a 12 to 5 lead.
    The second half resumed with both clubs putting in their first sides and the excitement continued.  UT Dallas forwards were very impressive in their play and the backs made things happen.  And like the first half, this half was very entertaining for fans to watch.  Both clubs moved the ball all over the pitch and both clubs defended well and stole ball away from each other for their side to counter attack.
    In the second half, it was our forwards that lead the pace on our scoring.  Caleb scored his first Try of the season, but LTU came back to score a Try of their own.  With about 10 minutes remaining in the match Daniel scored the second Try of the half and Brian Martinez converted not only Caleb's Try but Daniel's as well to tie the match at 19 points each.  But LTU wasn't done, with a well placed kick and inexperienced players at wing and full back, we fumbled the ball back to LTU and they scored and converted the match winning Try with less than 2 minutes remaining in the game.  Final score LTU 24, UT Dallas 19.
    The lads played very good against a slightly bigger side and we know that things are beginning to fall into place for our run at the playoffs at the end of this month.  Next weekend, we have a bye and will be attending the USA Eagles v Canada match in Austin.  Our final league match will be played again in Austin against St. Edward's University on Feb. 20th.  More on that later, but the bye weekend gives us time to work on our game, heal get ready for that very important match leading up to the playoffs.