Rugby introduced to Gallup
Gallup club to have home game in April

The Gallup Youth Rugby Team runs a scrum drill during Sunday's practice. The team has been gaining support and members throughout the community and hopes to have a playing field of its own in the Gallup area eventually. [Photo by Brian Leddy/Inependent]

By Alan Arthur
Sports Editor

GALLUP — No fooling. There will be a historic day in Gallup this April.

On April 14, the Gallup Rugby Football Club will play its first home game and most presumably the first-ever official rugby game ever played in Gallup when it hosts St. Pius.

"We are an organization started a couple of months ago and we are sanctioned under the Rio Grande Rugby Union," the club's organizer and coach Timaris Montano said. "My husband had played rugby for eight years and my oldest son had always wanted to walk in his shoes. We decided to start our own team."

In fact, history has always been made by the club, which played its first game last Saturday in Albuquerque. Though Gallup was beaten 14-13 by Eldorado, it marked the beginning of a new sport in the city.

"We played two halves," Montano stated. "We played a forward game in stopping Eldorado's back from advancing."

For those not familiar with the sport of rugby (and that could possibly be a good number of people in Gallup), it resembles football and soccer in some ways.

The definition of rugby is it is a game played by two teams of 15 or 13 players each on a rectangular field 110 yards long with goal lines and goal posts at either end. The object of the game being to run with an oval ball across the opponent's goal line or kick it through the upper portion of the goal posts with forward passing and timeouts not permitted.

Unlike football, rugby has almost continuous action unless the ball goes out of bounds. In that case, a scrum is used to get action going again. A scrum is when the opposing lines of forwards kick the ball between them.

Players may kick, carry or pass the ball. Tackling is permitted, blocking is not.

"Rugby is a full contact sport without any type of pads," Montano said. "It's comparable to the fundamentals of football. The objective is to keep the ball from going forward and without passing it forward. Every time you pass, you pass it to the back or you kick it to the front to get it going."

Montano added, "There's a lot of different skills and techniques that are taught throughout the game. It is a player's sport, so we try to teach them to make a decision on the field. They are the ones that have to make those decisions."

Even Gallup's coach is learning as she goes.

"I've never coached rugby before," Montano said. "After some training and face-to-face contact clinics, different on-line modules and getting my first aid certification, I am now a certified rugby coach."

In their its season opener, Gallup's 'Man Of The Match' was Antonio Benally and Honorable Mention was Reyes Garcia, according to Montano.

Gallup's lineup included Quentin Cotton as loose head prop; Sebastion Elliott and Todd Silversmith at the hooker position; Garcia at tight head prop; David Schnekenburg at lock; Benally and Todd Silversmith at flanker; Mah-Konce Hudson at scrum half; Jordan Hengel at fly half; Stephen Garcia at left wing; Xavier Benally at outside center; Jacob Davis at right win; and Ty Plummer at full back.

In the first half, Gallup won one line out and lost five, and won three scrums and lost two.

Schnekenberg started the game with a deep kick to the 29-meter mark. The first tackle for Gallup came from Hengel and Cotton.

"Although all players got a hand in tackling, all of our tackling was very low," Montano stated. "Not once did we get penalized for high tackles. A legal definition is to support the opposition until both tackler and opposition are on the ground."

Hudson led the first half with the most tackles with six. Benally tied for second with four tackles and three turnovers. Also Reyes Garcia had four tackles, while Hengel, Silversmith, Stephen Garcia, and Cotton had three tackles.

In the second half, Gallup won four lineouts and lost two, stealing the ball during Eldorado's line out. Gallup also won one scrum and lost three.

Schnekenberg kicked to the 35-meter mark. Benally had a 35-meter breakaway and Plummer had a 20-meter breakaway.

Schnekenberg kicked a three-point conversion and three tackles. Also, Benally had the most tackles with seven, Hengel had six tackles and a kick that stayed inside touch, Stephen Garcia had five tackles, Reyes Garcia had six tackles, Plummer had five tackles, Hudson had six tackles and Cotton had two tackles.

"We have about twenty-eight players show up (for practice) and some of our players are in dual sports," Montano said. "Right now it is an area sport which means anyone from any school in the area can show up."

Players need to be ages 13 to 19.

The site and time for Gallup's first game on April 14 is still being worked with the availability of the fields. Following for the Gallup Rugby Club will be a tournament in Socorro on April 21 and a home match against Eldorado the following week.

Anyone interested in joining the club or just wanting more information can call Montano at 505-879-2922.