Texas Collegiate Rugby Round-up - Feb 24-26

It was a good weekend to be an Aggie Rugger!

The Texas A&M Women upset Texas on Sunday 32-29. The Horns led most of the match, but the hustling ladies of Aggieland were not deterred. Texas had already won the right to advance to the playoffs and this was about pride. We're always happy to see a program turn itself around in a tough year. We hope these ladies build on this development and power into next year! 

2011-2012 Texas A&M Women's Rugby after their come from behind win over t.u.

D1-A Collegiate Rugby had a big day in the Lone Star State on Saturday as Texas A&M ran roughshod over a beleaguered Oklahoma Sooner XV. The 85-0 final score might have been greater but for a few handling errors. However, the Aggies were an unstoppable force at scrum-time, stayed in support of their ball-handlers on the breakaways, and put enormous pressure on the potentially dangerous back three of the Sooners.


As expected, the Sooners 8-man, Dakota Wilkinson, played with great work-rate and speed. But breaking away with no support does little good when you run headlong into a fit and fast Aggie pack. BTW, we met Dakota's mother at the Collegiate 7s Championships at A&M in December - an awesome, fun person and a supportive rugby mom. Rugby needs more parents like her! 


From the Aggies' #6 position, Chris Frazier terrorized the Sooners' backline everytime they won ball. His speed off the scrum and breakdowns freed a new pairing in the 3/4s to wreak havoc the few and far between times that the Sooners got to spin the ball wide. 


Oklahoma played well in the first half until the Aggies got a BIG push on a Sooner put-in and took it against the head. That scrum seemed to be the turning point in the match. A&M was already 24 points up at that moment and then they decided to make it academic. The second half was all A&M and a very technical Aggie team emerged. The few times the Sooners gained possession, they found an overloaded and fast-moving defense pushing them backwards and away from support. On attack, the Aggies concentrated on the basics. Flyhalf Connor Mills and scrumhalf Mike Ryan possessed options on every side of the ball, though. So those basics came at the Sooner defense in many forms. It was just too much for the visitors.


This match was streamed live on ustream by our friends at the T5 1/2 Rugby Development Group. You can view this match and A&M's D2 match versus UDallas here.


The SouthWest Collegiate Rugby Conference (D1-AA) continued play this weekend as Sam Houston beat Baylor 54-24 and UNT defeated the University of Houston 46-5. SHSU's win and Houston's loss will move Sam up into 4th place with UNT nipping at their heels. 


The University of Texas and Rice University sit at 1-2 in the rankings in the SWCRC. Both have a few more matches left in the season and they face-off with each other on March 24th, just a week before West Playoffs.

Kickoff Collision!

Texas Collegiate Division 2 teams played three matches this weekend. St. Edward's continued their dominant ways with a 24-5 defeat of SFA in Nacogdoches, Texas Tech battled to a 34-0 win over Angelo State, and Texas A&M's D2 side showed some technical depth in College Station by blanking a never-say-die University of Dallas team 53-0. 


On March 24th, St. Edward's will play Texas Tech for the right to represent the Texas Division 2 in St. Louis for the West Playoffs the very next weekend. 

Collisions abound when St. Edward's visits SFA!

FINALLY, the Texas Collegiate Division 3 champion was decided this weekend in Richardson, TX as UT-Dallas duked it out with UT-San Antonio. The Roadrunners fielded a well-coached, well-prepared traveling side that scored their 10 points early. The Comets battled back to make the halftime score 10-8. The second half proved a defensive slugfest in the middle of the field. UTD found in-goal at the 3/4 mark, but they never assumed this was their winning score. UTSA put their foot in the gas and attacked, attacked, attacked. Penalties and scrums abounded for the final 6 minutes, but the UTD got a scrum in injury time and booted to touch to bring on the final whistle for a 15-10 win. The Comets soared to a Division 3 Championship and the privilege to represent Texas at the NSCRO round of 16 in Wayne, Nebraska. Congratulations to the UTD Comets - 2012 Texas Collegiate Division 3 Champions.