Cougars Labor For Win

January 29, 2010

St. George, UT—The BYU Cougars came out with a 32-13 win over a very aggressive University of Delaware side that came into the St. George, UT as one of the top ranked teams in the nation.

The Blue Hens were led by their captain flanker Jarrett Brotz whose work rate gave his team solid lift and example.

Given the heavy rains which had hit the Southwest part of the state the game was moved at the last minute but that didn’t stop the Cougars from coming out strong in the opening 10 minutes of the match.

Tries by No. 8 Ryan Roundy and hooker Ray Forrester in the 5^th and 7^th minutes respectively gave the Cougars a early 12-0 lead.

The opening try was particularly impressive as the BYU scrum pushed the 5 meter Delware put-in for a turnover try and it was Roundy who pounced on the loose ball.

But some aggressive work rate from the Blue Hens at the break down throughout the game left the Cougars committing penalties and frustrating the continuity in attack.

“We hadn’t played in three weeks,” said scrum half Shaun Davies, “It was finally good to get out of the snow and play a great team like Delaware. But we made it really hard on ourselves.”

Davies was pivotal in clearing the ball to his backline who were led by fly half Dylan Lubbe. BYU’s backs dotted down a total of 3 times, but they were the beneficiaries of the hard work of BYU forward pack who were able to get over for 3 tries as well.

“Our big boys were eager,” said BYU forwards coach Wayne Tarawhiti, “They had to work hard for every try they got today because Delware, to their credit, showed up to play. And they played very well.”

As the first half wound down the Cougars had held Delaware out the end zone despite many probing attacks from the Blue Hens backs. With a late penalty from Davies BYU would take a 15-0 lead in the break.

With some added half-time motivation prop Mike Price would score his lone try in the opening moments of the second half to push the lead to 22-0. Again, a turn over off of the Delaware scrum that came by way of a BYU push-over led to Price’s try.

The final score for BYU came via freshman wing John Blaser supporting a Roundy kick-re-gather and a Lubbe intercept.

Two penalties and a late try in the closing moments for Delaware would round out the scoring in a hotly contested match. Final score: 32-13 in BYU’s favor.

In his final assessment head coach David Smyth was proud of the win against a top opponent like Delaware, but he felt this match would send a strong message to his squad.

“We knew Delaware were going to be good,” Smyth said, “But we had a lot of opportunities that we didn’t finish. Overall it was a lack luster performance. But it’s early so you can’t read too much into it other than that our boys are going to have to work hard to build their own identity so we can get to where we need to go moving forward.”

In other rugby on the day the BYU 2^nd XV beat a scrappy Snow College side by the score of 38-5.

The Cougars will now prepare for the home tilt against the Aggies of Utah State next Saturday. Kick-off is slated for 1pm on the Richards Building Turf Fields.

BYU 1^st XV

1. Mike Su’a
2. Ray Forrester
3. Mike Price
4. TJ Allred
5. Mark Bonham
6. Isikeli Volavola
7. Moana Hafoka
8. Ryan Roundy
9. Shaun Davies
10. Dylan Lubbe ©
11. Konner Wiscombe
12. Sean Howard
13. Viliami Vimahi
14. Ryan Blaser
15. Andrew Harrison

Scoring Summary:

BYU: 32

Tries: Roundy 5”; Forrester 7”; Price 43”; Blaser 50”; Lubbe 72”

Conversions: Davies 2

Penalties: Davies 1 (38”)

DELAWARE: 13

Tries: DEL 77”

Conversions: DEL 1

Penalties: DEL 2 (48”, 55”)