From Hugh UTES AT BYU FRIDAY NIGHT This past Saturday the Utes earned a forfeit victory over Montana State when the Bobcats cancelled their match with Utah on Wednesday. Montana State had done the same thing with BYU earlier in the year. It was disappointing for the Ute ruggers as they will now go into their match against BYU without seeing any action in the last few weeks. The BYU game, which will be played for the Wasatch Cup, will be played at 7:00 Friday night in Provo. The Cougars are 11-1 against university competition this spring (13-1 overall) and are currently ranked third in the nation. They have won eight of their last nine matches against Utah. South Field, the home of the Cougar rugby team, is expecting a full house. The match will also be shown live via BYU Rugby’s YouTube channel. UTAH HIGH SCHOOL – UNITED & HERRIMAN TO NATIONALS Following the pattern of the last three years, USA Rugby has selected the high school teams to participate in the national championship based on the previous year’s performance and well before this year’s teams have taken the pitch. High Schools must submit an application to the NIT attesting their willingness to travel. Utah will be well represented in the Boys NIT (National Invitational Tournament) to be held this year on May 16-18 in Ekhart, Indiana. Defending champion United will be in the twelve team club side division along with number one ranked Cathedral of Indiana. Herriman will represent Utah in the twelve team single-school division along with perennial powerhouse Jesuit of California. This past week: Olympus (coached by former Ute Blake Burdette) over East 43-24 on Wednesday; On Thursday: Herriman over Bingham 50-12; United over Summit 69-0. On Friday: Snow Canyon over Cedar 101-0; Hunter over Wasatch 31-29. On Saturday: Highland over West 29-12; Pineview over Las Vegas Aces 56-0; Box Elder over Davis 34-29; Summit over South County 29-14; Kau Toa over Bountiful 46-29; West Valley over Alta 52-5. No scores reported for Snow Canyon-Desert Hills, United-Skyline, TC Fusion-Wasatch, Hurricane-Las Vegas Rugby Academy WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY Former Ute rugger Mike Wunderli is now the President of the Weber State rugby program. The Wildcats have a new coach, Richard Johnson, and he and Mike have set a goal to transform the program so that it can compete with BYU and Utah. Weber State University is definitely moving in that direction as they destroyed Montana State 74-0 on March 22 and will now advance to the D-1AA College Playoffs for the first time. The Wildcats will travel to Seattle to take on the University of Washington on April 18 or 19. PARK CITY HAGGIS CRUSHES DENVER Park City defeated the Denver Harlequins 62-22 in a DII Eastern Rockies rugby match this past Saturday. The victory gives Haggis a 9-0 league record. Next Saturday Haggis travels to Colorado to take on the Glendale Raptors in a “showcase” match. Ryan Fletcher directed Park City’s flowing attack from flyhalf while Tom Nielsen had a strong game out of second row. Chris Welch drew ooohs and ahhhs from the crowd with a number of vicious hits. Chet Blasucci also played a great defensive match. Don Pati scored multiple times and Nick Mostyn was outstanding in the front row. Park City has excellent depth this year as their seconds also posted a victory over the Harlequin B side. EAGLE FIFTEENS TO WORLD CUP The United States’ fifteens traveled to Uruguay on March 22 for the first of a two game Rugby World Cup Qualifier series. The Eagles did not look good in the first half as they fell behind 19-6 at the intermission, but they battled back and actually took a 27-22 lead with 26 minutes to play before settling for a 27-27 tie. This past Saturday the two teams met in the second leg of the qualifier played in Atlanta, Georgia. The United States prevailed 32-13, but the final score was not indicative of the toughness of the win. The Eagles trailed 13-3 after 45 minutes, but dominated the rest of the match. With the victory the United States advances to the 2015 Rugby World Cup where they will be placed in Pool B with South Africa, Samoa, Scotland, and the Asian champion (most likely Japan). EAGLES’ SEVENS IN HONG KONG The United States opened the Hong Kong 7’s this past Thursday on a strong note, defeating Samoa 26-12. On Friday the Eagles lost a close contest to Scotland 15-10 in a match played in a pouring rain and then dropped a well-played game to New Zealand 17-7. Their 1-2 pool record placed the U.S. to the Cup quarterfinals thanks to their point differential in pool play. Unfortunately Saturday was not kind to the Eagles as they lost 17-5 to Fiji and then dropped a 24-19 decision to South Africa in the Plate semi-finals. Still the U.S. earned 2 IRB points to distance themselves from Portugal and Spain and close on 12th place Scotland in the yearlong standings. New Zealand won the Hong Kong 7’s with an impressive 26-7 win over England. MARCH 27 COLLEGE D-I RANKINGS Utah is currently ranked 9th in RugbyMag’s D-1 College rankings. The other top ten in order are: California, Life, BYU, St. Mary’s, UCLA, Arkansas State, Navy, Central Washington, and just behind the Utes, Kutztown. VARSITY CUP TICKETS AT RIO TINTO The Varsity Cup championship game will be played at Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 3. Discounted tickets to this match, which will feature two of the better university rugby sides in the United States, can be found on the web at VarsityCup.us/tickets. The tickets include access to the 2014 Rugbypalooza, the Utah Open and fan festival. TOP COLLEGE RESULTS BYU hosted Cal Poly last Wednesday and came away with a 37-22 victory after trailing 10-0 early in the match. The win improved the Cougars record to 12-1. On Saturday BYU looked great as they defeated San Francisco Golden Gate 45-33 in the Champions Challenge, pitting the reigning college champions against the defending men’s D-1 club champions. BYU led 31-7 at the half. OTHER SCORES: Mar 29-30 - Arizona over Arizona State 51-38; Life over Lindenwood 21-17; Wheeling Jesuit over Michigan State 17-7; South Carolina over Tennessee 39-27.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 16:45:47 +0000
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