Colorado State Men's Rugby has started the spring season.

Check out the schedule page for the spring schedule and the Contact Us page for practice info.

The team is preparing for the San Diego 7's Collegiate Tournament.
CSU A plays #11 Navy on Thursday Feb 7th
CSU B plays San Diego State B Feb 7th
CSU A plays Utah Valley State Feb 8th
CSU B plays in the USA 7's College division tournament.

Sat & Sun the team will attend the USA 7's International Rugby Tournament

A thank you goes out to the ten CSU Rugby players who volunteered for clean up duty after the Suit Case Party fundraiser, managed by forwards coach Billy Campbell. The charity event supported the Boys and Girls Clubs and Partners Mentoring Youth.

http://www.suitcaseparty.com/

The Colorado State Men’s Rugby team started the West conference league season off on the wrong foot loosing to the University of Wyoming 3-10. Colorado State came in to the match ranked 22nd in the nation, with Wyoming ranked 13th. In a scrappy game the Rams weren’t able to generate any sustained offensive pressure and untimely errors and turnovers ended many scoring opportunities. Wyoming played a steady game of field position and ball control and were able to score two unconverted Try’s by exploiting offensive overloads after multiple phases.

In the first twenty minutes Wyoming pressured the CSU line but the Rams defense held steady and prevented an early score. Play continued at midfield with each team poaching well off isolated runners. Wyoming then drove forty meters to the Rams 10m with their forwards on successive runs drawing in the defense and creating a huge overload. Only two backs lined up against five from Wyoming and even with poor passing Wyoming was able to convert the overload in to the games first score to go up 0-5.

CSU came back and pressured hard for the rest of the half. Knocking the ball on at the goal line on one opportunity and breaking several runs that didn’t quite make it to the goal line before being turned over due to a lack of support and good defense from Wyoming. The Rams did get on the board with an impressive drop goal from flyhalf Thomas Staab to set the halftime score 3-5.

In the second half Wyoming continued to dominate field position and possession. The Rams were able to break the Wyoming line when they had the ball with good runs from inside center Justin Pauga and good support running from flanker and 8-man Nick Anderson and Logan Collins. CSU had two of its own overloads but made the wrong decision and drove the ball up rather than passing it through the hands.

Wyoming scored to go up by 7 points at the 70th minute. Wyoming ran about 12 phases in a row at the Ram 30 meter line loosing yardage and running with single runners but managing to maintain possession when they outflanked the Ram defense and the Wyoming flyhalf looped around to score in the corner.

CSU put in a good effort to come from behind but handling errors prevented a come back. It was a tough day for CSU who have two weeks of non league matches to correct their problems before finishing the season with league matches against CU, Air Force and New Mexico.

Elsewhere in league action CU came from behind at the last minute to defeat Air Force 36-35.

Scoring Summary

0-5 26:00 Wyo #15 Tyrrell, G unconverted Try

3-5 36:00 CSU #10 Thomas Staab drop goal

Halftime

3-10 68:00 Wyo #10 Kyle Knutson unconverted Try

Lineups

CSU

1: Ehren Samuelson

2: Danny Bolling

3: Hillarion Tatad

4: Dan Wonstolen

5: Cory Cranston

6: Nick Interdonato

7: Nick Anderson

8: Logan Collins

9: Danny Bolling

10: Thomas Staab

12: Justin Pauga

13: Keith Gross

11: Casey Staley

14: Kevin Dombrock

15: John Hackemer

Subs

60min Peter Grubb for #13 Keith Gross

65min Reilly Madison for #14 Kevin Dombrock

70min Chris Dollbaum for #3 Hillarion Tatad

Wyoming

1: George

2: Schreck

3: McRann

4: Schnake

5: George, J

6: Lopata

7: Rangel

8: Messer

9: Kendall

10: Knutson

12: Tyrrell, B

13: Stines

11: Querry

14: Allshouse

15: Tyrrell, G

Early in the game the teams were playing very scrappy with lots of penalties and mistakes on the cold Colorado spring day. CSU hit the posts in a kick for points and then the New Mexico #6 was sin binned for cussing out the touch judge 13 minutes into the match.

Colorado State got on the board first scoring first in the 16th minute. Scrum half Thomas Staab kicked over the New Mexico defense from the 40 meter line and flanker Keith Gross chased hard beating the New Mexico full back to ground the try, Staab missed the conversion putting CSU up 5-0.

New Mexico struck back quickly capitalizing on a CSU mistake tying the game 5-5. CSU forced a turnover inside their own 22m zone but instead of kicking to touch the ball was spun to a flat backline set up for defense, exposing the inside center to UNM pressure where they forced a turnover and moved the ball wide for their hooker to score in the corner.

Another bad mistake and poor defense saw UNM finish off the half with a score when the quick tapped from their own 22, got the corner, broke a few tackles and their #10 Phil Bolton finished the 80 yard break and converted the score for a New Mexico lead 12-5 at half.

New Mexico came out quick in the second half and struck a penalty by #10 Phil Bolton to increase their lead 15-5.

Colorado State turned up the pressure and one the majority of set pieces and pressured the New Mexico try line but it was New Mexico again who would score again when #10 Phil Bolton again intercepted a pass in the CSU backline and took the score in to put UNM up 22-5.

With 25 minutes left to go in the game CSU turned it up a notch and started playing desperate Rugby mounting a good comeback that ended a little short. CSU pressured the UNM line repeatedly and received multiple penalties with easily make able conversions put made the bad decision and passed up the easy chance at points for the chance at a try and were turned away multiple times by the large UNM defense.

CSU finally did get a second half score when scrum half Thomas Staab quick tapped a penalty from a 5m attacking scrum and drove a maul over with the packs push for a score to make the game 12-22 with 20 minutes left.

CSU kept pressuring UNM and finally scored with 5 minutes left in the match when lock Dan Wonstolen picked and drove the ball in off a ruck just meters from the try line.

CSU couldn't get the needed final score to complete the comeback and lost the playoff came to secure a spot in the sweet sixteen.

Hopefully CSU will be able to rebound and beat Texas A&M in the match for 3rd place tomorrow.

CSU squared of against local rivals, the Fort Collins Men’s club The Flamingo’s on Thursday night, before they take a week off for spring break. It was a chance for the boys to put together a final solid performance before they head off to BYU in two weeks time, and a solid performance it was. The B-side took the field first and always looked in control of their match against the Flamingos 2nd side. The game was scrappy, and the breakdown areas were poorly managed by the ref in the first half, but CSU’s b-side still managed to put points on the board. The coaches looked on with a sense of accomplishment as they saw their 2nd side finally incorporate the finer details of the game into their strategy as they were covered heavily in practice all week. They ran in support of each other and put passes together, and with an even better 2nd half the B-side ran rampant against their opposition and came out 36-0 winners, with fly-half Kyle Gross getting man of the match.

It was a slightly different looking A-side that made its way onto the field for the kick-off as four regular starters were out for injury. However CSU were confident in their abilities and came out expecting everything to go their way. They were wrong. In the first twenty minutes CSU was pushed around in the mauls and beaten to the rucks by the Flamingos starting XV. It was a lost ruck that gave Fort Collins a shock lead, as the Flamingos kept pressure on the Rams try line. CSU looked to have stolen the ball in the ruck only to have it squirt into their own try area when Flamingos forward Keith Slate dove on it for the score. CSU realized they would have to work for this win, and work they did. Within minutes the Rams broke through and many offloads later CSU Outside-Centre Clayton “CJ” Eims touched down under the posts for his first A-side try. After that score the floodgates open and CSU never looked back. Fly-Half Logan Collins and Lock “Toothless” Wonstolen both scored before the half to make it 19-7 at the break. The 2nd half was more of the same as and Number Eight Keith Gross opened the scoring with a punishing run off the week side of a ruck to increase CSU’s lead. Keith would score two more times in the half to get his hat-trick and gained man of the match honors (Kyle Gross is his older brother). Despite having a player sin-binned for dangerous play, CSU kept up the attack and added more tries through Winger, Jonathan “Potter” Cohen, Full-back Craig Sherman, and Inside-Centre Ryan Ersland who added a brace of tries. The Flamingos scored a late consolation and kept playing hard throughout the match, but when the final whistle blew CSU were victorious 57-12. So the team now has a week off to recuperate and rest before a tough match against a strong BYU side on March 23rd.