With beautiful weather, the Iowa State men’s rugby team hosted its annual Veishea rugby tournament on Saturday.

The Cyclones played two games on the day, the first against the Nebraska men’s team, and the second against the Iowa State Old Boys — a team of alumni who all played together at Iowa State several years ago.

The match against Nebraska didn’t serve as a league game, but did give the Cyclones a highly-competitive game that will serve as preparation for them in their games to come.

Early on in the match with Nebraska, the Cyclones played physical, going back and forth with the Huskers.

“We played okay at the start,” said coach Malcolm Robertson. “But, unfortunately, we made some crucial mistakes at the wrong time and it led to some missed tackles.”

Nebraska appeared to be running on all cylinders in the first half, with fly half (similar to the quarterback in football, he is the field general and initiates most of the plays) Irwin “Smidy” Schmidt taking command.

“Their fly half really was everywhere in the first half,” Robertson said.

The Huskers held a 12-7 lead at halftime, and the two teams took a short breather in a game that otherwise rarely sees stoppages of play.

Coming out of halftime, Nebraska came out firing.

Nebraska was on the attack from the opening kick, driving the ball several times deep into Cyclone territory, with the Cyclones barely staving off scores on several occasions.

Schmidt again showed prowess in several facets of the game. Early on in the second half, the Huskers got the ball deep into the Cyclones’ half of the pitch, and after a penalty, Schmidt was able to get a placekick for three points.

Just a short while later, Schmidt was at it again. After an inbound, Schimdt bobbed and weaved through the Cyclone defense, scoring on a 50-yard scamper to take the Husker lead to 22-7.

“My teammates really helped me out a lot,” Schmidt said. “There are a lot of young guys on this team, but they all play hard.”

But the Cyclones refused to give up. Facing a large deficit, club president Ben Roby rallied his team. The Cyclones got aggressive, and finally cut down on the mistakes.

“We had lost focus for much of the match,” Robertson said. “That focus caused missed tackles, but by the end of the second half, we’d gotten in back a little.”

Late in the second, Cyclone sophomore center Brian Rooney scored a try on a breakaway after a drop kick from a teammate. That brought the score to 25-14, but left the Cyclones with very little time to make up the rest of the deficit.

At the end, the Cyclones were pressing for another score, but time ran out, and Nebraska held on to pick up the win 25-14. ISU coach Robertson was happy with the way the Cyclones finished.

“It looks promising for us,” Robertson said. “We’re young, and this gives us good experience.”

Schmidt, clearly the player of the game, saw his team’s win as a motivational tool as well.

“This [Iowa State] team is tough,” Schmidt said. “But we’re really young as well, and a win like this really keeps our motivation high.”

The Cyclones finish up the tournament season May 1-2 at the Iowa Falls All-Iowa Tournament.