2023 Fall Match recaps

Recap from the UVU Match: It was beautiful afternoon in Utah with the 15th ranked ZRFC Blues taking on Utah Valley University (UVU) Wolverines. The match opened under clear skies, calm winds, and temperatures in the low 50s - perfect for rugby! Our travel squad to UVU was different than the match roster for Army as the flu bug bit the team and we had several players with academic or personal conflicts. That afforded a great opportunity for six players to step up and get some great Blue side experience. UVU is a very physical team preferring to run pods of forwards time and time again. That forced a tight, high contact first half. The Blues stepped up an gave them tough physical contact right back with great defense and a couple try line stands. With tries from Jack Brown, Eli Williams, and Jackson Macias plus a Jackson Macias conversion in the first half, the Blues were up at the half 17-14 on their way to victory. Second half play was still high contact, but we were able to open up our play more with kicking and wide play to the backs who were able to exploit open space for multiple tries. Scoring in the second half were Jeremiah Palaita x 2, Eli Williams again, and Cole Norris. Jackson Macias rounded out the scoring in the second half with 3 conversions. Noteworthy play on the day was from Eli William with 2 tries and a near flawless performance in lineout throw-ins. His work in lineouts allowed the forwards to dominate UVU as we executed nearly all of our plays very well which in turn opened play up for our backs to exploit space. All 23 players who traveled to UVU saw playing time including several first-year players. That bodes well for the future of our program. We have tentatively rescheduled the match (snowed out) with CU for December 2nd at Boulder. That reschedule is yet to be approved by USAFA and once it is approved, then we will announce the match details. Thanks for all your support of our program. It means a lot to our players and coaches!