Injuries derail Bulls; Bullets 1-2 at UNI

A number of untimely injuries slowed the Bulls' charge toward Westerns and the Sweet 16.

With time running out and the Bulls rugby club putting the finishing touches on a 43-5 thrashing of Iowa State University, disaster struck. Collegiate All-American flyhalf senior Sean Foley suffered a broken nose and found himself watching from the sideline a week later at the Western Rugby Union Championships.

Bulls rugby coach Bill Sexton said Foley, who missed significant time earlier in the year with a knee injury, could not believe his misfortune.

"He was very angry," Sexton said. "That's as plain and simple as I can say it. He's played a long time and has hardly ever been injured. He was extremely disappointed about missing the tournament."

The injury bug continued to bite at Westerns. The Bulls squared off with the University of Texas in the first round of the tournament Saturday, and sophomore Tony Giubardo went down with a concussion in the first half.

In the Bulls' final match of the tournament against Sam Houston State University (Texas), freshman Zach Wogtech also sustained a concussion.

Sexton said one injury to Foley would not have been enough to make or break the team, but a number of injuries at once disrupts the rhythm.

"When you have to move people around, your timing is not going to be the same," Sexton said.

The lack of timing took its toll right away as the Bulls failed to score a try in Saturday's losses to Texas and Texas A&M University 29-3 and 24-0, respectively.

Sexton said Texas outplayed his team to a degree, but the A&M match was a different story.

"Texas A&M was a more frustrating loss," Sexton said. "People felt like it was a game we just let get away. We didn't perform the way we needed to."

Giubardo said he agreed with Sexton.

"We should've smoked them," Giubardo said. "We just had a lot of blown opportunities. It's not that the team didn't try, but we just had a bad game."

Junior flanker Tyler King said despite going 0-2 the first day and having its Sweet 16 hopes dashed, the team still had plenty of motivation the next day against Sam Houston.

"The fact that we could get seventh wasn't the important thing, but the fact that we could win was," King said. "We hadn't scored a try in the tournament, so the important thing was to prove to ourselves that we could score and win."

The Bulls accomplished both goals, holding off Sam Houston 27-20.

"The team responded well," Sexton said. "It was a big win for us. To come home 0-3 would have been demoralizing, so to fight through and win it was very important."

While the Bulls competed at Westerns, the Bullets rugby club played in a tournament at the University of Northern Iowa. It seemed to be all or nothing for the Bullets as they were involved in three shutouts.

Saturday's first match resulted in a 48-0 loss to the host school, UNI.

Bullets player/forwards coach junior Helen Russell said UNI was the best team she had ever seen.

"They played an entirely different style than we do, and I think we had trouble coping with that," Russell said. "They were in amazing shape and were very quick, but I think our girls played fairly well, despite the noticeable difference between our teams."

The Bullets rebounded with a shutout of their own, beating Luther College (Iowa), 32-0.

Russell said her team had a significant advantage experience-wise.

"It was only the second game [they] had ever seen, let alone played," Russell said. "It was a brand new team."

The Bullets played for third place Sunday but lost a tough 12-0 decision to Wartburg College (Iowa).

Russell said the team failed to capitalize on opportunities to take control of the match.

"It was a strange game," Russell said. "We started playing down to their level. It was frustrating because I know we can play better than that."