BYU Gets Revenge, Advances to Third Straight Title Match

This article is from the BYU Rugby website.

Palo Alto, CA—The BYU Cougars obtained some revenge for an earlier season loss against the Colorado Buffaloes by the score of 42-13 today at Stanford.

The Cougars came into their fourth straight semifinal appearance in USA Rugby’s National Guard Collegiate Championships with a straight forward game plan of attacking Colorado up the middle and did so with success.

The Buffaloes had no answer to strength of the Cougars’ pack and it showed as Cougar All-American prop Derek Smith took home the Man-of-the-Match award by handling the Cougars set piece well, while also taking the time to score 4 tries on the day.

Smith started the scoring early in both halves on two hard charging runs from the fringe. He also beat the covering CU defense on a 15 meter run for the goal line after a long break from flanker Jacob Sohn up the middle.

But the ever resilient Colorado side wasn’t about to sit back and let the Cougars march all over them.

Maximo De Achaval was able to muster all 13 of the Buffaloes points in a stand out performance for the All-American stand off.

The only try of the game for Colorado came in the late stages of the second half as De Achaval chipped and regathered his own kick off the posts for the score.

In spite of De Achaval’s performance BYU was able to use their forwards to maintain possession and wear on the Buffs and the Cougars began to put the game away smartly.

“We came out knowing Colorado wasn’t ever going to back down,” said BYU head coach David Smyth, “And they didn’t to their credit. But our guys stuck to the game plan and did what they needed to do to win. It was a good performance in many areas for our guys but we obviously have some areas that need tightening if we want to challenge tomorrow.”

BYU captain Steve St. Pierre said his team’s key to victory was their ability to play hard up front.

“We felt we had some advantage in the set piece and we worked hard at the break down,” St. Pierre said, “When we were playing within our game plan we did well, but there were a few times that we let things slip a bit and let the game get away from us.”

The Cougars now turn their focus to the task of knocking off the 23-time defending champions Cal Berkeley. The Bears are on a four-time championship streak and have beaten the Cougars the last two years in a row.

Cal had their cut work out for them in unusual fashion as the Gaels of St. Mary’s through caution to the wind and gave the Bears all they could handle in a 41-31 win for Cal.

With the Cal victory the Bears will face off against BYU for the third straight year with the bears having won the last two meetings. Last year BYU lost 37-7 to Cal in the championship final and 29-26 in 2006.

The third straight appearance in the National Championship game by the Cougars is a feat only matched by Cal and Army, who did it once from 1990 to 1992.

The Cougars are optimistic that the third time might be the charm against what is fast becoming a regular championship rivalry with the Bears.

“We’re looking forward to playing Cal,” Smyth said, “They are the powerhouse of college rugby and everyone else is just trying to catch up. If we stick to our game plan for them and do our best I think we’ll be satisfied with the result.”

BYU and Cal will kick off tomorrow May 3rd at 5pm at Steuber Rugby Stadium on the campus of Stanford in Palo Alto, CA. Live video streaming of the game will be webcast on www.usarugby.org.

Scoring:
9”: D. Smith 5
12”: CU 3 (DG)
15”: D. Smith 5
20”: CU 3
26”: S. St. Pierre 5
33” D. Ngakuru 5
38”: D. Paul 5

Halftime Score: BYU 25 CU 6

45”: D. Smith 5
55”: D. Paul 5
67”: CU 5/2
70”: D. Smith 5; T. Steflik 2

Final Score: BYU 42 CU 13

Team vs. Colorado: 1- Blake Isaacson, 2- Duran Ngakuru, 3- Derek Smith, 4- Mike Ratelle (Mark Anderson @ 35”), 5- Brett Clark, 6- Kai Lawrence (Rob Burton @ 60”), 7- Jacob Sohn, 8- Steve St. Pierre © (Moana Hafoka @ 75”), 9-Mike Smith (Shaun Davies @ 45”), 10- Dylan Lubbe (Travis Rodermund @ 75”), 11- Tim Steflik, 12- Viliami Vimahi (Manti Sua @65”), 13- Dan Paul, 14- Grant Barnes, 15- Sam Thorley