2026 Mizzou Rugby

Missouri opened the year on August 29 with a friendly against the Columbia Outlaws, arranged as a preseason warm-up. The Tigers worked the cobwebs out of a summer layoff and won it handily, 38–0.

The season proper began a week later at Gans Fields in Columbia on September 5, and Missouri beat Oklahoma State 43–0. It was a barn burner on and off the field: the temperature hit 102 degrees with a heat index of 107. The Tigers looked strong throughout all the same — solid defense and some massive tackling — and did most of it a man short. Missouri were shown a red card late in the first half and played the last ten minutes before the break and the whole of the second half with fourteen on the field. Oklahoma State did not score against them either way.

Six trys carried the scoring: Lucas Batista and Brian Fitzmaurice took two each, with one apiece from Drew Langner, Cullen Murphy and DJ Dillon. The pick of the afternoon was not any of the individual finishes but a multi-phase pick-and-go sequence that ran roughly ten phases — dive, set, ruck, and move the ball inches at a time until it crossed the line. A total-team score, and a fair indicator of where this side is heading.

A week later, on September 12, Missouri hosted Drury at Scott Boulevard Field and won a much tighter one, 17–10. It was hot again — 91 degrees with a heat index of 96 throughout — and Drury brought a solid side with strong defense and a hard-running back line. The Tigers met the challenge with excellent tackling and solid defense from start to finish. Drury struck first, midway through the half, but missed the conversion; with eight minutes left before the break fullback Bryce Rudolph scored a backline try, fly half Logan Stevens converted, and Missouri led 7–5 at halftime.

Drury retook the lead, 10–7, with an unconverted try in the far corner midway through the second half, and a run of penalties against the Mizzou defense — high tackles and hands in the ruck, questionable to many watching — put a Tiger in the sin bin. Missouri held the line with fourteen, then turned up the pressure once the penalty expired. Late in the half a seven-phase ruck and roll ended with a backline spin out to Rudolph, who broke three tackles for his second try of the day under the posts; Stevens converted for 14–10, then added a penalty goal from near the 22 to close it out at 17–10. The stand-out was team defense: solid tackling, no over-committing, and the field kept spread. Head coach Chauncey Hatten had stoked the squad from the try zone during the sin-bin spell; afterward, Coach Jerry Lowe allowed only that the team had a lot to work on.

After a bye week, Missouri hosted Oklahoma at Epple Field in Columbia on September 26 and lost a heartbreaker, 21–10 — the Tigers’ first defeat of the fall.

On October 3 the Tigers drove four hours to World War I Memorial Stadium in Manhattan and beat Kansas State 28–19. The referee arrived almost an hour late — enough to force a forfeit in Missouri’s favor — but the side had not come all that way to take one. Kansas State’s scrum had the better of the early exchanges, and the Wildcats led 7–0 and then 12–7 at half-time, Mizzou’s answer coming when Pepe Greco chased down his own grubber kick to score and Logan Stevens converted. First-half adjustments from head coach Chauncey Hatten shored up the forwards, and the backline took over after the break: Bryce Rudolph scored, DJ Dillon finished off another Greco grubber, Stevens converted both, and Rudolph added his second, converted by Lucas Batista, for 28–12. The Wildcats scored once more but never caught up. It handed Kansas State their first loss of the fall and left both sides at 3–1.

Next up: Arkansas, in Columbia, on October 10.