After an intense, rough game, the SF State men’s rugby team fell to Stanford 44-24 on Saturday, Feb. 10.
The team got off to a disorderly start that they were unable to break out of, which continued to develop and ultimately characterized the game.
“Our pattern just kind of broke down,” said assistant coach Malik Hess. “We didn’t really stick to [it] too much once they put up a couple of inner tries on us off of flukes, and then people started turning against each other and we really can’t have that. As the game continued, we started making more mistakes.”
Many of the mistakes that were made were attributed to SF State’s roster, which consists of many new, rookie players. But the team is hopeful that as time goes on, experience will build up, and the chances of making mistakes similar to those in this game will be much lower.
“Last week we were a lot more comfortable —especially the newer players — and part of the thing was they just didn’t have the same amount of pressure,” said head coach Wade Hess. “We had pressure, but it was enough that they can manage. Today the pressure was about twice the speed, so a panic kicked in and things got a little bit messy.”
Along with resistance to pressure, the team would also like to work on their “back in game” speed.
Hess continued, “Every time you go down, the game keeps going, so you have to get back in the game … last week we were beating them back in the game. This week they were beating us back in the game. That’s a huge difference.”
Though the team suffered a hard loss this week, they eagerly await their next chance to play and improve themselves.
“The big point to be made [from this game] is going to be making sure that we are first on the ball and our ‘back-in-game’ speed is high,” said player John Reilly. “So as soon as things are happening — if there’s a lineout, if there’s a try — play it like we’re just starting the game out. Like we got our heads in the game and we want to win.”
The rugby team will travel to Chico State for their next game on Saturday, Feb. 17.
