Two Match Reports from the Fall
The Maneater’s coverage of the 2007 season, kept by the players.
What They Record
The first clipping covers the opening win of the 2007 season, 36–15 over the University of Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls. Vice president Ben Harrison said the tackling and the back line were solid; coach Matt Moore put the win down to depth, with more than 35 players on the roster at every grade level. Backs captain Scott Smith described picking off an interception and running it about 80 meters, and three more scores came in the last twelve minutes. Mizzou were ranked 13th in Division Two and Northern Iowa were a Division One side.
The paper also looks back a season: after finishing second at the West Collegiate Championships in 2006–07, the club expected to be “every bit as good as we were last spring, if not better,” and had beaten Missouri-Rolla, Washington University and Truman State the year before. The next home match was Truman State at 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 15.
The second clipping reports an 81–7 win over UM-Rolla. Senior wing Brian Bage said the side used a mismatch to work on rucking and clean passing; senior match secretary Will Rein called the camaraderie the team’s strongest suit. Nebraska were two weeks away, Saint Louis University that Saturday, and the fall was set to close with the Big 12 tournament hosted by the University of Oklahoma. Men’s rugby was a Division II side that had been invited for several years to move up to Division I.
Both clippings from The Maneater, posted to the Mizzou Rugby Old Boys group by Kyle Pusateri. The scores and dates on the 2007 season page come from these two reports.