USU takes on inexperienced Weber St. in women’s rugby
Despite its past experience playing Weber State University, the Utah State women’s rugby club is hoping for an exciting match against the Wildcats on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Ogden.
In their last match against the Wildcats three weeks ago, the Aggies came home with a 97-5 win.
“It was kind of ugly,” Ogden said. “I’m almost embarrassed we beat them that bad.”
Ogden said the overwhelming victory was caused in part from the lack of players on Weber’s side, but mostly by the strong playing from the Aggies.
Passing, teamwork and rucking from the forwards all seemed to be coming together in that match, she said.
In the last few years, the Wildcats have had a difficult time putting together a respectable women’s rugby team, Aggie veteran Lauren Dreitzler said.
“They get good teams started, and then their good players leave and they have to start all over again,” she said.
Difficulty in putting together a good team does not only make it tough for the Wildcats, but it affects the teams playing against them as well. Dreitzler said playing against new players is difficult because everything seems too easy, making it hard for teams like USU to continue to improve.
But Saturday’s match may be a little different than the previous match between the two teams, Ogden said. At the last meeting, because Weber was short a full roster, it was forced to borrow players from USU. This time the Wildcats will be playing with some visiting players from Boise State University, she said, making for the possibility of a more exciting game.
“I don’t think that it will be as big as a blowout as last time, but we’ll win,” Ogden said. “After our loss to BYU we’ll come down and play well.”
To prepare for Saturday’s game the Aggies have been working on their tackling, the area of the game Dreitzler said was a huge factor in USU’s 36-7 loss against BYU last week. The loss dropped Utah State back to the .500 mark (6-6 on the season).
-csmo@cc.usu.edu