NMT Ruggers Overcome Odds

Sept. 3, 2003 -- As happens from time to time, the demands upon budding engineers and scientists dealt New Mexico Tech’s rugby team lemons last weekend (Sept. 27-28). And so, in the best tradition of the 30-year-old club, a shorthanded Pygmy team made lemonade, managing two tournament wins against one loss in the rarified air of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Only six able-bodied Tech players traveled to the Northern Arizona Tens, their comrades being temporarily sidelined by schoolwork back in Socorro. Fortunately the NA 10s is designed for ten-man teams rather than the more traditional fifteen-man mode, and equally as lucky, a tournament which draws upwards of two dozen teams in college, senior men’s, and women’s divisions also lends the possibility of “recruiting” players from other teams on a short-term basis. Normally this last-ditch tactic results in a decidedly weak team, but somehow the old Pygmy adage “we do more with less” was in effect on this day.

Tech’s surprising day started with a morning win over a Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff) team calling themselves the Tuba City Carps. 21-14 was the score but the story was how well the six Pygmies and four mercenaries worked together in the cauldron of competition. The volunteers, first-year players save one, were brought into the team as equals under the leadership of captains Mark Kelly and Patrick Simons, and the result was an unexpected level of teamwork. Kelly was rewarded with a try scored from the pass of one of his newfound friends, and Tech wing Mike Bauer found the turf well-suited to his blazing running game to touch down for the second try. Meanwhile Simons was seemingly everywhere the ball was, and punctuated his intentions in the second half with a devastating tackle close to the goal line which separated man from ball and allowed one of the “loaners” to fall on the prize for the final try. Simons’s reliable boot also added two-point conversions to all three tries.

The Pygmies bowed in their second match to a very good team from University of Nevada at Las Vegas, 24-6. The New Mexicans could not manage a try but did exert enough pressure to exact two Simons penalty goals.

In their third match of the day, Tech finally broke loose against the second of three sides entered by Arizona State University. By now they had formed an afternoon alliance with upriver rivals Albuquerque Brujos, who had also traveled “short”, and had helped that team to victory against a Scottsdale, AZ team a scant half-hour before their last match. By now also the Pygmies were cooking, taking on all comers in the forward positions for ball possession, and then slicing through backline defenses to score. Simons led all Tech scorers not only against ASU (four tries, four conversions) but for the day as well (four tries, seven conversions, two penalties, for 40 points). Playing flyhalf, or first back, for the first time, Simons led by example all day, yet was backed up admirably by his five teammates, who all made notable contributions: Kelly, Mike Bauer, Alex Bourandas, Phil Turner, and Tory Tadano.

In a remarkable postscript, the six tireless Tech players turned around immediately following the ASU match and donned the Brujo colors once again in a hard-fought victory, their fourth successful foray out of five on the day. And how good the lemonade tasted!

Prospects of fielding a full fifteen-man side are brighter this weekend (Oct. 4), when Tech travels to Las Vegas to play Highlands University. Game time is 1:00 pm on the NMHU campus.

-NMT-