By Douglas Strother
After a shaky start, the BYU rugby team stormed home in the second half to defeat the Utah Valley State College Wolverines 36-7 at Helaman Field on Friday, Sept. 26.
As expected, the game was a step up in intensity from last week, as the Cougars faced a rock-solid defense in the first half. Once again, the Cougars had an overwhelming advantage in possession and territory, but were unable to capitalize on their opportunities.
'We decided at half time that we weren''t committing enough players to the breakdown,' said Kendall Erickson, the stand-in coach for BYU. 'We were unable to play a quicker form of rugby, and that is why they outplayed us in the first half.'
That proved to be the case as the Wolverines took it to the Cougars, stealing a lot of ball from the rucks and mauls.
Just before half-time, the Wolverines were awarded a penalty 5 meters from the Cougars'' line. After several hit-ups, a Wolverines'' forward charged over the line to score the first points of the game.
It only got worse for the Cougars as hooker Clayton Leonard left the field on a stretcher after suffering a neck injury. After some precautionary measures were taken, a BYU trainer on-hand said she was confident he would be okay.
An inspired Cougars team came out in the second half and blew the Wolverines away. Captain Mike Poelman led by example with a charge from the back of the scrum. He bulldozed his way over to score in the third minute to make it 7-5, in favor of the Wolverines.
The Cougars would take the lead for good after a quick tap at the half way line. Prop John Gowdy finished the movement with the bullocking run in the right hand corner, making it 10-7.
The momentum continued for the Cougars, as the backline began to stretch the Wolverines defense out wide. Cougars'' fly half Matt Reinbold threw an impressive skip pass into the arms of fullback Dan Kiefer, who ran in untouched for the score. He converted his own try to make it 17-7.
As the game wore on, the Cougars'' forward pack began to dominate the much bigger Wolverines'' pack, driving their scrum back several times.
Mike Poelman scored his second try in almost identical fashion to his first, slamming the ball over the line to give the Cougars an unassailable 22-7 lead.
The Cougars were not finished, however. Hot on attack, Cougars'' wing John Blaser turned the defense around with a kick just meters from the Wolverines'' line. The Cougars then pounced on the ball, and replacement forward Aisake Vuikadavu ran it in for his first try of the season.
The Cougars'' commanding second half performance was capped off with a powerful display of strength from the forwards. The Wolverines'' scrum five meters from their own line was pushed back, and they were driven off the ball. Poelman then picked it up and securely planted the ball over the line, completing his hat-trick. The Cougars scored 36 unanswered points in the second half to win 36-7.
While being a standout performer for the Cougars, Poelman gave much of the credit to his teammates.
'All three of those tries were just right off the back of the scrum,' Poelman said. 'The tight-five were getting the push, they were getting clean ball from the back, so it was easy for me.'
The Cougars'' record improves to 2-0 as they now have a two-week break before facing Weber State University at home on Oct. 11.