Pygmies Trampled in Las Cruces

SOCORRO, N.M., Sept. 20, 2005 – This was one we were probably better off losing. Though at the end of Saturday’s rugby match in Las Cruces I was smarting over our 19-17 loss to New Mexico State University’s Chiles, my major concern was the way our New Mexico Tech team had lost. Sure, if we had made different decisions on a couple of penalty plays in the second half, we probably would have won on the scoreboard. But experience tells me stealing such a win after being so clearly outplayed would also have imparted a false sense of satisfaction about our playing form that would be hard to overcome.

The near-record 93-degree heat didn’t seem to faze the Chiles. They came out with much more enthusiasm than we showed, and soon established dominance in the physical aspects of the game which gave them an overwhelming advantage in terms of ball possession. Rugby law dictates the ball must be released and then reclaimed after each tackle, providing both teams with the opportunity to claim it. Saturday our performance in retaining the pill was too tentative and we paid for it.

State’s fly half Joe Roebuck had a great game, alternately running through weak tackles and launching hard-running teammates, who always seemed to turn up in the right place to receive his deft passes. Roebuck touched down two tries, at 12 and 17 minutes, and kicked to convert one to stick us with an early 12-10 deficit.

Meanwhile the Pygmies seemed unable to hold onto the ball on the few occasions it came our way. We finally responded after 35 minutes when co-captain Pat Simons kicked long from a defensive situation and fullback Tory Tadano retrieved the ball before speeding away to score between the posts. Patrick was good on the easy conversion for a 12-7 score.

The Chiles’ enthusiasm at times crossed the line into extralegal tactics, leading to several penalties for the illegal use of hands to scoop the ball to their own side after tackles. When running plays failed after several of these penalties, Patrick finally opted for a penalty kick, which he made to bring the halftime score to 12-10 in favor of NMSU.

Our best run of play came right after halftime, when another flurry of Chile penalties brought us close enough to the try line for Patrick, in the unaccustomed role of fly half due to Paul Quintana’s sore back, to barrel over. Scrumhalf Seth Daly, who had an active game, made good the conversion kick to actually put us ahead, 17-12.

Our woes continued, however, when Ivan Mecimore, in covering a kick near our try line, was whistled for killing the ball and the referee awarded a penalty try between the posts. The conversion was academic and NMSU had all the points they would need. Once more Tech managed to work the ball into the other end, drawing two more penalties from the Chiles. I thought we should attempt these three-point penalty kicks, but in our game the co-captains make the on-field decisions, and in the heat of battle things often look different. In the end our runs from the penalties failed to yield points, and the match ended with us trailing 19-17.

Considering the tremendous amount of opportunity this rampant Chile side had, our guys did well to hold them to under 20 points. Looking ahead to the El Paso Scorpions at home in two weeks, it will be easier to convince a team that’s 0-2 in fifteen-man rugby they have a lot of improvement to make than if we had managed to win while being physically whipped.

In the interim we’ll be off to Flagstaff for the Northern Arizona Tens Tournament Sept. 24-25, to defend our championship in the small college division. With a few key players already declaring their unavailability for this two-day event, I’ll be more surprised than anyone if we make it back to the championship match. Luckily, however, I’ve been surprised before.

-NMT-