SOONER RUGBY

OU NEWS AND MATCH RESULTS

Wyoming Wins Western Championship

Pouring rain in Norman all weekend didn't stop the University of Wyoming from winning the Western Rugby Football Union Championship. Wyoming beat Air Force 10-8. Texas A&M finished third by beating Universtiy of Colorado. The top two finishers in Norman make the U.S. Sweet Sixteen. Wyoming will play at Penn State and Air Force will play at Cal Berkeley campus on April 20. The top four there will advance to the Final Four in Virginia Beach, VA.
Sam Houston State beat University Of Northern Colorado 40-10 in Division 2.

Western Championships Held at Norman

In a rain soaked weekend, the new pitch in Norman hosted 4 Division I teams, 8 Division II teams and a women's match. We discovered we need a french drain and a sump pump, but other than that the fields held up remarkedly well. On Saturday, Wyoming beat Texas A&M narrowly while Air Force handled CU pretty well. Wyoming squeaked a 10-8 victory over the Zoomies in the final. All four teams were forward oriented clubs. In my opinion, none of the clubs ran any distinctive pattern of play. All of them kicked away a lot of possessions. All were big and fit though.

What is obvious is that OU can beat these teams. We must at some point commit to doing so. I was impressed with Wyoming on a couple of fronts. First Leadership: Following their rangy number 8 Gifford, these guys wanted the ball every chance they could get it. The rain was a huge obstacle, but this did not affect their desire to prevail. The other component Fitness: I remember a play in particular when Air Force touches down in goal late into the second half when all fifteen Wyoming players were running to position. I think maybe a handful of their guys would start for us, but they were committed and had a keen desire to win.

Wyoming will be off to Penn State and Air Force to Berkeley for the Sweet Sixteen. Sam Houston State beat University Of Northern Colorado 40-10 in Division 2. Hats off to those guys who came out to sell burgers, t-shirts, and help run the tournament.

By Coach Jon Velie

Oklahoma Loses Western Round of 12 Playoffs to Truman State 21-15!

Sorry to report, we are out of the playoffs earlier than we should have been. OU scored right off the bat off on Truman State's first scrum-down from our own 5 meter when Number 8, Richard Knowles, picked off a weakside pass from scrum-half to wing. Knowles burst up the touch line. OU's support was excellent as 5 players handled the ball on the break that resulted in an OU try. Gasset converted to start the game 7-0. OU kept the heat on with break after break. Truman really saw very little ball. However, they tackled well and hung around. Truman made a penalty kick, narrowing the score to 7-3. OU eventually converted a break to a try increasing the score to 15-3. Truman was granted another penalty kick to go into half time with an eleven point OU lead 15-6.

The second half began with OU continuing to dominate virtually all aspects of the game. OU wheeled the Truman scrums, eliminated the driving line-out, won the vast majority of the loose play. But turnovers were costly. Truman capitalized on an OU break with a pass intercepted for about a 50 meter try. The unconverted try narrowed the score to OU 15-Truman 11. An OU try was disallowed for questionable reasons—the referee said the OU player picking the ball from the base of the ruck could not score if he went over one of his teammates instead of around him. Truman's forward picked up momentum in the last ten minutes and scored a try in the corner to go ahead 18-15. Truman was awarded another penalty kick increasing the lead to 6 points 21-15. The ref stated from a set piece that this would be the last play, OU responded very well and attacked deep into Truman territory. It was an exciting 5 phase play. On the last play, Senior Sean Logsdon was tackled, placed the ball to the ground, got to his feet and picked up the ball. The referee whistle blew—game over. OU goes home.

The loss was a difficult one for a lot of us to swallow. The work by some of our players was incredible and inspiring to me. The thoughts that have been going through my mind have been all over the place. I would like to point out the positives. By game time we were very well prepared and it showed. The trip to Houston, the walk through on Friday, the jersey presentation ceremony, really our entire time in College Station was very well done as a squad. That was obvious by how we played from the kickoff. But, we had to deal with adversity. We knew it might happen. We were prepared for it, but some things just didn't go our way. We handled ourselves as champions in defeat. We shook hands with our opponents, sang Illegal Smile, met briefly to discuss the game and walked with our heads up to congratulate Truman a second time. Bill Sexton called us a class act. He was very impressed when Captain Chris Boeding walked up and shook his hand and said that WC photo with Harry for Fat Guys with Tries was classic. That evening we watched the OU Basketball team make their way to the Final Four. We had a hilarious rookie show and a very silly Kangaroo Court.

It is positive that we will return virtually our whole team next year—most of them will be juniors and sophomores. This year we made incredible strides as a team. We had the largest amount of collegiate players ever (37), the first Union Championship in the new era (last one 1998), a tournament victory (Big XII) and a winning record of 7-2. Our team is for real. As Ozark Champions, we have now been in the playoffs. We will be even better prepared for the playoffs next year. After the dust settles, the boys will be left with the philosophy that the real gem is the journey, not the destination. Our journey has been a great adventure.

Beginning today, it will be just for the fun of playing rugby and hanging out with our mates. We will mix the old boys with the varsity. We are looking forward to the Austin Tournament, Tulsa, OKC, Arkansas and the other fun games left to play. Practice will become silly-bugger starting tomorrow. Nothing is more fun than springtime in Norman. The first and last lines of our song says it best, "I woke up this morning feelin' kinda sad....I was just tryin' to have me s ome fun, well done."

FYI: Texas A&M beat Truman 24-10. Truman led at half 10-5. A&M scored a nice try late in the game to make the score bigger than the game indicated. The Western Final Four Teams are Texas A&M, Colorado, Wyoming and Air Force. We are hosting the tournament April 6-7 along with the Medieval Fair women's tourney.

By Coach Jon Velie.

OU Wins Ozark Collegiate Championship!

Sooner Rugby continues to roll with yesterday's conference championship victory over a very physical, athletic and angry Aggie team. OSU brought a lot of passion into the game. OU absorbed the OSU attack and stayed in its game ultimately pulling away with a 31-16 victory. It was the type of game OU and OSU normally play, in most sports. Throw out the x's and o's and bring in the heart and guts. The teams played very physical rugby. OSU let their anger get to them a bit though and gave up a lot of penalties. Roger Gassett was on all day and kicked 4 penalty kicks and two conversions for 16 points on the day. The try of the game came from a scrum about 20 meters out. No. 8 Richard Knowles went weak to spring an unmarked Tyson Meek who won the foot race to the try zone. Knowles and Sean Logsdon also scored tries on the day. The Sooners increase their record to 7-0.

From a coaching perspective, this victory was much bigger than the game itself. It was a lot of hard work by a lot of people. OU has relied on and played a very large squad to get where it is this season. We don't have a distinct A side and B side. However, OU is now the second largest collegiate rugby team in the West with 37 active full time students. A squad of 23 traveled to Arkansas for this game. For the first time in my memory, OU had two full forward packs scrumming down against each other in practice.

The Championship marks the first Ozark Collegiate Championship for OU since 1996. But this is not the end of this season, just step one, as Ozark Champions, OU plays Heart of America Champion Truman State in College Station, TX. on March 23. The winner will play Texas A&M the 24th.

Next up is the Varsity Alumni Match this Weekend. A lot of buzz is out whether the Varsity will break the Alumni's Every Single Game -Zero record against the Varsity or the Alumni will break the Varsity's undefeated record this season. Come on out to play or just hang out.