Aggies Dominate UT in ARC Championship Match

Mills and Howell go up for a high ball

The Aggies finished off a perfect season in the Allied Rugby Conference with a dominating 45-5 victory over the Longhorns.  This game was a rematch of the regular season tilt played in Austin and won by the Aggies 44-17.  It was fitting that both Texas teams were matched against one another in the championship game.  The Aggies finished the regular season undefeated and Texas earned the other championship spot with a 4-1 record.  The game in Austin was a physical affair, as can be expected from such a long-standing rivalry, and proved to be a preview of Saturdays match.  While windy, the weather conditions for the game were outstanding.  National-panel USA referee Kurt Weaver was brought in to do the match and all the ingredients for an outstanding game were in place.

The match started with the Aggies mishandling the kickoff, resulting in Texas possession deep in TAMU territory.  The Ags came to play though and managed a valiant goal line defense that kept the Longhorns out of the try zone.  TAMU was awarded a lineout at their own 5 meter line and UT attempted to put hard pressure on what they thought would be a clearance kick.  Instead, flyhalf Conor Mills decided to run it out of his own end and the ball went through a number of hands before winger Brian Guillen took it the distance for huge try (5:46).  The play went over a 100 meters with some outstanding handling from the backs.  After spending five minutes on defense inside their own 10 meter line, this was a game-changer for the Aggies.

The match settled after the try and was a back-and-forth defensive struggle for most of the first half.   The Aggies eventually managed to cross the try line again when lock John Deao took a blind-side ball off the ruck and sprinted over for a try after multiple phases by the TAMU backline (36:26).  TAMU mishandled the restart giving the Longhorns the ball.  Unfortunately, they suffered a devastating injury when Francisco Brito and Philip Hanson delivered a massive blow to UT's captain and #8 Danny Cotton, knocking him out of the game.   In the ensuing chaos surrounding the injury, UT personnel came out on the field which stopped the game.  The Aggies were awarded a scrum after the injured player was removed, but they knocked the ball on in the ensuing phase play and then were penalized at the breakdown.  The Longhorns took a quick tap and quickly moved the ball wide where they achieved an overlap and scored in the corner (39:50).  This score came right at the half and left the score at 10-5.

UT had trouble with the restart at the start of the second half and the Aggies made them pay.  Mills hit Grayson Dowlearn with a cutout pass and Dowlearn turned on the afterburners for a 50 meter try (41:10).  Mills hit the conversion from the sideline and TAMU had a 17-5 lead early in second.  They got another quick score after Mills made a long linebreak before getting brought down at the goal line.  An alert Lukas Jacobson was quick in support and Mills handed him the ball before Jacobson leaped over for the try (44:10).  Mills hit the conversion again the Aggies gained some distance between them and the Longhorns at 24-5.

The Aggie offense continued to take advantage of Longhorn miscues.  After a Texas knock-on in Aggie territory Jacobson had a powerful run through the UT defense before Dowlearn had a 20 meter dart.  After a couple of more phases, the ball was worked wide and Jacobson hit Guillen who ran over his opponent for the score in the corner (49:05), Mills knocked in the extras and the Aggies were in control with a commanding 31-5 lead.

The game settled again for a time with neither side gaining advantage.  Tempers had been building throughout this phase of the game with a great deal of off the ball activity.  Unfortunately, an incident insued and Chris Semler (who had come on for Philip Hanson) was given a red card.  Texas also lost a player (#6 was issued a yellow), so both teams were playing a man down.

Mills, who used his tactical boot all second half, kept the Longhorns pinned, but after another long kick, a poorly executed clearance found Mills in open field for a counter.  Mills split the defense and ran in untouched for a try (66:29).  After another conversion the Aggies built their lead to 38-5.  The final score came off a brilliant play by scrumhalf Matt Theodore.  Theodore was part of a tackle and immediately ripped the ball away from the UT player before slicing through a number of Longhorn players before scoring under the posts (78:45).  Mills added the conversion and the Aggies came away with a dominating 45-5 championship win.

This was a fantastic team effort by the Aggies one that was representative of their play in the ARC throughout the 2013 season.  The Man of the Match was awarded to the whole squad for this exciting win.
  The Aggies finished ARC play 6-0 and swept the silverware with 7s and 15s championships.  Congratulations on a brilliant season Aggies!