Steve Tingey receives the Matt Brown Award from Matt's son Sasha Brown.

Provo, UT–With BYU’s fifth straight Wasatch Cup win over Utah wasn’t the only thing being celebrated this past weekend.

On hand for the weekend’s events at South Field were numerous BYU Rugby Alumni who gathered to reflect on their contributions to the program while also witnessing the unveiling of the BYU’s first rugby championship banner.

Leading the events was former BYU Rugby head coach Jared Akenhead who saw this weekend’s event as a major sign that the program had turned a corner.

“We worked so hard to be included for so many years,” Akenhead reflected, “Last year’s championship was a big thing for the program and to see all the alumni that were here today for homecoming was great to see. This was a chance to honor them and connect past with the present.”

Making that connection for many years has been the Matthew Brown Distinguished Alumnus Award. The late Matt Brown was a former BYU Rugby player and coach and influenced countless lives in the rugby program by his words and example.

His sons Sean and Sasha Brown were on hand to give the 2010 Matt Brown Award to Steve Tingey. Tingey, who serves as recruiting coordinator, has been pivotal in bringing to Provo some of the Cougars top players and he also serves on the Board of Cougar Rugby Foundation helping the program meet it’s many financial obligations.

“This is an honor,” said Tingey regarding his honor of being named the Matt Brown Distinguished Alumnus,”I know what Matt did for this program and hopefully we can have more people like him as we move things forward.”

Smyth & St. Pierre unveil BYU's first national championship banner

Also part of the festivities for homecoming was the unveiling of the first national championship banner at South Field. BYU head coach David Smyth and 2009 captain Steve St. Pierre were on hand to unveil the banner at halftime to the sold-out South Field crowd.

“Last year was huge for us,” St. Pierre, who is finishing his graduate degree at BYU, said of the unveiling, “To have BYU honor our program and support us the way they have is awesome. I’m glad to still be involved and hopefully this won’t be the last banner we put up at South Field.”

The banner will permanently reside at South Field during BYU Rugby’s season and will pay homage to the Cougars’ first ever rugby national title.

“This was a fun weekend,” said head coach David Smyth, “We saw a lot of old faces, celebrated some good things and to cap it off with a win against Utah was good. We are glad to be moving this program forward on and off the field and hope events like this show our alumni and fans that.”

After the Cougars’ big Wasatch Cup win against Utah this past Saturday BYU now focuses on two home matches against Utah Valley University and the University of Colorado. The former match is set for kick off at 7pm this Friday night while the latter is set for Saturday at 1pm.

Ticket prices are $7 for adults, $5 for students w/ ID, $3 for youth under 12. Groups and teams of 15 or more can also get in for just $3 per person. Fans who arrive before an hour early will receive $1 off the price of admission. Fans are urged to arrive early as seating will be limited.

Flanker Moana Hafoka & flyhalf Dylan Lubbe pressure the Utah attack.

Provo, UT–The BYU Cougars beat their rival Utah today by the score of 15 to 10 in front of a sold out South Field crowd.

The win for the Cougars was a tryless affair with all 15 points coming on the boot of Shaun Davies. Meanwhile, Utah’s points came from two tries which the Utes never converted.

But it was the weather that was the story of the weekend. With six inches covering South Field only 30 hours before kickoff the BYU grounds crew worked their magic to prepare the field for today’s much-anticipated Wasatch Cup match.

With the field still wet underfoot the ball and footing of the players gave both teams trouble. With the conditions both teams reverted to a straight forward attack and kicking game that at times slowed the pace of the game down considerably. But in the end too many penalties inside the Utah half gave BYU the opportunities they need to win the game.

“It wasn’t a pretty game by any means,” said BYU assistant coach Kimball Kjar, “We had to really work in attack and we held our own in the kicking game I thought. So in the end I was pleased with the outcome.”

Despite his team’s outcome Utah head coach Blake Burdette said today’s Wasatch Cup meeting was one of the more memorable in the history of the rivalry.

“These were two evenly matched teams,” he said, “It was a great game, but we just came up short and it’s unfortunate the ball didn’t bounce our way in the end.”

Wasatch Cup 2010 Champions BYU Rugby

The Utes were in decisive control in the last 10 minutes of the game pressuring the Cougars and living off of the BYU mistakes. In fact, BYU was in possession of the ball in the 79th minute of the game after a Utah penalty but a Cougar turn over gave the Utes a chance to tie or win the game.

Unfortunately, a subsequent Utah penalty for holding the ball in the ruck gave BYU the win and the 2010 Wasatch Cup.

“We played okay today,” said BYU captain Dylan Lubbe, “We had a lot of mistakes, but we found a way to win and that’s all that matters right now.”

The Cougars now garner the overall #1 seed into the USA Rugby collegiate playoffs with the win and will look to Santa Barbara, CA for their opening playoff round against the yet-to-be-determined Mid-Atlantic #2 seed.

In the first half of the game the run of possession and territory was largely controlled by the Cougars.  With the pressure, and three Utah penalties, Davies notched three penalty goals to push the BYU lead to 9-0 by the 25th minute.

But handling errors and some forced turnovers put Utah right on the BYU tryline.

A wide pass from Utah flyhalf Thretton Palamo gave Chase Jardine an easy try out wide. An unsuccessful conversion let the Cougars go into halftime with a 9-5 lead.

Conversely, the second half was largely controlled by Utah as 12 BYU second half penalties continually undermined the Cougars’ efforts. Utah however, was only able to capitalize one time with a try off a Utah lineout only meters from the BYU tryline in the 64th minute.

But another missed conversion proved unlucky for Utah and BYU still held a 12-10 lead.

As time wound down Davies would take three more long shots at goal only converting on one of them. But it was enough as the Utah penalty in injury time gave the Cougars a fifth straight Wasatch Cup win.

Despite not being able to recall when the last time that his Cougars weren’t able to score a try in a BYU win, head coach David Smyth said he was pleased with the ending.

“I’m always happy with a win against Utah,” he said, “We had to really fight for this one. It wasn’t our most accurate performance, but sometimes you don’t get into the endzone and our guys figured out what it took to win this game. Now we move forward and build for the playoffs.”

The Cougars next face their cross-town rival Utah Valley University in a Friday night fixture. And then 2008 semifinalist the University of Colorado comes to town for an afternoon kickoff the next day. Both games are slated for South Field.

The latter match against Colorado match will be broadcast live on BYU-TV.

BYU 1st XV vs. Utah

1. Mikey Su’a
2. Joey Mount
3. Ray Forrester
4. TJ Allred
5. Mark Bonham
6. Moana Hafoka (Ishmael Tilialo @ 65″)
7. Hynie Leaatoa
8. Ryan Roundy
9. Shaun Davies
10. Dylan Lubbe
11. Lelan Latu
12. Tupu Folau
13. Viliami Vimahi
14. Ryan Blaser
15. Andrew Harrison

Scoring:

BYU–15

Tries: NA

Conversions: NA

Penalties: Davies (10″, 19″, 22″, 54″, 73″)

UTAH–10

Tries: Jardine 29″, Kimball 64″

Conversions: NA

Penalties: NA

BYU reaches for a lineout ball in last year's 2009 victory against Utah at the Cougars' South Field.

Provo, UT–Saturday afternoon marks the one of the most anticipated weekends in collegiate rugby where the country’s biggest rivalry kicks-off with BYU hosting it’s northern rival Utah at South Field in the 2010 version of the Wasatch Cup.

The Cougars have owned the rights to the Wasatch Cup 5 out of the 6 last years with a lone win going to Utah in 2005. Both teams consistently come into this annual rivalry showdown ranked in the upper echelon of the collegiate ranks with BYU holding down a #2 rank and Utah comes in at #7 & #5 in various polls.

The proximity of the two universities, along with their continued rugby achievement makes the Wasatch Cup match the premier and most intense, college rugby rivalry in the country.

The Cougars come into this match as the defending national champions from last year and have played in the championship game four years in a row, while Utah themselves have been to the title game in 2002 and 2005.

Being at the front of the pack in college rugby for both programs is a major boost for the state of the game in Utah. A win for either team would have far-reaching affects for that respective program, while also influencing the landscape of the collegiate playoff brackets.

The champion of the Wasatch Cup will be given an automatic bye past the regional playoffs and the #1 seed into the USA Rugby collegiate playoffs. While the loser will face the very uphill challenge of traveling to the regional playoffs before qualifying for the USA Rugby playoffs.

“The Wasatch Cup game is huge on it’s own,” said BYU assistant coach Wayne Tarawhiti, “We could be playing ping pong against Utah and it would take on an intensity like nothing else. But when you add all the stuff that comes from winning or losing this game, this game becomes something beyond huge for each program.”

Utah head coach Blake Burdette shared Tarawhiti’s sentiment highlighting that the rivalry is one of the country’s most unique and exciting games to be a part of and and to watch.

“I believe this is the best rivalry in college rugby,” Burdette said, “And when you add the coveted Wasatch Cup into the mix it’s always an exciting event. It’s such a unique rivalry because a lot of these athletes know each other. They have grown up together and played together so there is a lot of pride trying to best the guy across from you.”

Burdette’s Utah team come into the game with a 13-1 record on the season and is led by three of the country’s best young rugby talents.

Leading Utah this year is the young USA Eagle and 7’s star Thretton Palamo, who assisted the USA to it’s cup championship recently in Las Vegas, NV two weekends ago. He is paired in the half backs with USA U-20 scrumhalf Don Pati who hails from Utah high school rugby power Highland. Another U-20 standout suiting up for the Utes is another Highland alumnus fullback Naki Angilau.

All three have made a major impact for the Utes thus far with the lone Utah loss being against one of the top Canadian teams the University of Victoria by the score of 38-22. Most recently these same freshmen helped Utah to a 67 to 7 beat-down on the University of Wyoming in Salt Lake City last Saturday.

Building on such young talent is what Burdette hopes will give his program the boost they desire to break past their Provo rivals and lay claim to their first Wasatch Cup victory since he was a player in 2005.

“The Wasatch Cup is extremely important to our program at Utah,” Burdette said, “Annually this game gives us an opportunity to test ourselves against one of the top programs in the country and see where we measure up. As we continue to build a reputable program, the Wasatch Cup puts on a great stage with our rivals and it’s something that we look forward to every March.”

“We look forward to this game all year,” said BYU All American prop Mikey Su’a who grew up in the shadows of the University of Utah, “Utah’s a very good team this year and they have some really good players. So we’ll have to make sure we’re good to go to keep the cup in Provo for another year.”

BYU boasts not only the four straight Wasatch Cup victories, but also returns some key players from last year’s national title match that should prove to be interesting match ups to Utah’s young standouts.

BYU head coach David Smyth summarized his team’s perspective on the magnitude of the Wasatch Cup match.

“This is a big game no doubt about it,” he said, “We respect Utah and we never look past them as an opponent, they are a dangerous team. They come with a lot of talented players and have had a great year so this will likely be an exciting game. I’m looking forward to it.”

BYU Rugby program will be hosting their alumni for the annual homecoming game. Part of the festivities will be the awarding of the Matt Brown Distinguished Alumnus Award that honors one distinguished alumnus for their contributions to the BYU Rugby program and other civic, religious, vocational and charitable success. The recognition will be held at half time of the Wasatch Cup game.

Last year's Matt Brown Distinguished Alumnus Timothy Whipple with Matt Brown's son, Sean.

Other festivities will include the unveiling of BYU’s first national championship banner on South Field before the game. Alumni and fans should arrive early to be a part of this special occasion.

The Wasatch Cup will be televised live nationally with BYU-TV broadcasting the game on their 48 million home network. The match can also be viewed online live and for two weeks after the broadcast at www.byutv.com/streaming. BYU-TV’s Jarom Jordan, who also does the BYURUGBY.com regular CougarCast, will call the game along with BYU Rugby alum Steve St. Pierre.

Kick-off is set for 1pm MT at BYU’s South Field. Fans should arrive early as seating will be likely be limited. Ticket prices are $7 for adults, $5 for students w/ ID, $3 for youth under 12. Groups and teams of 15 or more can also get in for just $3 per person. Fans who arrive before 12.30pm will receive $1 off the price of admission.

Stay tuned to www.byurugby.com for more details and follow the Cougars on www.twitter.com/byurugby for updates in lead up to the Wasatch Cup match and in-match scoring updates.

BYU scrum half Shaun Davies dots down his disallowed try in the Cougars' narrow loss to Denver (Photo by Paul Meyers)

February 27, 2010

Provo, UT–In a match that lived up to it’s billing the BYU Cougars were edged out by the Rugby Super League’s Denver Barbarians by the score of 21-18 today in Grand Junction, CO.

The Barbos, who were playing their first game of their 2010 season, came into the match with pistons firing and playing wide open attack under the tutelage of new head coach Steve Hazel.

The pace of play led to 21 points for the Barbos in the first 25 minutes, but once the Cougars settled into their senses they mounted an 18 point comeback that fell short with a slew of BYU missed-opportunities and a much-maligned try that was denied by the match referee late in the second half.

Despite the loss, BYU assistant coach Kimball Kjar said the game was exactly what they needed in order to improve.

“This was a great game for our guys,” said Kjar, “We were put under a lot of pressure by a good team and after our guys got their whits about them they were able play very well. Unfortunately, the score doesn’t reflect that, so we’ll learn and move on.”

The opening quarter of the match saw BYU pressure deep into the Denver territory via a long clearing kick from center Viliami Vimahi and Denver turnover. But a similar turn over from the Cougars and a missed series of tackles gave Barbarian flyhalf Maximo De Acheval the platform for wide kick that was regathered for the opening try of the game.

The Cougars wouldn’t fluster early however and built a series of phases that led to a Denver penalty and scrum half Shaun Davies’ subsequent shot at goal that was good. In the opening 10 minutes the score was in the favor of Denver 7 to 3.

But a continued series of defensive pressure from the Barbarians at the break down led to two BYU turn overs that would give the men’s club two tries in the next 15 minutes of the match. After giving up the bevy of tries the Cougars were able to settle into their defense and hold the Barbarians out of the end zone for the rest of the match.

In fact, the defensive effort of the Cougars was the emphasis for the team said BYU hooker Ismael Tilialo.

“Our defense was improved today,” he said, “We knew we had to do well defensively if we wanted to stay in the game. Unfortunately we didn’t make the stops we needed to early enough, but I think we had them figured out by the end of the game.”

Given the heavy emphasis on defense the game was a very physical affair that led to numerous turn overs and missed opportunities by both teams. But it was the 38 turnovers to Denver’s 25 that proved the ruin of the Cougars as they tried to mount their come back.

As BYU worked to stem the tide of the Denver attack it wasn’t until the final moments of the 1st half that the Cougars scored their first try on the back of flanker Hynie Leaaetoa as he picked up from the base of BYU 5 meter scrum and bullied his way into the endzone.

A conversion from Davies edged the Cougars closer at halftime 21 t0 10.

More pressure and territory ownership from BYU led to a  number of missed chances that would have given the Cougars a chance for the lead heading in to the final stanza of the match.

A heel tap tackle from a covering Denver defender on a breaking BYU flyhalf Dylan Lubbe saved a sure try and another knock-on yards from the tryline by Lubbe also left the Cougars begging for more chances to dot down.

But it was finally prop Mikey Su’a who forced his way down for the score from a mauling lineout move by the Cougars in the 48th minute. A missed conversion followed by a well slotted penalty goal from Davies pulled the Cougars within 3 and the momentum was well within the favor of BYU.

But more turnovers and more missed opportunities to finish their line breaks plagued the Cougars. Two tries went begging however within the deluge of BYU pressure.

One of the tries was a slippery run from Davies that saw him dot the ball down for the try, only to have it denied by the referee in the waning moments of the game. The other was a well-worked set of hands only to see fullback Andrew Harrison called out of bounds as he dotted the ball down near the touch line.

Both lost opportunities didn’t keep the Cougars from continuing their interest to close out with a win however. In fact two chip kicks and a wide kick from the Cougar backline were unlucky not to bounce into the waiting hands of a Cougar near the goal line.

With the lost opportunities the Cougars conceded a well fought game to their Denver rivals.

“[Denver's] a great team,” said assistant coach Wayne Tarawhiti, “They’re very physical and very good at playing a wide open game. If there was a loss that was good for you, this was it. We’ll take a lot of lessons from this game.”

BYU head coach David Smyth was pleased with his team’s performance despite the narrow and tough loss.

“Denver came out of the blocks well,” he said, “They worked through the phases very efficiently and outplayed us at the breakdown and punished our mistakes. We were a little slow to adjust in the first half, but I felt we
turned the tables on them in the second half. We did very well and dominated territory and possession and I felt we did enough to win the game. I was pleased with the effort, we learned some valuable lessons and we’ll be better for it.”

With the first BYU loss since 2008 the Cougars will now look to recover and turn their focus to what is easily the biggest game of the regular season: The Wasatch Cup. BYU has owned the Wasatch Cup against their rival Utah with the cup traveling north only one time in the last six years.

BYU ran away from the Utes on their home turf in 2009 on their way to a 59-15 win and their fourth straight Wasatch Cup victory.

The 2010 version of the Wasatch Cup is also set as the Cougars’ home-opener and homecoming game with all Alumni being honored at half time for their contributions to the BYU Rugby program. The 2010 Matt Brown Distinguished Alumnus Award will be awarded by the Brown Family as well during the half-time festivities.

The Wasatch Cup game will also be shown live on BYU-TV with Jarom Jordan calling the game. Check your local cable and satellite service provider listings for availability and broadcast details. BYU-TV will also offer a live webcast on www.byutv.com/streaming.

The must-see kick-off for the Wasatch Cup match is set for 1pm MT at South Field in Provo, UT. Ticket prices are $7 adults, $5 students w/ ID, $3 for kids under the age of 12 and can be bought the day of the game at the South Field gate.

Youth rugby groups of 15 or more will be admitted for $3 per person. Also, adults and students who arrive before 12.00pm can get in for $3 each person. Early admission is recommended as seating will likely be limited.

The BYU 2nd XV also saw action today and were able to post a win against the Denver Division I side by the score of 32 to 24.

BYU 1st XV vs. Denver Barbarians

1. Mikey Su’a
2. Ismael Tilialo
3. Ray Forrester
4. TJ Allred
5. Mark Bonham
6. Moana Hafoka
7. Hynie Leaaetoa
8. Dave Barnes
9. Shaun Davies
10. Dylan Lubbe
11. Lelan Latu
12. Inoke Funaki
13. Viliami Vimahi
14. Ryan Blaser
15. Andrew Harrison

SCORING:

BYU–18

Tries: Leaaetoa 40″, Su’a 48″

Conversions: Davies 1

Penalties: Davies 2 (10″, 55″)

DENVER–21

Tries: Denver 5″, 17″, 23″

Conversions: De Acheval 3

Penalties: NA