GREENWOOD - Lander Men's Rugby opened its 2026 season Friday evening with a 40-22 loss to the University of Georgia. Still, the Bearcats showed plenty of promise in a match that remained competitive well into the second half.
Georgia opened the scoring with a converted try to take a 7-0 lead, but Lander settled into the match and began creating opportunities through its attacking shape and defensive pressure.
Chase Langston put the Bearcats on the board with a penalty goal around the 20-minute mark to cut the deficit to 7-3.
Lander then took its first lead of the season following a turnover near midfield. Ethan Richardson broke through the Georgia defense and raced more than half the field for the try. Langston added the conversion to give the Bearcats a 10-7 advantage around the 31st minute.
Georgia responded with a converted try shortly before halftime and carried a narrow 14-10 lead into the break.
The Bulldogs created separation during the third quarter, scoring three tries—two converted—to build a 33-10 advantage.
Rather than allowing the match to get away from them, the Bearcats responded.
Lander crossed for its second try around the 71st minute to make it 33-15. Then, with roughly three minutes remaining, Langston caught the Georgia defense retreating after a penalty and took a quick tap for Lander's third try. He converted his own score to bring the Bearcats back within 11 at 33-22.
Georgia added a final converted try following a late Lander turnover to produce the 40-22 final.
"We got beat, and Georgia deserves credit for that, but there was a lot on that film that we can build on," head coach Buck Billings said. "One team doesn't have to play badly for the other team to win. Two teams can play pretty well, and one still loses. We did a lot of good things, but some of the things we got wrong had a much bigger impact on the scoreboard."
Lander showed its ability to create opportunities throughout the match. The Bearcats pressured Georgia at scrum time, contested well defensively at the lineout, created turnovers, and repeatedly found space when they maintained their attacking structure.
The challenge was sustaining that execution for the full 80 minutes.
"When we trusted our system, we created line breaks and scoring opportunities," said Billings. "Where we hurt ourselves was when we got tired or lost our shape and stopped doing the things we had trained. That's encouraging in one sense because we don't need to reinvent what we're doing. We need more reps, more familiarity and better execution."
Richardson was named Lander's Man of the Match after a performance highlighted by his long-range first-half try and several dangerous carries.
Wesley "Logan" Wilcox was named B-Side Man of the Match.
Davido Sanchez earned Forward of the Match honors, while
Jacob Dawkins was named Back of the Match. Freshman
Jayden Rankins received the team's Hard Hat recognition for his work rate, tackling and effort around the field.
The Bearcats also took encouragement from their response to adversity. After falling behind 33-10, Lander scored 12 unanswered points and had possession from a midfield scrum with an opportunity to apply additional pressure late in the match.
"I was proud that we didn't start pointing fingers or living in our mistakes," said Billings. "We kept playing for each other and found a way to fight back into it. That's something we want to build into this team's identity. Learn from the mistake. Don't live in it."
For Lander, the opening match provided both evidence of progress and a clear list of areas for improvement: maintaining attacking shape, arriving faster in support, staying connected defensively, improving set-piece consistency and eliminating avoidable penalties.
"The score is real, the mistakes are real, and the good things we saw are real too. We know what we need to improve. Now the job is to stack the successes, correct the mistakes, and keep getting better."
The Bearcats will return to action next Friday at Furman. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Final: Georgia 40, Lander 22
Next Match: Lander at Furman — Friday, 6 p.m.
