Men's rugby still undefeated; Tigers confident about the season.

By Allie Blood

Published Sept. 25, 2007

The men's rugby team trampled University of Missouri-Rolla on Saturday, maintaining its undefeated record.

The match's final score was 81-7.

Because UMR is a much lower-ranked team, MU played well and had no problem defeating them, senior wing Brian Bage said.

"We weren't expecting much of a contest so we tried to focus on playing together at our level and work on some of the things that we would in practice, such as rucking, getting clean balls from the ruck and quick, clean passing," Bage said.

Rucking occurs when both teams contest for the ball after a ball carrier gets tackled and must drop the ball.

The team's strength this year lies in its depth. All the players are working together to create a stronger and more effective force, Bage said.

"In general, a lot of the b-side players have been impressive," Bage said.

B-side is analogous to a junior varsity team.

They play a second game after the starters play, and the b-side is composed of new players or players who did not start in the first game.

"We can play 15 men on a field, and there's a limit to how many subs we can have," coach Matt Moore said.

The rest of the fall season will give the Tigers a few tough matches, but they are confident that they can work through whatever opponent they might face, Bage said.

"I'm sure Nebraska will prove to be a tough contest, but as far as our league matches go, I can really only say that Saint Louis University would give us a good match," Bage said. "But with that said, as long as we play our game we shouldn't have any problem."

The team plans to maintain its undefeated record with conditioning and repetition during practice.

"My favorite part of the game on Saturday was working on our fundamentals," junior backs captain Scott Smith said.

Also, Bage said one of the most helpful measures the team can take is to get the b-side more playing time.

Some players said they believe the strongest part of the team is the camaraderie.

"The team is really close knit, we all go out together on the weekends," senior match secretary Will Rein said.

In two weeks, Tigers face the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a Division I team.

"That will make us step our game up," Moore said. "It will be a real test, but we should be able to hang with them."

Men's rugby is a Division II team.

For several years, they have been invited to move up to Division I.

When a team moves up a division, its travel radius and time commitment increases.

"It's an option for us that we're continuing to look at based on funding levels and participation," Moore said.

The last week of this fall's rugby season is the Big 12 tournament, hosted by the University of Okalahoma.

"There will be lots of good Division I teams there, like University of Colorado," Rein said. "Hopefully that will be fun."

MU will play Saint Louis University at 2 p.m. on Saturday.