14: Casey Staley                                            
15: Craig Sherman     

CSU vs Wyoming 9/23/07
 The Colorado State Men’s Rugby team started the West conference league season off on the wrong foot loosing to the University of Wyoming 3-10.  Colorado State came in to the match ranked 22nd in the nation, with Wyoming ranked 13th.  In a scrappy game the Rams weren’t able to generate any sustained offensive pressure and untimely errors and turnovers ended many scoring opportunities.  Wyoming played a steady game of field position and ball control and were able to score two unconverted Try’s by exploiting offensive overloads after multiple phases. 

In the first twenty minutes Wyoming pressured the CSU line but the Rams defense held steady and prevented an early score.  Play continued at midfield with each team poaching well off isolated runners.  Wyoming then drove forty meters to the Rams 10m with their forwards on successive runs drawing in the defense and creating a huge overload.  Only two backs lined up against five from Wyoming and even with poor passing Wyoming was able to convert the overload in to the games first score to go up 0-5. 

CSU came back and pressured hard for the rest of the half.  Knocking the ball on at the goal line on one opportunity and breaking several runs that didn’t quite make it to the goal line before being turned over due to a lack of support and good defense from Wyoming.  The Rams did get on the board with an impressive drop goal from flyhalf Thomas Staab to set the halftime score 3-5. 

In the second half Wyoming continued to dominate field position and possession.  The Rams were able to break the Wyoming line when they had the ball with good runs from inside center Justin Pauga and good support running from flanker and 8-man Nick Anderson and Logan Collins.  CSU had two of its own overloads but made the wrong decision and drove the ball up rather than passing it through the hands. 

Wyoming scored to go up by 7 points at the 70th minute.  Wyoming ran about 12 phases in a row at the Ram 30 meter line loosing yardage and running with single runners but managing to maintain possession when they outflanked the Ram defense and the Wyoming flyhalf looped around to score in the corner. 

CSU put in a good effort to come from behind but handling errors prevented a come back.  It was a tough day for CSU who have two weeks of non league matches to correct their problems before finishing the season with league matches against CU, Air Force and New Mexico.

Elsewhere in league action CU came from behind at the last minute to defeat Air Force 36-35.