UT Sevens Rugby Smacks OU Around and Then Even Wins Another

by Barking Carnival Staff on Jun 8, 2011 7:06 PM CDT

I am no sports writer but that's mostly just because I know very little about sports and I can barely write.

However Rugby I do appreciate, and so when I got a call from Sailor Ripley at Barking Carnival headquarters asking if I'd run out to Philly and cover the Texas rugby at the Collegiate Championship Invitational -- that's right: an invitational that is somehow also a championship -- well, as William Shatner said, "What else could I do? I said, 'I'll see what I can do.'"

If you don't know -- if you've been living under a rock or in the United States for most of your life -- sevens rugby is seven-on-seven rugby played for two seven-minute halves. It's a big field for seven guys to cover. It's a running and tackling game, and it's fast. And since a whole match takes less than twenty minutes, a typical tournament day will see around 25 matches played in one stadium. The world has been playing international sevens rugby for many years, and the US has fielded a team for most tournaments. We even host an annual international tournament in February in Las Vegas, with sixteen countries showing up earlier this year. Collegiate sevens rugby national championship play is just getting going.

I did it the right way. I made the little brother drive us down to Philly, because he drives a convertible Porsche and also because he went to OU and is friends with the coaching staff there. That connection got us VIP suite access which meant constantly flowing free beer and food but which also meant I was given an OU jersey to wear for the entire first day. So your humble correspondent was to be bringing you news of your favorite team from inside the jersey of one of your lesser favorites. But not before a few evening drinks at the bar at the hotel where all the teams were staying. And where the Texas coach was holding court. Here's some reconnaissance: he has an Oklahoma symbol tattooed on his leg. Not the OU logo, but the shield-and-peace-pipe thing that's on the state flag. Making me think maybe he ain't a native Texican.

This tournament was covered by NBC. Some of the matches even aired live. A lot of the initial parings and poolings seemed suspiciously non-random, probably for that very reason: OU-Texas; Army-Navy. Here's how it went down for the Texas boys:

Texas-OU first off. Pretty even to start. Tied at seven apiece at halftime. But then in the second half OU got... tired, I guess. They looked flat. Texas ran away with the match 24-12. After a short five-match break Texas was back out on the pitch facing Temple and making short work of them 19-0.

Then came Arizona. If you'd asked me right before this match, "Hey, you in the OU jersey, do you think Texas can beat Arizona?" I'd have said no. And not because, as you would have assumed, I was an OU fan and therefore wished the worst for Texas, but because Arizona looked great. In fact, I might have told you at that time that I reconed Arizona or Cal would win the whole thing. Texas played them tough until about fifteen seconds to go in the first half, when Arizona scored and converted the first try and then scored another on a breakaway to the corner. 12-0 Arizona at half, 19-0 final. If it helps at all, Arizona had beaten OU 38-0 only three matches before, on live TV.

Two solid wins on day one, not bad. Texas played well that day, and the Dropkick Murphys played well after the matches wrapped up. The wayward youth of Philly, however, just wanted to fight.

Day two for Texas began with Army. Texas was first to score, only a minute and a half into the match, up 7-0. Army answered back immediately. The one-really-big-guy-the-whole-length-of-the-field kind of answer. 7-7 after less than four minutes. Pretty even for the next three minutes but Army got one final chance after the buzzer. Texas held them off.

Second half started with two solid minutes of continuous play before Army finally broke away for a try right in the middle, easily converted. 14-7 Army with four and a half minutes to go. Texas was looking to return the favor but was stopped by a bullshit forward pass call resulting in a scrum down to Army in their own end. Another break-away try for Army right in the center but somehow missed the conversion. 19-7 Army with a minute and a half to go. Beautiful pop-kick by Texas chased down but knocked forward instead of caught resulted in a penalty to Army. Texas stole the ball back, ran well, another pop kick up in the air at the buzzer this time caught by Army and kicked out of bounds to win the match.

Army went on to win the whole tournament. Texas looked pretty good. It's awesome to see this sport getting traction at the university level and I'm not going to be discouraged that I can't find any video highlights on nbc.com.

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Comments

Quoting William Shatner covering Pulp’s “Common People?” And I thought all these years I was the only who bought that album. Feel free to write about Longhorn rugby from now on Sam.

by Mano Cornuda on Jun 8, 2011 8:11 PM CDT reply actions

I saw a wonderfully entertaining rugby 7’s tournament on NBC last weekend, but Dartmouth won over Army to take the championship.

by Big Al on Jun 8, 2011 8:18 PM CDT reply actions

Goddammit! Ok, you know what – I’m going to fire myself right now before someone else does. Dartmouth men beat Army, as Big Al says. I want to call that a typo… could that have been a typo? Army women won the tournament, but it’d be easy to argue that has no relevance whatever to this article. Also I’m badly sunburned. All the UT stuff is true.

by samparadise on Jun 8, 2011 9:34 PM CDT up reply actions

Good stuff man. I caught some of the games on NBC. My family has played Rugby throughoout Texas and against all the college teams for years. I didn’t see any Horns games, but I heard the boys did well. I saw Dartmouth stomping someone. That big running back was almost unstoppable (at least by that team). I’d have liked to seen the championship game.

Is this an annual tournament? Is it in Philly each year? I’m close enough I can drive up for that.

by DW on Jun 9, 2011 5:41 AM CDT reply actions

Saw the Hong Kong Sevens in person once. There was some serious athletic talent on exhibition. I wish rugby would supplant lacrosse as “The Next Big Thing”—rubgy (sevens, at least) requires a much broader skill set that translates better to other sports. And it doesn’t involve any pansie-assed pads.

by Cincinnatus on Jun 9, 2011 12:43 PM CDT reply actions

Rugby player (bad) and fan (good) here. Some of the good things about Rugger could be restored to football without a helluva lot of trouble, few simple rules changes – none of this 25 seconds to restart bullshit, limit substitutions to bring back two-way players (my HS football days were that way, and same in NCAA play then – better game, imo), fouls called only when intentional and/or actually affecting play.

O’ course, there’s plenty more … I’d like to see out-of-touch calls resulting in line-outs (player tackled or pushed out retains ball, but player who runs out loses ball). Maybe live ball when kicked or passed – would be a pisser, eh? And “touch down” needs to go back to requiring a “touch down”, none of this bullshit “breaking the plane” stuff.

Hell, I can dream, can’t I?

by Tex Long on Jun 9, 2011 5:47 PM CDT reply actions

Oh, and one ref and a coupla linesmen is all that’s needed… rate football is going, we’re going to have more refs than players before too long.

by Tex Long on Jun 9, 2011 5:48 PM CDT reply actions

“I’d like to see out-of-touch calls resulting in line-outs”

Into touch.

by Dave on Jun 9, 2011 8:53 PM CDT reply actions

Into touch.

Right you are – I first wrote “out of bounds” and thought “no, no, that’s touch not bounds” and didn’t think about changing “out”… drat.

Players running intentionally out of bounds makes me crazy… is American Handegg the only game in the world where you can play the ball over a boundary and maintain possession?

by Tex Long on Jun 9, 2011 9:53 PM CDT reply actions

Sam:

Thanks for your excellent article on UT Rugby, and congratulations to the team on admirable showing against established programs. For authentic Texas Rugby 7s, however, I recommend The Austin Huns Bloodfest Rugby 7s and/or The San Antonio
Dia de los Muertos 7s Tournament. These games are often played on barren, hard ground
and, particularly with the Bloodfest, in temperatures approaching 100 degrees.

Keep up the good work.

by Chris Jackson on Jun 10, 2011 8:25 AM CDT reply actions

Sam,

I had heard that OU’s stud Taylor Mokate was injured. Did he play in this tournament? I’m assuming no, and also assuming that they would have performed far better on the day had he been there. Would appreciate if you could confirm.

The amount of parity in 7’s at the college level is good for rugby as a sport. Cal and BYU’s dominance only extends as far as 15’s. That’s what i really like about 7’s. It’s great that NBC picked up this tourney to help generate interest in the sport prior to the 2016 Olympics.

by WestCoaster on Jun 10, 2011 8:47 AM CDT reply actions

My brother in law is one of the coaches and I’m unbelievably proud of the job that he/the team did. Keep in mind that Texas was one of the only teams in the tournament not playing with scholarship athletes and it makes the accomplishment all the more impressive.

@Chris Jackson – my aforementioned brother-in-law is a veteran of both the Huns (his fun team) and the Blacks (his competitive/serious team). I’ve never played personally but the game has a fascinating sub-culture. Really interesting blend of highly competitive athletes that thrive on contact but tend to be much more free-spirited/open-minded than what you see in many other team sports. I’d love to see a rugby documentary – while I"m sure one’s out there, I haven’t come across it.

by slobhorn on Jun 10, 2011 12:27 PM CDT reply actions

“Keep in mind that Texas was one of the only teams in the tournament not playing with scholarship athletes and it makes the accomplishment all the more impressive.”

Slobhorn- Umm, which schools exactly were playing with scholarship athletes? To my knowledge, there are no athletic scholarships currently offered for rugby at most, if not all of, the schools that participated.

by WestCoaster on Jun 10, 2011 1:13 PM CDT reply actions

WestCoaster – poor choice of verbiage, many of the schools can offer aid to players though you are correct these aren’t full scholarships. Still an advantage for them versus UT.

by slobhorn on Jun 10, 2011 1:21 PM CDT reply actions

Slobhorn- fair, just checking. it’s a common misconception that Cal and a few other schools offer rugby scholarships, so i wanted to clarify that is not the case. They do certainly enjoy benfits that other collegiate rugby programs/clubs do not however.

cheers.

by WestCoaster on Jun 10, 2011 1:40 PM CDT reply actions

RugbyInTexas.com had a writer there covering the Longhorns at the event and posted several photos.

by Rugby Fan on Jun 10, 2011 4:19 PM CDT reply actions

West Coaster, Mokate did not play for OU.

Dartmouth was the best team in the tournament. A kid from Utah was the best individual player. Army had some studs, too.

by Rugby Fan on Jun 10, 2011 4:21 PM CDT reply actions

7s rugby is huge here in Asia and USA rugby comes every year for the big tourney in march. 7s are now an Olympic sport so there is no reason we can’t dominate. We have lots of the right type of athletes

by Hornin hong kong on Jun 10, 2011 9:56 PM CDT reply actions

RugbyFan,
Since Utah’s Thretton Palamo did not play I’d guess the Utah player you’re referring to would be scrumhalf Don Pati. Yep, he’s a stud.

Thanks for the info.

by WestCoaster on Jun 11, 2011 12:28 PM CDT reply actions

Somebody call Harsin, now. I want to see the prekickoff end with “Ladies and Gentlemen, please stand for the Texas Hakaaaaaaaa!”

Seen the All-Blacks twice, and both times the haka raised my adrenaline to max impulse levels. Yeah, I know the NC2A PC Pussy patrol would shit themselves if we did it and prolly require Mack to don a sweatervest, but it might be worth it, particularly if we pull an LSU and go to full-time All-White unis (keep the orange capes, of course)…

by Tex Long on Jun 11, 2011 1:03 PM CDT reply actions