Short-handed Santos Overpowered in Denver (Copy)
Pets Wreak Havoc in Heavy Loss
Denver, CO
October 01, 2022 - JB
A rare opportunity to play a team outside the Usual Suspects came up, and so Los Santos traveled to Denver for a friendly versus the always-formidable Highlanders RFC on October 1. At least some of them did!
There is a backstory involved, the theme being player shortage. The word around the MRC is that one player could not locate a dog-sitter and another player’s pooch required emergency attention that forced him (the player) out of the picture. With best wishes to those pets, I guess we can say this match went to the dogs. Ta-da (w/cymbal crash).
Here’s to Mr. B for stepping up to fill the captain’s position in the absence of a certain NEW FATHER*.
They loaned us 2 of their players and we played close in the first half. The score was 17-7 at the half. A great crashing 5 meter try from Little John off a penalty brought us our only points on the day. Kudos to them for having great athletes at almost every position and for having a large enough roster and rolling subs that kept them fresh. We lost Angel, Jason, and Frankie to injury and played the second half with 5 of them filling us in. We had a couple of decent series but could never quite connect the dots and they had a ton of long break-away tries. Final score was 80 to 7.
The field was beautiful and most of us were happy just for the chance to play the game we love. The first half was competitive and the second half just got silly but the camaraderie and hospitality were fantastic. They had a keg for us on the field which many of their players started hitting in the second half. We knew because we could smell it in the scrum when they filled in our numbers. Great time at the bar afterwards: fantastic typical rugby camaraderie: fight as hard as you can on the field and then appreciate each other in the drink up.
We would have won the boat race with a fantastic start from Jeremy but Gatti has apparently never drank a beer before and took about 30 seconds to finish his. At anchor, I cheated as hard and as subtly as I possibly could but it was for naught since the race was already lost by the time it got to me.
The game was lost but I am happy that we showed those four college kids a great time and am optimistic they will join the Santos for their post-college rugby.
Thanks to all who made the drive.
Representing Players:
Jason Lithgow
Jeremy Lithgow
Jason Osbourn
Adam Jobes
Dan Allinder
Angel Villa
John Bent
Jared Skillman (Captain)
John (UNM) who we promptly christened Little John because we already have a big John
Justin J-Money (NMHU)
Frankie (NMHU)
Gatti (NMHU)
Mark (NMHU)
