The Texas A&M Men’s Rugby Club Grey Side finished their first fall season competing in the Lonestar Rugby Conference with a decisive win over University of Dallas, in no small part due to the growth of the players and team over the semester.
With a decisive score of 56-3, Texas A&M Grey Side trounced UD on Saturday, Nov. 19. The win brought the season record for the Grey Side to 2-2, coming off a close loss to Sam Houston a week before. The Aggies were able to move on to Dallas to play their most successful game of the season.
Ball movement and selflessness were key to the Aggies’ offensive success, accounting senior Matt Mancillas said.
“The ball was shared really well,” Mancillas said. “Many players got their first try of the season.”
The team rallied around Irish player Diarmuid Rowe, as it was the last game of his career at A&M, Mancillas said.
“We were all trying to not only get him the ball a lot, but also score a bunch for him,” Mancillas said.
The Aggies’ success in their final game was the result of how the team practiced and grew throughout the season, engineering freshman Jake Foster said.
“It was good to put it all on the line and prove what we can do,” Foster said. “We had a lot of really good team chemistry, and we played rugby the way we wanted to play rugby.”
Aggie men’s rugby will continue in the spring as they field one team to compete in the Red River Rugby Conference.
For more information about A&M rugby, visit AggieRugby.com or @AggieRugbyFC on Instagram.
Colin Austin is a journalism senior and contributed this piece from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.