Ags lose, but gain respect
The men’s rugby club is gaining a repuation as a Division-II team that is giving nationally ranked Division-I teams a hard time.
Such was the case Saturday when the Aggies held fourth-ranked Utah scoreless through the entire second half. Utah State ended up losing the match 24-10, but they gained respect from one of the best college teams in the game.
“After the game, their coach told our coach that we were the best Utah State team they ever played,” hooker and men’s rugby club president Dave McConnel said.
McConnel went on to say that because of the Ags’ solid performance earlier this season against third-ranked BYU, holding the Cougars to only 35 points, the Utes brought their best team to Logan.
The Utes opened up the scoring in the first half, putting down three unanswered tries each with a good conversion for a full 21 points. Before the half was over, Utah also scored a drop goal for another three points to take a 24-0 lead into the intermission.
The Aggies came out in the second half, scoring two unanswered tries, but missing the conversion on both for 10 points.
The reason for the improvement over pervious years is the amount of commitment that everyone is putting into the team, McConnel said.
“Everybody’s serious,” McConnel said. “We’re organized and we have leadership on and off the field.”
While gaining a reputation of standing up to teams a league above them, Utah State is also flattening teams in their own division.
Two weeks ago, USU went up to Pocatello, where they dominated ISU 31-0. With the win, the Aggies are now first in their division.
-stm@cc.usu.edu