Battle of Albuquerque: Advantage Aardvarks

My wife and I drove down to Albuquerque with the goal of trying a couple of restaurants, going up the Sandia Tramway http://www.sandiapeak.com/ -and seeing the Albuquerque Aardvarks play the New Mexico Brujos in a "Battle of Albuquerque".

The two rivals have had conflicting fortunes. The Aardvarks were recently USA National runners-up in Division II. The Brujos have been fighting for respectability.

Early on, the Aardvarks enjoyed possession based on some great play by their forwards...

The Aardvarks went up 14-0, then the Brujos got back in the game with two tries of their own...

This back for the Brujos had a great line break, then chipped and touched the ball down for a try...

At 14-14 early in the second half, it seemed like it was game on.

The score seemed to get the attention of the Aardvarks, who seemed to wear down the Brujos with a deeper bench, and greater physicality -it was soon one-way traffic against the Brujos

A tight game ended with a 55-14 win for the Aardvarks on a blustery day in Albuquerque. For 50 minutes, it was a closer game than the score would have indicated

...the game was not a dog...

And any rugby game in Albuquerque is not complete without a visit to Wally Minoli's place, Gecko's. Wally is just a hard working guy who does a lot for the rugby community in New Mexico.