Utah Warriors & Matt Jensen

The Utah Warriors announced the signing of former BYU All-American and current USA Eagle Matthew Jensen. Matt is 25 years old plays lock for the Eagles (#506). He is 6’8″ and 260 pounds.

Jensen is from Scranton, Pennsylvania, but spent time living in Utah and Wyoming. He graduated from Pocono Mountain East High School, where he was a team captain for the football team and made All-Star teams for both the offensive and defensive line. Jensen also lettered in track and field, winning Districts in the Javelin.

After High School, Jensen moved to Utah and played rugby for the first time under Coach Larry Gelwix at Highland. The following year, Jensen attended Brigham Young University and where he was a walk-on for the Cougars Football team as a defensive tackle. He then served a two-year mission in Paraguay before returning to BYU and devoted his attention to playing rugby exclusively.

Jensen won two National Championships while at BYU and was selected for the All-Americans tour to Queensland, Australia in 2016. In 2016 he was honored as a first-team Collegiate All-American, an honor that he would earn again in 2017. In October 2016 Matt was selected for the USA Selects for the Americas Pacific Challenge. Jensen then was selected to the Eagles squad as a reserve against the NZ Maori All Blacks,

On February 4, 2017, Jensen debuted for the Eagles against Uruguay in the Americas Rugby Championship in San Antonio, Texas. and has since earned his fifth cap against Canada on June 24, 2017, in the 2019 Rugby World Cup Qualifier.

Matt continued his high-performance matches in 2017 playing for the Collegiate All-Americans against Oxford University on September 16 and then participated in the Americas Pacific Challenge for the USA Selects.

Comments

Jensen said “I’m looking forward to making history by being a part of Major League Rugby. This kind of opportunity, with the television exposure and plans for growth, is something we’ve never seen locally. I can’t wait to start training with a talented team and learn from some great coaches. Seeing the turnout at the combine, I think we have the players here to do some big things.”

Warriors Head Coach Alf Daniels said that “Young, 6’8” quality locks with international experience are hard to come by. Matt Jensen is all of that and is still continuing to progress. He’s still got plenty of years ahead of him. Obviously, Matt is great in the set piece, but his work rate around the field is phenomenal. He’s one of those players who just keeps going and turns up when you need him to. At the combine, I was impressed with his conditioning and agility. He leads from the front and we expect him to do the same this season.”