USU men’s rugby shuts out Wildcats
If stopping a team from scoring on a goal-line stand isn’t difficult enough, having to do it over a stretch of five minutes on two occasions would seem to be impossible.
But that’s just what the Utah State men’s rugby club was able to do late in the second half of its 9-0 victory over Weber State on Saturday afternoon on the HPER Field.
Aggie flyhalf Jeff Beck converted on 3-of-4 free kick opportunities, including one late in the second half to seal the victory for the Aggies, but it was the USU defense that really iced the win, Beck said.
“It was hard, but we really picked up our intensity while we were down there and held them,” he said. “We just went all out.”
While USU was able to stop WSU from punching it in, Beck said the end of the match felt like an eternity, and felt lucky to escape with the win.
Then again, both Beck and club president Bryce Baxter said they felt the match never should have come down to the team’s late goal-line stands, and that missed opportunities hounded both teams.
“It’s a big win, but we should have won by a lot more,” Baxter said. “It was nice to shut them out, but we should have had a couple of tries.”
Nevertheless, Beck’s trio of successful free kicks was all the Aggie men would need, as penalties played a big factor in the match. And it was Utah State that was able to keep its cool when tension between the two teams increased, scoring all of its points on Wildcat penalties.
“I just think we played a little bit smarter than they did,” Beck said.
Avoiding penalties was magnified even more as both the Wildcat and Aggie defenses refused to fold under pressure.
Up 3-0 after a defense-dominated first half, Utah State came out strong in the second half, only to be denied by the Wildcat defense on two occasions. On one of their scoring opportunities, Aggie Kyler Ovard was inches away from scoring, only to fumble the ball forward right in front of the goal line.
With USU seemingly in control of the game after Beck’s second free kick, the Weber State offense made its move.
In Weber State’s first trip deep in USU territory, Wildcat Dan Martin was denied a try when his foot hit the sideline just before he touched the ball on the goal line.
Despite being outsized by the Wildcats, the Aggies were able to win what Beck called two “absolutely huge” lineouts and kick the ball out of the Aggies’ zone.
Holding their own against the larger Wildcat front line on scrum downs and rucks, and solid tackling, also proved to be a difference maker, Baxter said.
“This is probably the smaller team we’ve even had, but we don’t miss many tackles,” he said. “This is probably the best I’ve seen us tackle [this season].”
-jasonwturner@cc.usu.edu