The University of North Florida (UNF) Deadbirds Rugby Club squared off against the University of Florida (UF) Rugby Club on Friday evening, decimating the Gators by a score of 21-7.

The Deadbirds had a dominant first half, with UNF scoring two tries while shutting out the Gators defensively.

In what led to a dominant defensive performance, prop Evan Brown said, “There’s been a lot of team bonding, the backs know how to play with the forwards and the forwards know how to play with the forwards,” crediting team unity as what led to this defensive performance.

Along with the cohesion of this Deadbirds squad, UNF seemed to benefit from mistakes by the Gators, forcing many turnovers off of missed pitches, dominating the rucks, and more.

In an interview after the game, flanker Connor Kurrack pointed to limiting turnovers and capitalizing off of opponent mistakes as the edge the Deadbirds needed.

“We just always made sure we had the ball in our possession,” Kurrack said. “We turned it over as little as possible and when they made a mistake, we made sure to get the ball back to us and to keep it for as long as possible.”

They kept the ball in their possession indeed, which led to a total of three tries by this Deadbird squad, neutralizing a rather effective Gators defense.

The Deadbirds will look to continue to improve as they play the Gainesville Florida Rugby Union on Nov. 5, a game where they will look to build off of this past win.

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