An Elevated Weekend
July 9, 2024 - DW
Perhaps beneath the radar of many in the Club, two of our Santos represented us at a higher level on June 22 as the Southwest Rugby Union Select team traveled to Salt Lake City for what’s known in rugby circles as a curtain-raiser to the professional Major League Rugby match between the Utah Warriors and Dallas Jackals.
Santa Fe’s seasoned head captain Ryan Weir and youthful sensation Aidan Gurule both started for Southwest RFU at blindside flanker and number eight, respectively. Their opponents, the Utah Selects, are a team of understudies to the pro team, eager to show their mettle and hopeful of gaining a spot – and a check - in the Warriors roster. According to Aidan the Utah side were a tight balance of young men with obvious, albeit unpolished talent and more-experienced players capable of keeping things real. “You could tell from the time they started warming up they were operating at a more sophisticated level”.
In the wide-open preliminary, Utah and Southwest combined for 115 points, with the home team claiming 69 and the visitors 46.
“I didn’t get the impression we were expected to win” commented Ryan in a phone chat. “It was an open game” he added without irony, “but our guys played well.” Well enough to post 46 against a team of near- and future professionals.
The main event turned out as a 50-46 Warriors win over the Dallas Jackals. You can see highlights at HIGHLIGHTS | Utah vs Dallas (youtube.com). San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium will host Major League Rugby’s championship match on August 4.
Extra Effort
Our two heroes illustrate the diversity of motivation that exists within the Southwest Union representative team. 22-year-old Aidan Gurule may rightfully yearn for and even expect a call-up to the higher echelons of rugby. Aidan was born in Massachusetts in 2001 and discovered rugby as a 17-year-old wrestler in Albuquerque. His first men’s club was Aardvarks where he made enough of an impression that club president Victor Armendaris tipped him off about Southwest Union’s upcoming representative tryouts in Arizona in 2021. Aidan turned up for the trials and although he didn’t get on the pitch for that winter’s close loss to Colorado’s rep side in Albuquerque, he qualified for the next opportunity through his presence on the bench. The next year, now standing 6’ 1” and weighing in at 240 rapid pounds, Aidan got on the pitch, joining Ryan in San Diego for a satisfying 29-24 victory over fabled Old Aztecs RFC in which Ryan scored the decisive try at the end of the match.
Like most of his teammates on the Southwest Selects, Ryan Weir has no illusions about playing professional rugby. He has a wife, Maria, and a son, Lachlan. As a fireman he is a stalwart of his community. Add a long run as captain of the Santa Fe Rugby Football Club and you get mucho mana. What makes Ryan tick? Could it be that timeless, proudly amateur vestige of rugby, Love of the Game?
Pro Rugby in the USA
Meanwhile our champions’ experience provides a peek into the latest and most successful effort at professional rugby in the United States to date, Major League Rugby (MLR).
MLR clubs are intentionally vague concerning their payouts, yet an entire team’s salary cap is limited to $5M, which means All Black legend Ma’a Nonu’s San Diego Legion teammates are probably well-advised to concentrate on the honor of being his teammate. In the real world, rank-and-file MLR players are rumored to get around $40-60,000.
The Utah Warriors is the professional team atop the structure of a high school-age “academy” team at the base and an intermediate team, the Utah Selects, on hand to resupply the pro team. With an objective for players to make the Warriors’ match day 23 within six months of being invited into the Selects, the program takes on 40 athletes for a three-day training week that incorporates strength and conditioning work, analysis sessions and, of course, field sessions. Naturally these backup players require playing time, the presumed reason for the invitation to Southwest. By design everyone gets what they need in this arrangement, including those the game relies on. An interview on the Warriors website with U.S. born Warrior general manager Brandon Sparks reveals the inclusive nature of strategic planning within the Utah Warrior scheme.
“Players won’t be successful without the referees and the coaches, just like the referees and coaches won’t be successful without the players. So, with anything we are looking to do on the development side of things, we should be looking to develop those three entities.”
As for the Warriors’ relationship with players, Sparks’ perspective is the same as all good coaches. “We can teach someone to be fitter, to be better at passing, at tackling and so on, but if the mindset isn’t there and they don’t have the necessary soft skills to be successful in that environment, it won’t work for anybody.”
Bringing it Home
A great feature of Santo News Updates is the occasional opportunity to read how it was back in the Good Ole days. While rugby infected New Mexico in approximately 1969, it was not until 1976 that the Rio Grande Rugby Football Union was organized by legendary player, coach, and administrator Herb Howell. Along with the new association came the selection of an “all star” team made up of players from Santa Fe, Albuquerque, El Paso, and Socorro.
The ultimate model for what are commonly referred to as select sides are the world-famous Barbarians, made up of popular players from anywhere and everywhere. A cool thing about the Baa-Baas is that even capped international members wear stockings of their choice, often from their original home clubs or even schools.
Whatever one calls it, playing in a select side is an experience a player never forgets – a sense of pride, it cannot be denied; but also the distinct feeling of confidence in one’s teammates, that all will go well if one can just perform the role put out for him or her.
Beyond the personal fulfillment, there is the expectation of passing on what was learned to one’s mates in the home club. This is now an added dimension of Aidan’s and Ryan’s rugby identities. It only makes sense that we should encourage more of our players to put themselves in this position.
