North Texas University slammed Rice to the tune of 89-8 to remain undefeated in the Southwest Conference.

UNT is now 4-0 and has outscored opponents 227-27.

“It’s hard to know how good we are the moment,” said UNT Coach Michael Engelbrecht. “I haven’t coached a lot in college so I am not sure. I now we are playing good rugby, but we are also making fundamental errors of skill and technique. We have some good athletes, and we’ve been able to get them on the same page.”

Engelbrecht said he and the coaching staff emphasize defense in their training, reasoning that if you stop the other team from scoring and have the athletes to punish turnovers, you can win. It has worked so far.

“We pressure the source and put pressure on the 9 and 10,” he said. “We don’t content rucks much, but make tackles and force mistakes. We are doing that well, and we’re developing some tactical acumen. But that still doesn’t tell me how good we are outside of our own conference.”

Sinisa Tesic is an effective player for UNT, captaining the team and being a force in the lineouts and in the loose. Austin Becker has been scoring tries, while center Ethan Ruesewald is a robust runner who punishes tacklers.

Overall, UNT is an athletic, aggressive team, and they are dominating the SWC at the moment. They are expected to play a bowl game at the ACRC Bowl Weekend Nov 22. That may be where they find out what it all means.