The Try Times

In what looked to be an exciting matchup, the Cougars dominated from start to finish. CSU captain, Mason Kreiter, had mentioned physicality as a key to the game for his squad. He was spot on as it was a key to the game, but in this matchup, it was the key to their demise. The Cougars monopolized the contact area in every phase of the game. In this 90-point track meet, Cole Semu and Tielu Sagala both scored a mind-numbing four tries. Sagala earned himself the first-ever "Try Times Player of the Game" award with his ridiculously hard running. Just as I predicted, missed tackles absolutely killed the Rams. Sure their alignment was bad defensively at times, but so many line breaks were generated from missed tackles. I was also disappointed with the absence of Sam Masterson, CSU's most dynamic back. Without the boot of Masterson, the Rams struggled to take advantage of BYU's penalty count and lack of back-three experience.  BYU's attack looked incredibly sharp for most...

#3 BYU vs #13 CSU For the last five seasons, BYU has dominated the Rocky Mountain Conference. Since joining the Rocky Mountain Conference in 2018, they are undefeated and have won five consecutive conference titles. This weekend, an up-and-coming CSU team will look to put an end to the undisputed reign of the Cougars.  Just a look at their respective seasons so far, CSU sits at an impressive 6-0. CSU has notched convincing wins against their rival Colorado as well as solid UVU and Air Force squads. The Rams average 47 points per game and allow 15 points per game. For the most part, they seem to have a pretty loose style of play. They are at their best when they are in open space with the ball. If CSU can make sure their offloads all go to hand, they could be really dangerous tomorrow. In terms of set pieces, I wouldn't be surprised to see them steal a few of BYU's lineouts.  CSU's biggest strength, in my opinion, might be the left-footed boot of Sam Masterson. CSU should lo...

D1A Rugby Rankings: October 25th What an exciting week and a half of college rugby! As you probably noticed, I made a lot of changes to my rankings. Navy keeps the #1 ranking, but I honestly debated moving them. Their win over Airforce Academy was not as convincing as I would expect from the #1 team in the nation. Airforce even led the Midshipmen at one point. From my point of view, elite college programs need to be capable of manufacturing tries and line breaks from ten-plus phases strung together. I honestly didn't see a lot of that from Navy, most of their offense was generated from Air Force's mistakes. Is capitalizing on mistakes a good thing? Of course! I just want to see more structure and frankly better ball skills. But, no other team has proved they are better than the reigning champs yet this season so they retain their ranking. I dropped Cal and St. Mary's in the rankings. If you're not playing games, chances are I'm going to bump your squad down in the r...

D1A Rugby Rankings: October 16th First off, apologies for coming late to the party. I know we are already deep into the fall season but here's my take on the top 25 D1A teams across the country. I hope to provide more of a statistically backed ranking, providing win-loss records, and point totals.  Naturally, the defending champs retain their #1 ranking. They've launched a sizeable fall campaign, notching eight wins and zero losses. Two of those wins came against Life and St. Bonaventure, the number one ranked NCR team according to Goff. The rest of the Midshipmen's schedule should be smooth sailing, but with a rivalry game with Army on the horizon, you just never know. Of course, the inactivity of teams like Cal, Central Washington, and St. Mary's makes it tricky to get a true grip on the top teams. But based on performance last season, Cal and St. Mary's still deserve top spots in my mind.   Lindenwood is having a strong fall season at 7-0 and 48 points a game. Th...

Welcome to The Try Times!  Amidst the excitement of the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals yesterday I started to truly feel the sting of the United States missing out on qualification. I thought about the reasons why we had missed out and what I could do to help off the field.  One thing that American rugby lacks is a media industry. Analyze the ecosystem of any major sport and it's obvious that media is a key component in popularity, support, and funding. If you look at the NFL, there's an infinite amount of content for fans to consume. There are articles, blogs, pre-game shows, post-game shows, interviews, highlights, podcasts, talk shows, press conferences, and so many other forms of content.  This network of media is what truly drives the popularity of the sport. It's literally advertising for these teams and their games on the dime of media companies. Needless to say, American rugby needs a serious public relations glow-up. Fans want to live and breathe their sport, thei...