Losing in a barrage of tries is, said BYU Coach David Smyth, “always a chance when you’re playing against St. Mary’s. For us, at this stage of the season, we hadn’t had that many games under our belt. You can work on conditioning and fitness, but until you’re in a game situation against a quality opponent, you’re not really prepared for it. So we were always a little concerned about how we would finish.”

Losing in a barrage of tries is, said BYU Coach David Smyth, “always a chance when you’re playing against St. Mary’s. For us, at this stage of the season, we hadn’t had that many games under our belt. You can work on conditioning and fitness, but until you’re in a game situation against a quality opponent, you’re not really prepared for it. So we were always a little concerned about how we would finish.”

So the plan was to hit St. Mary’s as hard and as fast as possible, score early, and keep the pressure on as long as possible. It worked … barely.

“I felt we out-worked them and worked our asses off to get back in the game,” added St. Mary’s Coach Tim O’Brien. “But the disappointing element for me was that we did not adjust to what BYU was doing. They clogged us up in the middle.”

St. Mary’s also had some problems in the lineout, losing the majority of their throws to the Cougars, and even when they won the ball, it was poor possession.

Both coaches said they left unclaimed tries out on the field in Moraga, and both recognized that it is still early days, and execution will get better through the season.

“The things that really got to us a little bit was some real mental errors, and some handling errors,” said BYU’s Smyth. “And we gave away too many penalties. We got one yellow card, which I think was warranted, but we put ourselves under pressure.”

For O’Brien, there was some frustration with time management. The St. Mary’s players passed up some very kickable penalties when there was time for the comeback, and opting for a scrum in front of the posts with about eight minutes to go was just begging for BYU to slow down the game. The Gaels scored eventually after that scrum, but it was an achingly slow process. By the time they worked their way back for another try, time was up.

However, the key play may well have been at the beginning of the second half, when the Cougars surged in for a try. 

“I think that is the fourth straight game we’ve played against BYU where they have scored right from the second-half kickoff,” said O’Brien. “That’s a lessons we have to learn - to deal with that.”

Smyth acknowledged that scoring early in the second half is something he and his coaches stress. 

“Actually we wanted to score two quick tries,” said Smyth. “We felt if we could do that we could put enough daylight between us and them. We only got one.”

But still, there are positives. St. Mary’s matched BYU’s ferocity, and for the last 38 minutes kept the Cougars away from the tryline.

For BYU, they survived a more game-hardened opponent and the kind of comeback that could have imploded any team’s leadership.

“We still have a lot of rugby to play,” said Smyth. “What we did on Saturday was set a good benchmark that we can learn from. We got across the gain line almost every time we had the ball. Our set piece was adequate. And we caused them some problems.”

St. Mary’s plays UC Santa Barbara in a game where the Gaels will probably be able to rest some players - a good thing, too, as they have as many as 16 players injured. BYU looks ahead to Air Force, the next in a tough run of games that will include Central Washington, St. Mary’s again, Army, and Utah.