BOYS RUGBY:

Lowland Club Back for Season Two

By Mike Hogan

Lowland Rugby Club is back again and looking forward to a very productive year. Previously fifth in state, the team is now focusing on doing whatever it takes to be number one.

Last year’s team did very well against the highly recognized Highland Ruby team, keeping them scoreless for 20 minutes.

Even though Lowland lost by 3, they still did an amazing job, considering most teams lose to Highland by over 50 points, according to head coach Michael Cressler.

Cressler was pleased with last year’s performance but is looking forward to the opportunity to hopefully make it to the championship game at Rio Tinto stadium.

“All of the kids that came back this year are extremely committed and I am pleasantly surprised how fast they are getting back into form,” said Cressler.

The only thing that concerns Cressler is that the team really dosen’t have a lot of bigger boys coming out.

“While we do quite well with the players we have, [but] against some of the bigger teams it’s good to have some big boys to help absorb the punishment we take in a big match. It’s also good as it helps to dish it out,” said Cressler.

There are quite a few kids getting the attention from major colleges such as Brigham Young University and University of Utah. Some of those players are juniors Hayden Barnes and Ben Lindsey, and senior Josh Larson.

According to Cressler, there are 48 boys on the team. All from the grades seventh to twelfth, but the main majority of them are juniors. This team is not only composed of Riverton players, but also some kids from other areas in the valley.

Hayden Barnes, junior, loves everything about rugby and really doesn’t mind playing with kids from other schools.

“It is a lot of fun. We’re all brothers,” said Barnes.

Although the team is excited for many games, Cressler is most excited to play Davis County.

“A real bad ref’s call kept us out of the top four last year in the game against Davis where we lost by five points. After the game, their coach admitted we had won. I want to prove it this year,” said Cressler.

The Lowland Rugby Club was invited to play in the Las Vegas Invitational Tournament. Their first game will be on Feb. 11 against the Celtic Barbarians of Alberta. For a second-year team, this is a very big deal the and coach would love to have to support of the school.