The Lindenwood men’s team kicks off the second half of its season far away from home at Central Washington in Ellensburg, WA, on Saturday, in a game that speaks to the future for both teams and has a little history behind it.
Last year in St. Charles, MO, CWU humbled LU 19-3. It was a game the Lions would dearly love to have back and a result that sparked the Wildcats to think seriously about winning a major championship.
Central Washington's season ended in a Varsity Cup loss to Navy. Lindenwood lost to Life in the D1A playoffs.
This season, the Wildcats have already hit a few speed bumps, and the host Lions would like to be another one on Saturday.
"We learned a lot from last year in how we train and how we play," Lindenwood head coach Josh Macy said. "Central kind of embarrassed us at home last year, and it’s something that stuck with some of our guys.”
A relatively new coach last year, Macy said he has learned more about his players and they in turn know him better. With that great knowledge and with Macy bringing in a few players he has recruited, he said it has allowed him to "take the reins off a little bit" and "let these savvy rugby players to just play.”
Macy has changed the team's training regimen a little, with more game time allowing the players to bond.
“It’s been fun this year,” the coach said.
For Central Washington, a trip to Northern California earlier this month was part of a bonding experience but ended up with two losses — to UC Davis and to Saint Mary’s. It was a bit humbling, to be sure, and so last week’s victory over local club Seattle Saracens perked up the Wildcats somewhat.
"I thought we did a lot better job this week," CWU head coach Todd Thornley said. "The guys did a really good job utilizing space the right way and playing under pressure. The guys had a full week together and a full week of training. They did a really nice job of getting to the right position and making the right decisions."
As an independent D1A team, CWU has playoff implications at stake in every game it plays this season. For Lindenwood, the anger at losing at home last year is a motivator, but it will be conference play more than anything that drives the Lions' playoff hopes.
Both teams are full of accomplished players — D1A All-Americans and High School All-Americans. There are even some capped Eagles on the rosters. What will be crucial for both will be how they fill in the gaps between their very best and the players trying to get to that level.
Cohesion wasn’t especially evident for Central Washington against Saint Mary’s, but it’s been a focus since then. Lindenwood is just getting on the field.