Photo by David Roura
The UVU rugby team’s Saturday night matchup against the University of Utah was an uneven one. With an inability to capitalize on tackles and more than a few questionable calls by the referee, the frustration was evident from UVU’s coaches and the players. UVU’s winger, Porter Thomas, felt that they could have done a better job following the tempo of the ref during the match.
“Whenever you have a ‘bad ref’ we just have to play to the ref and stop doing the things that he tells us not to do,” he said.
During the first half of the match, Utah dominated by scoring 19 points to the Wolverines’ eight.
“I felt like we should have gotten our heads more in the game,” said Thomas. “We were down early, so I think we lost before the game really started. If we came with a better attitude, we could have done better.”
In the second half, Utah continued to dominate on both sides of the ball, scoring an extra 12 points to UVU’s five. UVU head coach Adam Griffe was proud of his team for sticking with it, and trying to make the best of a one-sided game.
“It’s hard to play in a game that’s dominated by a referee,” said Griffe. “The ref saw things a different way than we did and called a lot of penalties against us.”
Playing against a top-10 team was a good test for UVU as they get ready for playoffs starting in April. UVU will look to play a better game against their next opponent, hoping that their offense will dominate and affect the game the way they know they can.
Their next matchup will be against UNLV on March 18, at the Geneva fields in Orem. The game is set to start at 5 p.m. MT.
