The No. 1 Texas A&M Men’s Maroon Side rugby team will go head to head at home with the No. 2 University of Texas at Austin on Saturday, Feb. 18.
A&M men’s rugby team has gone undefeated this season in the Red River Rugby Collegiate Conference. After the Feb. 11 match against the University of North Texas (132-0), the 3-0 Aggies advanced to the top spot. The match is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. at the Penberthy Rec Sports Complex; there is no charge to attend.
Head coach James Lowrey said the players have been focused on game prep and are excited to play against UT.
“It’s something that we are really looking forward to,” Lowrey said. “It’s one of the games where the coaches do not have to turn up the training because the boys are certainly motivated enough.”
Even though much of the team is underclassmen, Lowrey said this is the most talented group he has coached. Lowrey had previously announced this would be his last season coaching the Aggies and said the team’s goal is to continue improving, to defeat their rival and to reach the team’s highest potential.
“I’m more focused on how we can improve day-to-day,” Lowrey said. “I know what we could be, and Texas is just another good game to get to where we need to be.”
With this being a rivalry game, it will be especially important, co-captain and mechanical engineering junior William Hofstetter said.
“We have a lot of young talent at the moment,” Hofstetter said. “We definitely have a good bit of freshmen starting on our first side, but I think that’s a good sign.”
The goal for Saturday is to not underestimate their opponent, especially after recent wins against Texas Tech (141-0) and UNT (132-0), co-captain and computer science senior Ryan McCauley said.
“The most challenging thing going into the game is going to be keeping ourselves really serious and focused throughout the week,” McCauley said. “We can’t let ourselves get big heads; we gotta stay serious and stay focused.”
The team works hard and would love to have more Aggie fans come to support them as they take on Texas at home, McCauley said.
“We work really really hard and put in a lot of effort trying to make sure that we keep ourselves a top-tier team,” McCauley said. “We would be so happy to have more fans out there.”
Josh Hoermann is a recreation, parks and tourism sciences sophomore and contributed this article from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.