St. Thomas of Houston opened up their Rugby Texas league season with a 28-3 defeat of St. Pius X Friday night.

St. Pius X us much improved and is fielding one of their strongest teams in some years. Big and physically imposing, they are led up front by junior captain and No. 8 Alec Kenda, and senior flanker Lechi Anumduyu.   

But St. Thomas has a solid front eight, as well, and that made for a hard-hitting, physical contest.

St. Pius opened the scoring with a David John Selby penalty kick. But St. Thomas replied with a try by Josh Pane, and then junior tighthead prop Nate McKinney for a 14-3 lead at the break.

Midway through the second half, St. Thomas flyhalf Riley Bishop scored on a 40-meter run, sidestepping and running past several tacklers to make  it 21-3.  Junior openside flanker Griffin Maat closed out the scoring with a short run to make it 28-3. 

St. Thomas benefited from strong play from its forwards with solid tackling, rucking, and physical running all night particularly by lock Sam Yeboa, props McKinney and Robert Gonzales, hooker George Michael, Maat, and Pane.  

The backs were led by Bishop at flyhalf, who excelled at directing the play and was 4/4 on conversions, which, in addition to his try, made for a personal haul of 13 points. Bishop’s  run was the turning point, taking a relatively close game and leaving it in St. Thomas control.

With St. Thomas alumnus Kingsley McGowan, who was to start for the USA against the Argentina XV on Saturday, in attendance, the backs felt the pressure to show what they can do, and they played scrappy attack defense all night, with scrumhalf Kyle Walker, center Josh Harris, and wing Derek Allen.

Alec Kenda left the game for St. Pius with an ankle sprain shortly before halftime, and that didn’t held them. Freshman sensation David John Selby started at flyhalf and kept the Eagles on their heels all night with long, accurate, and precisely-placed directional kicking.  Anumduyu proved to be a punishing runner requiring gang tackling by the Eagles to get his massive frame to the ground. Senior Khalid Farrakhan was a tackling machine and had several impressive runs.  

Of note, the match was refereed by Kurt Weaver who was in town to work the USA-Argentina match, giving the teams a high-level ref they aren’t familiar with.

McGowan addressed the players after the game.