Rugby drops match against KSU 29-12

A few minutes can make all the difference.

The Bulls rugby team clung to a five-point lead for most of the first half against Kansas State University last Saturday, but just before halftime, the momentum shifted.

KSU scored two tries, including one in injury time, before the end of the half en route to a 29-12 victory. The loss drops the Bulls' record to 1-2 with one more match remaining in the fall season.

"We played about 25 minutes of really nice, quality rugby, and then they had a couple breakaways, and the one that really hurt was right before half," head coach Bill Sexton said. "And you could just sense this degree of frustration at halftime in the players."

There was a similar pattern in the second half. The Bulls kept the score close for about 20 minutes, but KSU pulled ahead at the end with two scores, including another in injury time.

Freshman David McDonough said the turning point in the second half was with about 20 minutes to play, when "everything just fell apart" for the team. He said the Bulls started making turnovers and the level of fitness caught up to them.

"Our forwards are bigger than them, so we thought we could control the pack a little bit better than we did," McDonough said. "And in the back, we just didn't perform like what we wanted to."

During the second half, the Bulls had chances to score near the goal, but Sexton said Kansas State often regained possession and punted the ball downfield.

Vice-captain Jason Ralph said Kansas State's two scores at the end of the first half represented a "huge momentum change" and that KSU entered the second half with a lot more confidence.

"K-State has a lot of weapons, and whenever they get motivated, get excited, their rate of play just jumped dramatically, and we were not able to stay up with them," Ralph said.

Sexton said the team struggled to finish movements throughout the match, and they did not respond well to Kansas State's pressure and defense. The final score was a stark difference from the matchup last spring, when the Bulls won 36-0 at home.

"Coming into the game, the key was defense and your willingness to play defense hard and shut them down," Sexton said. "It turns out [their coach] told them the same thing. They were more effective at shutting us down than we were at shutting them down."

Sexton said KSU also took advantage of some missed tackles by the Bulls on multiple breakaways, and the team did not play as aggressively as they should have in breakdowns and scrums.

"They were gutted by this," Sexton said. "This was a game that perhaps they were a little too confident in, but in reality, K-State stepped up to the plate and played very hard, and you have to give them a lot of credit."

The Bulls' struggles started long before the end of the first half. Ralph said the team did not have good practices the last couple days of the previous week, because many players went home for Midterm Break. This caused many players to meet the rest of the team at Kansas State.

The Bulls also were affected by two in-game injuries. Senior Phil Powell left with a high ankle sprain and senior Paul Edgerley left with a rolled ankle. However, even with the setbacks, the team did not have much of a dropoff.

"The reserves that came in just played excellent," McDonough said. "They showed that they can play whenever we need them. That was one of the few good things that came out of the game."

Next up for the Bulls is a match Saturday at St. Louis University, which the Bulls last played in fall 2007 with an 11-8 win. The team returns home Oct. 31 against University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which is the final match of the fall season.