Major Clash as Lindenwood Welcomes Arkansas State
Major Clash as Lindenwood Welcomes Arkansas State
One of the more intense rivalries in college rugby is back Saturday as Lindenwood faces Arkansas State.
After a year when ASU played as an independent, the Red Wolves and the Lions are back in the same conference as Arkansas State is now part of the two-year-old Midwest Conference. So this is also a conference game.
Coming into the match Lindenwood is 1-0 in conference play. Overall in 15s 5-1 with the lone loss being a midweek game with Principia in which Lindenwood fielded a somewhat reserve lineup. Still, they played as Lindenwood, and that's the way Lions Head Coach Josh Macy approaches the fall—looking for different combinations and which players put in a performance.
This year, with a number of returning players, Lindenwood has more been working on getting things more precise and, said Macy, "building in variants. Most of the guys show up on Day One speaking the same language."
The Lindenwood players have been very analytical of their performances so far, talking about work-ons during the games, even.
"We want to be a finished product for this game, but it's a long season," cautioned Macy. But this is a game where players really hope to be picked to play.
"We are picking our best 23 for this game," said Macy.
That this is a conference game just ramps everything up. Macy said all of the teams in the Midwest Conference are improving and the important thing about the conference is that teams such as McKendree or Adrian might find it difficult to get a lot of independent fixtures. The conference ensures they have good, hard games to play.
"I think it just works for everybody and there's a decided lack of ego and the types of personalities that can hurt other competitions, so it's really fun," said Macy.
Arkansas State is coming in having tied Adrian and beaten Davenport 19-10. So these were two very tight games. Lindenwood's Macy said Adrian "is one of the most physical teams in D1A."
Certainly Arkansas State saw that. Yes the game was played on a narrow field and Arkansas State wanted to play wide.
"It didn't take a rocket scientist to defend against us," said ASU Head Coach Dominic Shaw. "But having said that Adrian played really well and deserved everything they got."
ASU is fairly young and is testing out some players this fall, too.
"We're getting better every week and this is a great opportunity for us and a good test for our freshmen and Josh's young players," added Shaw. "We're confident in what we're going to do, but we are working hard on ball retention, and also getting excited to be on defense."
While Lindenwood is returning a lot of players and so they hit the ground running to a certain extent, the Red Wolves have changed almost everything about how they play. This is OK for the new players, because everything would be new to them, but it's also about getting buy-in from the returning players.
"A lot of it is communication," said Shaw. "But we get to test it out in a good, old-fashioned derby game."
Arkansas State at Lindenwood Kickoff Saturday, Nov 2 at 7PM. Live on The Rugby Network>>
