It's been a good number of years since I last saw TCU play rugby, but I've been following their progress through the years. TCU competed in the Southwest Rugby Conference and now compete in the Red River Rugby Conference in a DIA competition. But since it was early in the season and the TCU coach was gracious enough to schedule our men to take on his guys for the sake of experience, I was all part of that.
Originally, the ladies of UT Dallas was also going to play the TCU Women in a scrimmage, but the match had to be cancelled due to the fact that TCU Women's Rugby had folded. This really hurt the Lady Comets because they are biting at the bit to play a game against someone other than their own teammates. I'll see if I can find something for them in the upcoming weekend. I'll keep you posted via this web site.
The men were at the field, listening to Assistant Coach Pete Santos with pre-match instructions. Coaches Bear and Daniel had prior family commitment to attend.
Since the guys are still rather new, I'm still having difficulties remembering who they are. So upon final role call, I found that we had 37 players ready to either begin their rugby career or think they can roll over anyone that steps on the pitch. I know players (at least the brand new players) don't think that, but I know a good number of the returning players might have that thought running through their minds.
But rugby is a game that's played on the field with 15 players from 2 clubs, and the winner will be the club that scores more points. We had originally agreed to play four 20 minute quarters and that's what we did.
Everyone got to play at least 1 quarter, some got more time than they imagined, but it was all for the sake of learning the game.
I will say that I am extremely proud of how this club played today. Each one of the returning players and the new players who played in high school all played very well, but it was the brand new to the game new players that stepped up. It is these players that will carry on the legacy of UT Dallas after the juniors and seniors leave to UT Dallas to pursue work or maybe continue to play for a men's club.
Since this was a friendly match and doesn't mean anything for our standings, we had way too many players that played well, but I will say that each week after our matches. I get with the coaches and decide on a "Man of the Match" this usually goes to a player who has played above his or her abilities. Not always does this go to the best player, but this weekend to begin this, our Honorable Mention goes out to Andrew Pallet who played one heck of a game from his Flanker position.
But the "Man of the Match" went to a new player who had scored his very first Try of his young collegiate career in playing in his 3rd game, Calvin Lones was the "Man of the Match". With this award, he gets to wear an old Scotland Rugby Jersey with Man of the Match painted on the front and back. In other words, he gets to show everyone that he plays rugby and is a force not to be messed with on the pitch.
Next weeks match is a league opener for the Men, they open their league season playing Prairie View A&M. The match will kick off between 6:15 and 6:30pm next Saturday, Sept. 30th at UT Dallas.
I don't know much about Prairie View A&M except that they are mostly ex footballers and while their rugby skills may not be there (at least this was the case last year) they proved to be a formidable due to their athleticism and it could be the same next weekend. This is a club that could be very dangerous both on the ground and in the air. So, we shall not take them lightly. If I find out any more about Prairie View, I'll post it to this web site.