NMT Ruggers Reprise Giant-killing Tradition

The New Mexico Tech rugby team returned to an honored club tradition to put a flourish on a 2-1 record in the 32nd running of the High Desert Classic tournament in Albuquerque over the weekend. Tech went up against heavily favored Rice University in their third match of a long Saturday, and came away with another famous victory to enhance the Pygmy mystique. On Sunday Rice went on to demolish New Mexico State’s Chiles in the championship, 37-10. NMSU and Rice, also both 2-1 after Saturday’s play, advanced to the final by virtue of total points scored in the preliminary round.

Tech started the day with a 37-3 win over the Nomads of Cannon Air Force Base. More versed in the intricacies of basic military training than rugby, the Nomads seemed intent on disabling their younger foes, who nonetheless escaped with the victory and minor damage limited to bumps and bruises. Tech bagged five tries, collected by Pat Simons, Tory Tadano, Mark Kelly, and John Ellis, who scored two five-pointers. Simons also converted three of the tries and kicked a three-point penalty goal.

The Socorro team stumbled 28-20 in their second match versus Adams State University of Alamosa, Colorado. Early errors in both kicking and receiving helped Adams State to 21 first half points, while a sputtering Tech backs division, missing regulars Katsuya Sugimoto (hamstring) and Rob Harrison (family commitment), could only muster a three-point penalty kick from Patrick Simons just before the intermission whistle. Changing tactics to a kicking game netted 17 points on three tries for Tech and very nearly a comeback win, but Adams State added a try of their own to ice the win.

Tech gave notice of their determination in the first half of the late afternoon match with Rice. What was widely forecast as an easy win for Rice instead began as a hiccup and soon developed into a major pain, as the Pygmy tacklers came on in waves. For their part, Tech’s attack reflected their relative inexperience and the lack of the two major players Harrison and Sugimoto. After one half of play, the teams were deadlocked with the scoreboard registering a total of zero points for both teams.

The intensity picked up in the second spell, as both sets of forwards fought both for the ball and mastery over the other. It was the Rice pack that blinked first, and onlookers were astonished to see their scrummage formation moved backwards on more than one occasion. In the backs, Simons, Pablo Garibay, and David Yazzie, fresh from his gridiron coaching duties the night before with Socorro High School, were playing out of their skins in defense, with Yazzie in particular making several crucial tackles in the midfield.

Six minutes into the concluding half Tech worked the ball within 25 yards and applied intense pressure through several tackles, stringing together a continuous run of play which ended with several players stacked atop the ball in the Rice end, with Pat Simons on the bottom. Try to Tech, converted by the same man, 7 points to nil in favor of Tech.

Five minutes later action was at the other end, with Rice awarded a scrum on the Tech five-meter line. The ball went to the Rice backs, and after a try-saving tackle by prop Art Emus, one of the Tech backs was whistled offsides and a five-point penalty try was awarded to Rice between the goalposts. Miraculously, the conversion kick was missed, and Tech clung to a 7-5 lead. Although both teams threw caution to the wind at this point, there was no more scoring, and Tech had another gem for its 30-year collection. While perhaps not of the magnitude of the 1995 upset of the now-national champion Air Force Academy, or overseas victories over North Wales Under 19 All Stars (1998) and Trinity University, Dublin (2002), the day will always be remembered by the current crop of Tech ruggers as “the day we beat Rice.”

This Friday, October 24, NMT’s student ruggers confront their future as Tech’s rugby graduates return to Socorro to confront their past in the annual 49ers “Black and Blue” rugby match. The current Pygmies take on the Ancestors at 4:30 on the Tech Rugby Ground. “Musical warmup” begins at 4:00 and admission is free to this popular annual spectacle.

-NMT-