Winning out, making the playoffs and advancing to the Sweet 16 is on the top of the list for the UW-Platteville Rugby Club this fall season. The club faces a new season with new team members. The Pioneers need to adjust to fill the roles left empty by the loss of those that graduated.

Photograph by Lacey Vandermeer
Rugby players are hard at practice in preparation for their road game against the UW-Stevens Point Blue Devils Saturday, Sept. 27.

This past Saturday, the ruggers pulverized the UW-Eau Claire Blugolds 53-8. Scorers included captains Josh Zastro and Mike Helmrick as well as Santino Zizzo, Brett Hundley and Andrew Vyhnanek while Mike Murphy scored twice.

“The scrums were very good both offensively and defensively,” senior outside center Tim Eickholt said. “The whole team rucked very well and were much improved from the Madison match two weeks ago.”

The Pioneers played in Madison against MSOE Sept. 6 and were defeated 39-12.
“We played hard against Madison,” senior trop Brandon Cline said, “but we made a bunch of mental mistakes.”

The Pioneers had break from playing on the 13th and took that time to work on their mistakes from the MSOE match.

“We worked on conditioning and meshing as a team during our practices,” junior inside center Ben Trilling said. “We took what we worked on to the UW-EC game and came out with a win, and we continue to get better every practice.”

The Pioneer Rugby Club is coming off of a 8-3 season and are hoping to open next semester’s season with a bang. Their first tournament of the spring 2009 semester is Mudfest where the team expects to bounce back from their second place finish against UW- Stout.

The Pioneers look to keep up their play execution when they travel to UW-Stevens Point to take on the Blue Devils Saturday, Sept. 27. The Rugby Club will take on the UW-La Crosse Eagles during homecoming at Minors Field.