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Samantha Wright scores 3 tries against UNI - Sweet 16, 2012

Written by Alex Goff    Saturday, 21 April 2012 16:40 - RugbyMag.com

Women's Cougar Rugby (BYU) dominated Northern Iowa on their way to a 44-0 victory and a place in the national women's DI college semifinals.

WCR's bracket played Friday and Saturday so as not to have the BYU students play on Sunday. It seemed that just about any day, the Utah team was going to play well.

"I was especially pleased with our defense," said Head Coach Tom Waqa. "It was a good team effort. Both Ohio State on Friday and UNI played really hard and never gave up. We had to work hard. We had a tough schedule leading up to this weekend and I think it showed."

Captain Samantha Wright, normally a flanker but playing lock on Saturday, was superb on defense and also scored the team's second try, six minutes after wing Keelia Harker opened the WCR account.

But UNI hung tough and it was only 12-0 going into halftime. Then, just before the first half ended, BYU got a penalty near the UNI line.

"The forwards called for the ball and said they wanted it, and they rolled it in," said Waqa. "That was, I think, a turning point."

Wright scored that try too, and led a forward effort that Waqa praised highly.

"We have good backs and they scored some tries, but it all comes from what our forwards are able to do," he said.

Wing Rebekah Siebach and flanker Ela Wolfgramm scored tries early in the second half, and then Siebach added another to make it 34-0 at 52 minutes. Wright added her third (converted by Chelsea Hill) and then Dana Greenwood put a cap on it with a drop goal.

Ohio State won the consolation semi 43-27 over Colorado, falling behind 27-0 and then reeling off seven straight tries, four of them by Courtney Milon.

Jordan Gray charging up the line for BYU against CSU 2011

Saturday March 31, 2012 - By Cougar Rugby Editor

Watch Global Lethbridge Sports Highlights from 14:25minute onwards for a recap of the game in Lethbridge.

Lethbridge, Canada - The University of Lethbridge took on the BYU Women's Cougars and edged the visitors 5 - 3. It was quite the experience, as the Cougars travelled to Canada on Thursday, spent Friday in Raymond High School doing a rugby clinic, and then site seeing along Waterton Park and Cardston.

Saturday was the big day when at 5pm, the Cougars took on the a solid Lethbridge side who put on a fine defensive game. Possesion and penalty count favored the Cougars, but Lethbridge held strong to an unconverted try to win the game, in front a packed stadium crowd of over 1000 spectators. The Cougars had opportunities to put the game away, but failed under intense defensive pressure from the home team.

Final score: University of Lethbridge 5 BYU Cougars 3

By David Halvorson Jr. | Communications Manager | USA Rugby- Friday February 24, 2012

Tom Waqa - 2011 USOC Volunteer Coach of the Year for Rugby

Tomasi Waqa is inspiring America to fall in love with rugby every day.  He is the coach of the BYU Women’s Rugby team, the coach of the Humless Men’s Rugby Club, a U-20 NASC Selector and between the three he balances a family life with two children, his duties as President of the Utah Fiji association, and an active member of the LDS Church.  Whether it be on the pitch or not, Tomasi Waqa’s life is dedicated to helping others and because of this selflessness, coupled with coaching excellence, he has been chosen as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Volunteer Coach of the Year for Rugby.

Christine Bolger, Manager of Coaching Education at the USOC, outlined the Coach of the Year Program as a means to help develop coaching and bring the positive influence that coaches have to attention.  “The goals of the USOC Coach of the Year Program are to elevate the status of coaching as a profession and to recognize coaches who prepare our athletes for performance at every level of sport.”

Waqa came to the United States from Fiji when he was 19 years old and with him he brought a great knowledge and enthusiasm for rugby.  This knowledge helped him take over the head coaching position at the BYU Women’s Rugby Club in 2004.

Over the past seven seasons the BYU Women’s Rugby Club has become a national power and in recent years have produced multiple All-Americans; Kristi Jackson, Monica Jackson, and Rebekah Siebach are just three from the 2011 team.  With such high standards set, one would think that Waqa is extremely exclusive when selecting his players.  But this is not the case at all.

Written by Jackie Finlan - RugbyMag.com - Thursday, 09 February 2012 16:47

WCR's Keelia Harker on the move at LVI. Dobson Images.

The Las Vegas Invitational's Silver Bowl fields are a flurry with women's matches. There's a nice mix of Canadian and American teams logging their first games of the weekend, and as far as the colleges are concerned, Women's Cougar Rugby was certainly the class of the opening round.

Even just approaching the pitch, one could see the physical differences between WCR and Stony Brook University, the Cougars' opening round opponent. The majority of WCR's players were lean, strong and fast. They were well drilled and piled on 36 points over SBU.

WCR has two teams out in Vegas - one 7s, one 15s - and it's no surprise that the Provo team ran away with the win, as coach Tom Waqa has placed his veteran players on the 7s team and less experienced on the 15s squad.

"Our goal this weekend is exposure in Utah," Waqa said. "The core, starting [15s] players are on the 7s team. They're more athletic, quick and I wanted to develop their individual skills in the game of 7s."

Among the veteran group are Star Bollinger-Monson, Keelia Harker and Kristi Jackson, all of whom are familiar names to the national 7s pool. One exception to the veteran-only 7s team was Canadian-born Jordan Gray. The tall, powerful prop posed some trouble for SBU and allowed the 18-year-old to find the try zone.

"She's doing a lot of good things for us this season," Waqa said. "She normally plays No. 8 for us [in 15s], but if we can get her fit and conditioned, she could be really good."

The LVI is part of an extensive pre-season that will see the Cougars play New Mexico, Glendale Raptors and tour Canada. WCR won the Pacific Mountain East