Texas College Rugby Round-up Oct 27

Yesterday saw four games of rugby in the Southwest and Lonestar conferences, combined. The Southwest Conference played two matches hosted by Rice University (UH v St Edward's & Rice v Texas St) and one by TCU (v Texas), while the Comets of UT-Dallas traveled up to Wichita Falls to play MSU. Lamar University was scheduled to play Texas State's 2nd XVs in a Lonestar Conference match at Rice, but that match has been reported as a forfeit.

Rice met the challenge of the always-tough Texas State on their home turf, winning by 33-19. Mr. Bill Arnold posted several photos of the match, one of which is published here.

Since I cannot find a standings post for the SWC or Lonestar Conference, I've decided to put together an unofficial standings and post links here on my blog (also, in the links section to the right). I am using the rugby union points system to rank (those conferences may or may not use the same).

St Edward's showed how a well-coached team should perform as they cruised by the University of Houston, 66-12. The lads at the UH Rugby Club are looking for a coach, if you are interested, please read the details.

Finally, TCU hosted Texas' developmental squad in Ft. Worth on a beautiful day for rugby and defeated them 54-12. Texas Coach, Butch Neuenschwander, knows he is going to need depth to compete in the ARC XVs Championship and intends to develop that depth by fulfilling his club's commitment to the SWC. Texas A&M has done this in the past and is seeing the benefits now. 

In the Lonestar Conference, Tony Wagner's Comets of UT-Dallas fought out a tough one against Rod Puentes' Mustangs in Wichita Falls. The Comets emerged victorious, 31-24, but from the pictures on MSU's Facebook page, it looks to have been a slobber-knocker!  Coach Wagner should have pics and his blog updated for this match at the UT-Dallas Rugby webpage soon.

UNT & Texas Tech played a friendly yesterday with the Red Raiders coming out on top of Mean Green, 46-13. 

The ARC has been quiet this week as they prep for two more 7s tournaments this fall season. Texas A&M won the championships of both the Varsity and JV divisions in their inaugural year at the Southeast Rugby Conference 7s Qualifier. This victory earned them a spot at the dance they will host on Nov 30 & Dec 1! That and the ARC 7s Qualifier victories earned the Aggies the #11 spot in Rugby Magazine's Collegiate 7s Rankings last week (subscription required). 

Texas qualified for the same weekend through the SWC 7s Qualifier and earned themselves the 16th spot on those same rankings. I think we can expect some fairly wonderful 7s battles between Texas, Oklahoma, & A&M over the next couple of weekends of ARC 7s tourneys. These will be some important minutes of preparation before the USAR Collegiate 7s National Championships.