The Oklahoma men struggled with their offence for the second straight week with this one costing us the match. Texas Tech came ready to play and took advantage when opportunity presented itself and came away with the victory.

Play started out physical with OU retaining possession. There was some good phase play but the Sooners kept giving away ball before being able to convert for points. Play was at times sloppy early but Tech took advantage of a defensive lapse and broke a winger free for a  long try. We have had problems with the big play this year and today was no exception.  The conversion was no good 0-5. The rest of the half was spent with good physical play. Both teams had opportunities but the defenses held tight.

Tech scored quickly in the second half on a series that started with the mishandled start to the half. The conversion was good 12-0. OU quickly answered with #8 sophomore Eric Meyers dotting one down off of series of strong pack moves. More defensive lapses led to two quick Tech tries to make it 5-24 late in the match. OU didn't quit and quickly put themselves right back into the fray when the sophomore combination of Meyers and #9 Mike Gamache scored in succession. Both conversions were good to make it 19-24 with 10 minutes left to go. Tech answered to put the game out of reach 2 minutes later to make the final 31-19.

On the day, give Texas Tech credit for coming in doing what they had to do to win. They played a physical match and took advantage of our mistakes and missed tackles. We took too long to get things going and did not finish off opportunities in the first half.

Positives for the week:  Our younger players continue to score points. We did make some adjustments that allowed us to have cleaner ball in the loose. Our scrums were stable and we were able to steal against the head a couple of times.

We need to work on our game time preparation  and intensity. Every  team that we will play from here on out will be ready to beat us. That will be much of our focus this week. Our shortcomings are fixable and we get freshman backs Eric Beaver and David Peebles back this week. Senior Spenser Scott is also due back from injury.

We head to the Albuquerque this Friday for High Dirt, which is always a good time while taking part in some good rugby. The tournament format will give us a chance to get a lot of playing time for younger players and to work out some of the kinks that we have been experiencing lately.

Sooner Magic,

Coach Forehand