On Saturday the Red Mountain rugby club hosted the New Mexico Aardvarks. The Warthogs are still looking for the perfect line up to take them forward. The coaching staff is switching people to different positions and giving many players the opportunity to show off their skills. The club is very fortunate to have a large amount of good players to choose from but finding the right combinations proved costly for the club in the past games. This past Saturday it looked like they came up with the best line up so far. Bruce Duncan was back on the field on Saturday at the scrum half position. He is the clubs veteran leader, in many people's opinion, the most complete rugby player in Arizona at the moment. Coach Masi also opted for a new player at the fly half position, Bailey Stringer. Bailey was able to do a good job setting up attacks and put the red and white team in motion. In the forwards the team welcomed back Adam Park and last years captain Daniel Recker. A new player Devin Sieben had the chance to to show off his skills and gain some experience.
The game was an entertaining one. The Aadvarks put up a great fight and had some very experienced players on the squad. They took advantage of their size and punished the Warthogs defense with hard hits and hard to stop runs. New Mexico eventually ran out of steam in the 2nd half and the Warthogs were able to come out as the winners for the day, final score 64-17.
Jonah Wahlberg came off the bench for the Warthogs in the 2nd half at the inside center position, this was a new position for the young player who is a dangerous scrumhalf. His ability to defend and make an impact as he came on the field earned him the MAN OF THE MATCH title. The Warthogs will play Las Vegas on Saturday Feb 25 in Mesa at Lehi sports park, the teams new home pitch.
