NMT Rugby aims to return national trophy to Socorro

By Taylor Dotson, PhD NMT associate professor

Special to the Chieftain

Since they last won a national title in 2022, NMT rugby has suffered a long championship drought. Between December 12th to 14th, they have a chance to rectify it.

The team first ascended to national prominence after the COVID pandemic, and under former head coach Gearoid Dunbar. The Irishman moved heaven and earth to ensure that New Mexico Tech’s players could continue training while other programs were shut down, albeit with face masks and weekly testing.

When competitive rugby reopened in 2021, the side easily qualified for the May Madness 7’s tournament in New Orleans. The hastily organized competition didn’t even divide teams into divisions, yet NMT managed a 3-2 record, taking second place in the survivor bracket.

The next fall was their strongest 15s season to date. They upset supposed shoe-in Cal Poly Humboldt at home to take the Pacific West trophy, following it up with a runner-up finish at National Collegiate Rugby’s (NRC) championship and a first-place victory over Denver University in the breakaway American College Rugby league.

In May, they earned a repeat invite to the national 7’s tournament, now rebranded as the Collegiate Rugby Championship. This time they won the division 3 title, handily defeating Christendom College, the side that had relegated them to second place in the fall.

With Dunbar’s departure that summer, NMT Rugby spent the next few years in the wilderness. His successor, Christopher Hathaway, held the head coach position for less than a year. A group of students and a college professor were forced to handle training duties until South African coach Jason Oliphant arrived on campus. The team’s results were solid, but not good enough to make it back to a national tournament.

Oliphant has needed a full year to work to bring the team back to its previous level. But inheriting a side that had suffered so much chaos was the least of his problems. As NMT rugby improved, many of its former opponents began forfeiting matches. Neither wanting to suffer a triple-digit defeat in front of their home fans, nor to drive eight hours to get a hiding, teams decided that they’d rather not play at all.

This made the path to the national qualification easier at the cost of harming NMT’s match preparations. Training seasons can’t replace game experience. New Mexico’s men’s rugby clubs have come to the rescue, driving from across the state for scrimmages. But working adults in their 30s play a very different style of rugby compared to college students. In any case, the fall season has seen two wins over Colorado School of Mines, a walloping of Denver University, and a tight victory against University of Montana.

In the NCR coaches polls and bracket predictions, no one expected New Mexico Tech to make it to the national semifinals. And the underdogs have their work cut out for them. At 11 a.m. mountain time in Houston on December 12th, they face last year’s 7’s champs Slippery Rock University. A single game stands between them and a long-awaited championship opportunity. Should they win, NMT rugby will face either Holy Cross or Franciscan in the final on Sunday.