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 The Glendale Raptors completed a successful fall 2008 season. The First XV finished with a record of 5 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie, scoring 298 points while surrendering 162. In the Western Rugby Northern League the Raptors sit at 2 wins and 2 losses with 11 points. This places the Raptors in second place with the spring league season to be completed in March and April. In addition the First XV side won the Breckenridge 10-a-side Tournament in August and competed in the Aspen Ruggerfest, with 1 win and 2 loses. The Second XV played 8 matches with 7 wins and 1 tie while the Third XV played 2 matches winning both matches.
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Glendale defeated Boulder in Boulder 81 – 10 running in 13 tries for a convincing win. Glendale is 2 – 2 in league with 11 points. All West Northern Region teams resume league play in the spring. |
The USA National Rugby Team, the Eagles, will be training at Glendale's Infinity Park and Sports Center October 29 - November 6 in preparation for the upcoming Uruguay test match, November 8 in Salt Lake City.
The national team will arrive October 29 and will immediately have weight training and skills sessions. They will continue to have two training sessions per day, along with team meetings, in preparations for their international test match with Uruguay. The USA Eagles will travel to Japan to tour and play the Japanese National Team following the test match in Salt Lake City.
In addition, on November 3 the USA "A" team will arrive in Glendale as they will prepare to play the New Zealand National Heartland Team, composed of all star players from the Division Two New Zealand National Provincial Championship. The USA "A" team is composed of developing national team players. The USA "A" - Heartland and match will also be played in Salt Lake City November 8 as the opening match to the USA - Uruguay match.
Team trainings are open to the public at Infinity Park, Glendale and occur Friday October 31, 3:00 - 5:00 PM, November 1, 2:00 - 4:30 PM and November 2 -6 at 6:00 - 8:30 PM. |
 The Gentlemen of Aspen survived a late comeback by Glendale following their own rebound from a Raptor halftime lead, 13 - 5. Aspen started the scoring by powering to a 5 - 0 lead in the first three minutes of the match. They continued to apply pressure but Glendale withstood the assault to finally break out to a 13 - 5 halftime lead. A man down to start the second half, Aspen scored in 46th minute after some shoddy Raptor tackling. In the 60th and 64th minute Aspen put in two more tries to go up 24 -13. Glendale responded with intense pressure but were unable to score the finishing try as Aspen hung on for the well deserved Western Rugby League, victory 24 - 21. |
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I just wanted to let the Raptors coaches know how much I appreciated their involvement with the Fort Lewis team on Saturday. My son is on the Fort Lewis team which is a team of mainly college kids, the majority of which have not played the game very long, They don’t have a coach and the contrast to the well-coached Raptors team was obvious. It was clear that the Fort were being overwhelmed by the Raptors and so it was a real touch of class that some of the Raptors coaches took the Fort team aside at half time and coached them on how to improve. It worked (winning 4 scrums in a row no less !) and they gave the Raptors a much better game in the second half. All of the Raptors coaches then got together with the Fort Lewis team after the game for half an hour to help them out. This was great to see and a real credit to the coaches and frankly, to the game of rugby. Thank you for all your efforts – you’re a marvelous example of what sports should be about at this level. |
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Glendale Raptors – 55
Fort Collins – 18
FINAL
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| GLENDALE, CO., Sept. 13 – In the very early going, the atmosphere begged for a grind-it-out rugby game. Well, it was for the first 15 minutes, anyway.
After the Glendale Raptor’s B-Team scored 12 points in the first five minutes, Ft. Collins quickly counter to lead 13-12 after the first 15 minutes. But after that the Raptors finally broke out. . |
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Glendale opened their fall 2008 season at Infinity Park with a 40-12 victory over the visiting Vail Rugby Club.
The visitors, having recently competed a successful summer mountain schedule, journeyed down to the lower altitude of Denver and looked the fitter team. Despite Vail’s summer league experience, Glendale was first on the board.
Glendale won a tight head scrum and prop Mike Tafel dove over for the converted score by Mike Graham, 7-0. Glendale controlled most of the first half possession and gleefully snapped up the next chance.
The next scoring opportunity came from a quick lineout throw that resulted in two quick post tackle phases allowing fullback Dewon Reed to score under the posts, 14-0.
Wing Justin Howly capped off the first-half scoring, touching down after yet another tighthead scrum win. 21-0 at the break.
Vail finally got on track with a number of bruising runs by No. 8 Chris Bearman. Bearman’s power opened the defense enough to allow their lock Zack Zellers to score near the posts.
Captain and scrumhalf Cameron Turner slotted over the easy conversion to make it 21-7. With their tails up Vail continued to pressure the Raptors, but no points came.
Having cleared their lines, Glendale got a penalty in the Vail half and chose a scrum. From there they punched ahead and lock Ryan Chapman crashed over for an unconverted try. Glendale kept up the pressure and quickly scored off a lineout as center Brad Winbush broke the Vail defensive line and scooted under the posts for a converted try.
Vail came back in the 62nd minute to score the most exciting try of the day, a quick drop out that saw the Glendale defense unaware. Vailo moved the ball quickly to the wing where Kenyan internationals Cesar Ondula and Collins Akwanyi exchanged rapid passes at full speed to draw the defense and score in the corner, and bringing the crowd to their feet in applause. That made the score 33-12 for Glendale, and another try for the Raptors finished it off 40 – 12. |
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 (August 26, 2008) In a friendly pre-season opener for the Seattle Rugby Club, the visiting Glendale Raptors defeated the host side 35 – 23 at Pat Ryan Field. Seattle received the opening kickoff and proceeded to pound the ball inside using their large forward pack. Driving down the field they earned the first penalty of the match, an easy kick for flyhalf Robbie Flynn. Glendale again kicked off and Seattle continues to attack tight using their forwards to good effect. At seven minutes, from a successful lineout, the Seattle forwards drove the ball over to take an 8 – 0 lead.
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The Glendale Raptors completed the Western Northern Region league undefeated, the only blemish being a tie with the Denver Highlanders. As the number one seed from the North, the Raptors were paired with the number one seed from Texas for the right to represent the West Territory in the Final Round of 16 at the USA Rugby National Championships.
The Raptors competed against Austin, who came in second to National Champion Hayward at last years Championship. The Raptors built a 20 - 3 lead, but were almost undone by a yellow card which placed a Raptor in the sin bin and left the team to play with 14 players for ten minutes. While a man down, Austin mounted a sustained attack resulting in 14 points to the defending West Champs, 20 - 17. Glendale rebounded by scoring three trys and putting the match out of reach for Austin 39 - 17.
The start of the season witnessed a collection of young players who had never played together metamorphosed into a strong team were the sum total is more important than the individual. This has allowed continual growth that is culminating in a national Semi-final match at Infinity Park on May 31.
After a heated 80 minutes, playoff newcomer Glendale Raptors stamped their Championship ticket to play before a home crowd at Infinity Park on May 31, with a 29-21 victory over South Side Irish. Penalties abounded in the aggressive match, which saw the Raptors earn their first nine points as a result of penalties against the Irish and steadily built a 23-15 lead before the break.
After switching ends, the accurate boot of South Side center Kevin McEvoy kept the Irish right in the game, with two penalty kicks in their favor to bring the tally up to 23-21; however, Glendale captain Mike Graham effectively sealed his team’s fate in the game’s last five minutes, with an additional penalty and a swift drop goal right at the end.
“It feels great to advance to the Championships,” Graham said following the match. “All of our hard work paid off. We’ve been working to boost our fitness and in the last 20 minutes we really put it away to the credit of our conditioning.”
“The Glendale Rugby Club is ecstatic to be playing at home at Infinity Park for the National Championship.” Coach Mark Bullock added. “I think we’ll get a lot of people out to our stadium and we’ll definitely have great support.” |
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