Southwestern Collegiate Rugby Conference play continued Saturday after a two-week layoff. One game, Sam Houston State vs.  TCU, was postponed to due a wind advisory. The other two, Rice vs. Houston and Texas vs. North Texas, were played in muddy conditions, as much of Texas fell victim to heavy showers.

In the former, Rice shut out Houston 43-0, improving to 4-1. In the latter, Texas escaped an upset against North Texas 17-5.

“It was a close match. With the conditions, it was more built for them, not us. We’re a speed team, ball handling. We’ve got all those 7s players playing in the backline, so we’re all about speed an misdirection, and you just can’t do it in these conditions,” said Longhorns coach Butch Neuenschwander.

“Our pack carried us today. Outstanding effort by those guys. They just completely dominated the scrums. About halfway through the first half they’d finally wore them down. It didn’t matter whose scrum it was, my guys were driving them completely off the ball three meters back. It was just a huge effort.”

Texas led the entire way, getting up 17-0 before conceding a try to the Mean Green. Neuenschwander named prop Fernando Assing, who scored on of UT’s three tries, his man of the match.

“Just power running, that’s all it was,” added the coach. “It was just great ball control form the forwards at the rucking. We won all of our set plays. That was the ball game right there.”

With the win, Texas remains atop the league table at 5-0. Rice still sits in second place.