The weather forecasters said that there would be showers coming through the DFW area beginning roughly about 5:00pm.  With that being known and our friendly match kicking off at 3:00, we thought that we would be able to get the game in before the rains came.
   Well everything looked good, the players got the goal posts up, goal post pads, rope barriers up by 2:00.  We were ready to begin warm ups, then everything went south. 
   The rains came in, not that rain could stop a rugby player, but lighting can stop any and all games on the UT Dallas soccer fields and that was the beginning.  Our Rec Sports Director Chris McAlpine was on the phone with the UT Dallas Athletic Director and his people in the hopes of getting our rugby match in as well as a UT Dallas NCAA Soccer match completed.  Briefly, the Athletic Dept. protocol on lighting is to wait 20 minutes from the last strike, if no more lighting - play on.  If another strike, the clock restarts with a fresh 20   But Mother Nature wasn't going to have any of this or maybe the rugby gods felt that both UT Dallas and St. Edward's didn't need to play a match on this day.
   Since we were unable to get our last tune up match before league begins, we'll just have to do everything on the fly next week when our league season begins.
   Speaking of league openers, next weekend (10/5/13) we will have our first UT Dallas Women's Rugby Club match ever in history.  The women open up against Rice University, kick off for this match is 3:00pm.  The men begins their league opener against McMurray University at 5:00pm.
   Rice University Women's Rugby is a new club and very similar to UT Dallas Women's Rugby, this should be a very good match and it could go either way.  One other note on this upcoming game, due to the fact that Rice may not have 15 players, we could play 7's or 10's meaning instead of 15 players like you may be used to seeing, there may be 7 or 10 or more on the field doing the exact same thing.  We won't know what until later this week, when we hear from Rice.
   McMurray University is a new club in the Lonestar Conference and new to rugby as well.  Being new to rugby doesn't mean they aren't good, we proved that 3 seasons ago.  We don't know anything about them, but plan on preparing for anything and just be ready to play our game.
   Thank you for your support, and we'll see you out next Saturday at both club's league openers.

   This past weekend, the UT Dallas Rugby Club (both Men and Women) took the field against someone other than
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.

   This coming weekend (9/21/13) the men and women of the UT Dallas Rugby Club's take to the field in Austin.  This round robin tournament is hosted by St. Edward's University and in each of the previous 2 years, we've used this tournament as a great way to play 3 or more games in one day.  Giving all the players ample game experience and time to have fun playing against other guys like themselves.
   This year is especially good, because like the guys did 2 years ago, debut on the central Texas rugby pitch, our ladies will be taking the field playing 2 games on Saturday.
   I have posted game times, see below for that schedule.
   I have also posted directions to Burr Field in Austin.  Burr Field is the home pitch of the Austin Blacks Rugby Club and they're acting as hosts with St. Edward's in this round robin.
   Looking forward to watching some good rugby and having some fun along the way.  If anyone has any questions or comments or would like to bring anything to the round robin, feel free to contact me.

UPDATED SCHEDULE FOR SATURDAY
Field 2 - 11am UT Dallas Women vs UTSA Women
Field 2 - Noon UTSA vs UT Dallas
Field 2 - 1pm  Rice Women vs UT Dallas Women
Field 2 - 2pm  UT Dallas vs SMU
Field 1 - 4pm  St. Edward's vs UT Dallas

  Three weeks of practice in the books and now it's time for everyone to show what they've learned in practice.  The evening began with splitting the women into two sides, once that was done the jerseys handed out and last minute fine tuning complete, a new referee on the pitch and her final words from her coach done.  It was time to play RUGBY.
   The Red team line up:
1. Cora, 2. Marie, 3. Sarah, 4. Alyssa (C), 5. Malissa, 6. Chandria, 7. Lauren, 8. Lisa, 9. Racheel,10.  Carmen, 11. Allison (guest)
   The Green and Orange team line up:
1. Stephanie (C), 2. Emily, 3. Judit, 4. Guadalupe, 5. Kori, 6. Giselle, 7. Alessandra, 8. Vic, 9. Elise, 10. Ariel, 11. Neve (guest)
   Due to the fact that we hadn't prepared for kick offs, it was a decision that all restarts would begin with a scrum.  And the game began, both sides showed a lot of defense tackling each other and not allowing any kind of attack by each side. 
   While the tackles were coming at a feverish pace, both sides also showed a lot of skill running and passing the ball while looking for space to attack.  This evening was just to provide them a sample of what is to come next week when they're playing in a tournament type format.
   The games were great to watch, both sides finally was able to exploit each other's weakness and found space, Trys were scored by the Red team - Marie (2), Lisa (1).  Trys by the Green and Orange team - Alessandra (3), Ariel (1).
   The ladies take the field next weekend in Austin at the St. Edward's Round Robin Tournament, their first match will be at 10am against UT San Antonio.  More info and directions to the tournament will be added Tuesday.

   The Men took the field against the Alumni (ok, some were alumni, others were from a local club and still some were from this current UT Dallas Rugby Club), anyway the game began as scheduled, the line up for the first 20 minute period:
1. Jonathan, 2. Otto, 3. Nate, 4. John, 5. Weston, 6. Matt, 7. Elliot, 8. Chris, 9. Cameron, 10. Vince, 11. Marc, 12. Luke, 13. Jake, 14. Alejandro, 15. Brian
    This was a good period for the lads of UTD, the defense that both sides showed and the attacks were furious, the ball moved up and down the field.
   The second period line up:
1. Mieka, 2. Otto, 3. Jonathan, 4. John, 5. Daniel, 6. Conner, 7. Eric, 8. Chris, 9. Andrew, 10. Michael, 11. Justin, 12 Nicky, 13. Steven, 14. Arturo, 15. Joe
   This was, in my opinion one of two very good periods for the young lads of UTD Rugby, the forward pack was solid with some experience in there to even things out, but it was the back line that proved that they want to learn and play going against a more experienced back line the Alumni threw at them.
   The line up for the 3rd and final period:
1.Nate, 2. Otto, 3. Mieka, 4. Daniel, 5. Weston, 6, Matt, 7. Elliot, 8. Chris, 9. Andrew, 10. Vince, 11 Crow, 12. Cameron, 13. Luke, 14. Nick, 15. Graham.
Coming in late - in at Flyhalf (10) Reese, in at Wing (11) Ryan, and the other Wing (14) Henry
   Both of the last 2 periods the lads showed a lot of heart and nothing was mentioned to them, but they began to show the exact greed that the previous teams from UT Dallas showed.  They NEVER, NEVER GAVE UP,  It was a lot of pride and they all showed composure during the game last night and I have no doubt that they will gel together and do something very impressive this coming year. 
   Next weekend, like the women, the men will take the field in Austin at the St. Edward's Round Robin Tournament, the lads first match will be at 11am and I'll post the schedule and directions Tuesday night for all to see.
   Thank you to everyone who came out to play rugby last night, a lot of good was discovered and now we'll take each player and mold them into becoming an even better player for this upcoming season.

   There has been a lot of learning, sweating and a good note no bleeding, but the time has come for both the Men and Women of the UT Dallas Rugby Football Club to put what they've learned to test.
    On Saturday, Sept. 14th, the Women take the field for their first match as a 15's side.  While there may be only 10 on each team, they'll be putting what they've been coached to work on the field.  The format for this match will be two - 20 minute halves.  Kick off should be a little after 6:00pm.
    Following the Women's match, the Men will play the first ever UT Dallas Alumni match.  While the alumni may not have a full side, players from the current team will be given to them to complete their side.  This will give all the new players an excellent opportunity to get some real time experience and put to work what they've learned in practice.  Kick off for this match will be roughly 7:00pm.
    After both matches, we'll go to our after match restaurant "Fuzzy's Taco Shop" for some food, beverage and conversation. 
    Players will be evaluated on their play earlier and parents will have the chance to meet and greet with the coaches.  Looking forward to seeing everyone out this weekend, it should be fun.

    Next weekend will be the St. Edward's Round Robin Tournament featuring both our Men and Women's teams.  This will be an excellent weekend as well  and the best part of that weekend is there will be a women's rugby clinic to be held Sunday at UT Austin for all the new women's rugby players.  More on next weekend next week.