Men’s rugby drilled 63-10 by No. 3 BYU
The Utah State University men’s rugby team lost 63-10 against No. 3 BYU, yet members still feels good about the effort, coach Nev Pulotu said.
When the game started, BYU took little time to show they would control the pace.
In the first half alone BYU ended up scoring eight of their 11 goals forcing USU to play defense the entire half against a team that was stronger and faster.
“We were tackling pretty high and so they would just stiff arm us and keep going,” captain Brant Fletcher said.
The second half started out much the same way for USU.
In the opening minute BYU picked up a kick fumbled by the Aggies and in that same play scored their ninth try.
Less than 15 minutes later BYU had scored two more times due to their precise passing, Pulotu said.
That was about when the Aggies stepped up and began to play defense, which in turn created offense, he said.
Halfway through the second half USU received the ball and drove down the sideline about 30 yards and then began passing horizontally to the other side of the field ending with USU’s first try by Chris Bingham.
It didn’t stop there.
Only a few plays later the Aggies drove down the field again and scored, but had it called back due to a penalty.
Following the penalty USU kept BYU down on their own goal line creating the opportunity for Mike Austin to score their second and final try of the game.
“For them to come back and score two touchdowns in the end – it’s a tremendous job,” Pulotu said.
And most of the Aggies on the team agree, Fletcher said.
“We need to improve with our fitness, but we did all right compared to the caliber of team we played,” Fletcher said.