Chee Spreads the Gospel of Rugby to Native American Kids

I am currently working as a contract nurse at the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, New Mexico. Anybody who picks up  newspaper can be blown away by the amount of bad news on the Navajo Reservation: alcoholism, diabetes, obesity, poverty, spouse abuse, depression, violence (usually while under the influence of alcohol) and kids dropping out of school.

There are some positive things that I have noticed in working with the Navajo people: among the Navajo people, it is considered a loss of face and self control to yell at somebody. (In 7 weeks, I have yet to have a Navajo be rude to me, something I cannot say in any other place I have lived) The Navajo are very differential to their elderly. The Navajo take great pride in military service. True, it's a way off "The Rez", but the warrior spirit lives on. Wrestling, Basketball, mixed-martial arts and cross-country running are very popular among Navajo youth.

A man named Chee Montano has been doing his part of spreading the gospel of rugby to Native American kids in his native Gallup, New Mexico. He is aided and abetted by his charming wife Timaris. As if that was not enough, Chee has also had his hand into trying to get the San Juan Silverbacks Rugby Football Club in Farmington on it's feet. Chee actually found me through Facebook when I posted a question on the New Mexico Brujos page. 

I have been going to some practices here in Farmington. We have a handful of players who show up for practice. We do what we can to work on skills, but have not had too much of a chance to do full-contact practice. 

On Saturday, a game was arranged between Fort Lewis College from Durango, Colorado(about a 45 minute drive from Farmington) and a combined team of San Juan and Chee's high school players from Gallup- a little over 2 hour drive. All sides were missing some players, so we had Fort Lewis play a combined Silverback/Gallup High School team. We ended up playing 11 on 11, and Chee was the referee.

My wife, Rebekah found the perfect use of her R2D2 that she won in a drawing at a local supermarket. She packed it with water, Gatorade and soda for the players. The kids got a big kick out of their high-tech cooler....

At 51,I was in the unique situation of being well over the combined age of my two fellow front-rowers. (Both had to be 15-16) I have to say, I was very impressed with how brave these two kids were in the scrums going against bigger, stronger, more mature college kids. They never whined or bitched about it "not being fair" or anything like that. These kids played hard the entire game, even though Fort Lewis won it going away, something like 44-15. 

Yeah, I was sore walking off the pitch, but I thought that this was something involving Native American kids that was so positive, that somebody needs to read about it. Chee and Timaris Montana give their heart and soul-to say nothing of time and money- to these kids and the sport of rugby. The Fort Lewis College players were also good sports-they knew they were much bigger and stronger than the Gallup kids, and did not try to obliterate them when tackling them. 

On a St. Patrick's day in the high desert of Northwest New Mexico, rugby showed once again why it's such a great game, and that it attracts some of the nicest people. The sport of rugby in the USA is richer by having people like Chee and Timaris Montano spreading the gospel of the oval ball. 

The only St. Patrick's day casualty was R2D2's bladder from holding all of the ice and liquid refreshment...

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.

6 Nations: Kissing Your Sister in Paris

This weekend had just one match in the Six Nations, a make up from a couple of weeks ago when France-Ireland was cancelled at the 59th minute of the 11th hour due to a frozen pitch at the Stade de France.

There is an expression in the US that a match that finishes in a tie is "like kissing your sister"-not as bad a loss-BUT...

Today's 17-17 draw was a very entertaining match that was really a tale of two halves.

The first half was the Tommie Bowe show, who scored two tries for the men in green: The first when he intercepted a moon-ball lofted up Aurelien Rogerie-an early St. Patrick's day gift for the Irish winger. The second score came from nothing when he took a pass from Keith Earles, then chipped over the French defense, and benefitted from a fortunate bounce, then outpaced the French to touch the ball down for a second try.

Ireland did dodge a major bullet in the first half when prop Cian Healy interfered with a promising French Attack from a blatantly off side position.  France was slow out of the box and Ireland made them pay with a 17-6 lead at half time.

France come out with a lot more intensity in the second half. Morgan Parra had a good kicking day for France on day when conditions were not optimal at the Stade de France. Wesley Fontana had a great individual effort for France, showing great pace to score on a forty meter diagonal run from some loose play near midfield. Game on.

French Coach St. André brought on Lionel Beauxis for Poitrenaud at fullback. Late in the second half, the French forwards did great work to get Beauxis in position for not one, but two drop goal attempts when they were getting deeper into Irish territory with time running out. The first attempt was a grubber that skidded through the try zone. The second was charged down by Ferris.

Both defenses kept their discipline to not give away any penalties with time running out. In the end, the 17-all draw was a fair result. Ireland had the better of the first half, France the second. There will be no Grand Slam for France this year, but they still can possibly when the Six Nations if they win their last two matches-the last one should be a great match in Cardiff against Wales. Don't think that the two sides will have forgotten their passionate and tight semifinal from RWC 2011 in Wellington.  It won't be a World Cup, but a Six Nations title will be a welcome addition to either Welsh Headquarters in Cardiff, or French  headquarters in Paris.

The Good, the Bad and The Ugly From Albuquerque...

My wife and I were invited to join the Abluquerque Aardvarks for their Hall of Fame and Awards dinner this past weekend. Upon stewing about it today, I would like to submit my Good/Bad/Ugly list from this Past Weekend...

The Good:

The Aardvarks Awards Dinner- A really nice bunch of guys. My wife and I had a great time.

Piñon nuts-I had seen vendors selling them at the roadside on Highway 550 between Farmington and Albuquerque. I tried some for the first time this weekend. Piñon nuts are DELICIOUS. They melt in your mouth like butter. They are addictive, and they also are great added to a variety of recipes.(Like the Ice cream we had in Albuquerque)

In front of The Shipwreck

Scenery- I have been here in New Mexico a little over a month, and I never get tired of the natural beauty when I drive around this state...

The Bad-The only bad part was that the weekend passed by too quickly.

The Ugly- Drunk driving.

Here in New Mexico, there is one really, really ugly thing; and that is the amount of drunk driving. Highway 550 connects Northwest New Mexico with Albuquerque, and the thing that leaps out at me are the amount of mini-monuments that you see every few miles when you drive on this road for people who have died in accidents-most of them Alcohol related. It's a topic that dominates the news here in New Mexico, and even in conversation among my co-workers at the Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock. I know they are trying to do something about it here in New Mexico, but the carnage is very real, and very ugly, indeed.

Rugby, Social Media and Getting Tracked Down in New Mexico

A few weeks back, I mentioned that I had used Facebook to get info on where to find a rugby-friendly bar in Albuquerque, New Mexico-since I could not find any type of rugby here in Farmington and the Four Corners area.

It seems that I was mistaken-there IS rugby here in the Four Corners region.

A guy named Chee found my posting and used Facebook to contact me to inform me that there is, indeed a rugby club here in the Four Corners region: The San Juan Silverbacks. (San Juan is the county here in this part of Northwest New Mexico)  The club has been kind of on-again and off-again trying to get players. Chee told me that there were guys getting together to play some touch rugby as training before they start up practice for real. I dragged my sore,  51 year old legs out and had fun playing some touch rugby. Yeah, my right knee has been bitching to me about going for a run (or as close as I can) on the rugby pitch...but man, was it fun.

Chalk one up for social media.

What to Make of Dan Parks Calling it Quits?

If any rugby parent wanted to use Dan Parks as an example of dusting yourself off and getting back into the fray after a bad match will be disappointed that the often maligned fly half for Scotland decided to put an end to his international career-effective immediately after Scotland's 13-6 loss to England. He helped put 11 points on the board in his last appearance for Scotland-6 for Scotland...

and 5 for England after his attempted clearance kick got charged down and scored by England's Charlie Hodgson.

I know I have given Parks some stick from time to time in this blog, but I have to admit that even I was surprised that he called it quits after the disappointing loss to the Auld Enemy at Murrayfield.


If you are a Cardiff Blues Fan, you have to have mixed feelings about the fact that Parks is concentrating all of his energy to playing for Cardiff.

Parks wore the Thistle-etched jumper for Scotland 67 times. An impressive number in the modern game. It's too bad that his last game for Scotland may be the one that people remember.

Six Nations Nostalgia: Review of the France Jersey

For those of you who have visited my blog with any level of frequency, you know that, in spite of my Swedish, German, English, Scottish and Irish ancestry, France and French rugby both have a very special place in my heart. The very first rugby game I ever saw on TV was Wales-France from the old Cardiff Arms Park. When I heard 50,000 Welshmen singing their national anthem-in Welsh-it gave me goose gumps. When I saw the ball movement and the physicality of the sport(As evidenced by this clip from that match of Serge Blanco's try), I was taken hook, line and sinker.

This Six Nations season marks 30 years ago that I was smitten by this sport. A lot has changed with the game: The players are professional, tries are worth 5 points, the players are much bigger, faster and stronger.(Compare the size of the players in this clip to those who played this past weekend.)

The rugby jersey has evolved a great deal too(Does ANYBODY wear a collar with their jersey anymore?). Of the Six Nations sides, France has probably changed their jersey style and sponsorship more than any of the other sides. Some teams might experiment with different colors of their secondary or third jersey.(Like England experimenting with purple a couple of years ago, and black in the last Rugby World Cup), but the French seem to change rugby jersey designs more than a model for Yves St-Laurent prepping for the runway.

I think the people at Nike have a winner with this design for the home French Rugby Jersey that people first saw at this past Rugby World Cup.

 When you have a prop shaped physique like me, you are always a little nervous about how these new rugby jersey designs are going to look on you. ( I still have nightmares about Australian prop Matt Dunning wearing that form-fitting bright gold Wallaby jumper during the 2007 Rugby World Cup) The Jersey fit my shoulders perfectly, but was forgiving without being baggy in the middle. It's a strong, but really lightweight fabric. My wife-a blunt critic about what I wear-gave the jersey very high marks in it's style and how it looked on me.

The jersey has familiar red shield with Le Coq Gaullois and the FFR(The French Acronym for Fédération du Rugby Français, or French Rugby Federation) over the heart.

Here in the US, you can't find this jersey, but you can get it through http://www.idealo.co.uk/compare/2972564/nike-france-rwc-2011-home.html

I can hardly wait to wear this new shirt when I go back to Albuquerque to watch some  6 Nations rugby with some of my new friends with the Aardvarks and Brujos.