Rugby Club Tours Ireland, March 8 - 18

by Dave Wheelock, Rugby Coach

Early morning on Friday, March 8, marks frenetic activity at the New Mexico Tech gymnasium, as members of the NMT Rugby Football Club make final preparations for their ten-day playing tour to Ireland. The trip is the result of more than a year of planning and anticipation. While 20 of the 33-member tour party depart from Socorro, the entire team will rendezvous in Dublin, where seven Tech alumni players converge from points as far-flung as San Jose, California, Tampa, Florida, and Boston, Massachusetts. Wives and coaching staff round out the group, which returns the evening of March 18.

Socorro's athletic ambassadors will play a three-match schedule against Irish clubs of diverse natures. The tour opens on Monday, March 11 against venerable Trinity University in Dublin, whose rugby club dates back to 1854. On Wednesday, the 13th the Pygmies are in the Irish midlands to play the Athlone Institute of Technology, before turning south for a Saturday, March 16 date with Shannon Rugby Football Club in Limerick.

Tony Smeeth coaches Trinity and had some words of advice via for the touring team. "Athlone will be quite good, as they only have two teams," meaning the school's playing strength will be concentrated. "Shannon are probably . . . the strongest club (non-collegiate) team in Ireland with a fantastic tradition of winning." A perusal of Shannon RFC's website, www.shannonrfc.com, reveals a veritable rugby factory: photos of current national Irish team members from the club are but a few clicks away from stories and photos of the club's numerous "age-grade" teams, down to the Under 10s (-year-olds). Shannon also incidentally fields the Irish national champion women's team.

While Tech will not be squared off against Shannon's fully-professional senior first side, the Trinity coach warns: "in (County) Limerick, rugby is THE game and there will be no sympathy for you!!!"

Of his own team, Smeeth says "we run five senior teams plus two Under 20s and can match your needs." Negotiations continue with Trinity concerning relative strengths and weaknesses of the American team in the international quest for a "good match."

The Socorro playing contingent:

Jeremiah Wright - center, captain. Junior, mechanical engineering; Raton, NM
Mike Bauer - wing. Junior, computer science/biology, Farmington, NM
Brian England - flanker. Senior, electrical engineering, Albuquerque
Rob Harrison - wing/center. Sophomore, chemical engineering, Los Alamos, NM
Joe Hart - prop. Senior, electrical engineering, Albuquerque
Brook Jilek - #8/lock. Junior, physics, Portales, NM
Mark Kelly - flanker. Junior, environmental engineering, Albuquerque
Nick Ledesma - flanker. Junior, computer science, Albuquerque
Jason Lennane - prop. Master's candidate, geology, Atlanta, Georgia
Patrick Simons - fullback. Freshman, mechanical engineering, Edgewood, NM
Katsuya Sugimoto - flyhalf. Junior, electrical engineering, Tochigi, Japan
Josh Ulbricht - scrumhalf. Junior, general sciences, Socorro
Israel Vaughn - wing. Senior, mathematics, Albuquerque
Dave Wheelock - coach. Santa Fe, NM