This past weekend the Huskies travelled up to Bellingham for their toughest game yet. The Dawgs looked equally matched early on, playing into the wind and fielding kicks well, but making little advance with the ball in hand. The game became riddled with small errors which our opponents capitalized on, turning mistakes into tries. We went into the half scoreless at 28-0.

The second half saw the Dawgs gain some momentum and convert two tries by Zach Lilja and Jaeden Johnson in his third-ever rugby game. Both conversions were made by Christian Mirich. Both tries were in the second half, showing adaptation and grit. But unfortunately, a strong WWU adapted better, with the final score UW 14-64 WWU.

While excuses are easy to find, it’s worth noting that we are striving to meet WWU where they are at. The Husky Rugby Alumni are hard at work to provide means for better recruiting. WWU boasts 10 rugby-playing recruits this year alone, while UW brought in one PNW select team recruit in Joseph Chambers. This spring and summer HC Will Wheaton coached the WA Selects HS boys and the PNW Loggers. Over the past month, he has been in contact with 8 Loggers who have all applied to UW for this coming Fall – now they have to get accepted! WWU’s roster is almost entirely high-school seasoned rugby players, while UW has 7 out of 42 who played high school rugby.

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