The ISU men’s rugby club fell short of a season-opening win last Saturday when it traveled to Cedar Falls to face intrastate rival Northern Iowa.

The UNI club pounced on Iowa State early in the match and never looked back on its way to a 16-7 victory.

Since its first scheduled match of the season against University of Wisconsin-La Crosse was canceled, Iowa State came into Saturday’s match untested, while Northern Iowa already had two games under its belt.

“UNI played a very solid game, and their great experience in both their forwards and in their backs showed,” said ISU coach Malcolm Robertson.

“But I felt the major difference between the two teams was that UNI had played two games before our encounter, and it definitely showed out there.”

After falling behind 8-0, the ISU club put its only points of the game on the scoreboard late in the first half.

Junior Shane Vogt left UNI defenders in the dust as he sprinted the length of the field to score his first try of the season.

Sophomore fly-half Paul Letsche then made the two-point extra kick to bring Iowa State within one at 8-7 before the halftime whistle.

Northern Iowa shut out Iowa State in the second half while adding another try and a field goal to seal the victory.

A young ISU backline showed signs of their inexperience, as miscommunication with the forwards hindered the offensive attack against a quick and skilled UNI backline.

“We do have a lot of work to do, especially with the backline, where we have a very different lineup from last season,” Robertson said.

“Defensively [the backline] did a very good job, but they lacked experience in the attack.”

Veteran loose forwards John Clarke, Pat Girskis and Ian Sandager showed their experience by doing a solid job in all aspects of the game, as well as aiding the young backline against the well-drilled UNI club.

Iowa State faces another intrastate rival this Friday, when it travels to Iowa City to take on the University of Iowa on the eve of the Cy-Hawk football battle.

“The team is still extremely determined and motivated, but our loss does put pressure on us to beat Iowa this week if we want to make the playoffs,” Robertson said.