by Justin Goodrum
Daily Lobo
After beating 13th-ranked Wyoming in its season opener, the Lobos rugby club team wanted to continue their winning ways on Saturday.
UNM didn't get its wish when it fell to the Colorado Buffaloes 45-24.
New Mexico controlled the momentum early in the first half with three placekicks to have an early lead over the Buffaloes 9-0.
Colorado scored two touchdowns in the first half to come out on top at halftime 12-9.
The Lobos responded with a touchdown to regain the lead, but it was the last lead it had as Colorado took full control of the match.
Conditioning proved to be the deciding factor that gave Colorado the win.
"When you lose your conditioning, you lose your heart, and then you don't tackle," Robinson said. "This wasn't a good day for us."
Lobo assistant coach Ian Jones agreed that UNM's conditioning cost it the game.
"They seemed to be better conditioned than us, which is surprising because we have use of the Lobo fitness facilities and we've been training since the beginning of August," he said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Alex Walton said the Lobos need to get in better shape if they want to be effective.
"We need to work harder as a team," he said. "We only condition like four or five times a week. Overall we need to run a lot more and stay in shape. I think a lot of us get in shape, and once we get there we plateau. We need to push ourselves harder."
Other than the conditioning factor, Jones said his team's performance was affected negatively by penalties.
"The score perhaps exaggerated their advantage because three of our players were put in the sin bin," Jones said.
The sin bin is rugby's equivalent to a penalty box. If a player is penalized, they must go stand in the back of the opposing team's end zone until the referee allows them back in the game.
Lobo rugby player Mashasi Oishi said fundamentals need to be worked on if the Lobos want to improve.
"Actually, we have a good team this year, but most of them are new. In the United States, rugby is a minor sport, so most of them don't know how to play. We need to learn rugby more, but we still have a good team," he said.
Jones said he thought his team underachieved coming off their big win last week.
"We beat Wyoming - who are the top-rated side in the West - last week, and we were expected to do a little better today," he said.
