Red Mountain Wins Early Rivalry Game with Tempe

01.24.2024

Red Mountain opened up their Arizona league season with a 34-17 defeat of rivals Tempe.

This was a turnaround for Red Mountain, as Tempe has been on top of the rivalry for several years. However, Tempe is fairly young—and certainly struggled with playing as a unit until later in the game—while Red Mountain has come together a little bit better.

The game opened with Tempe using their powerful runners to get on the front foot. With Junior Tonga’uiha and Ike Crowell testing defenses and playing well. That led them to a 7-0 lead. But after that Red Mountain started to put it together a bit more. Outside center Kingston Samuelu, a newcomer to rugby, showcased his power and athleticism early on, making a couple of key tackles and some effective runs.

From there Red Mountain was able to use the boot to put Tempe under pressure and eventually Samuelu burst through on the weak side to score.

With more of the ball now several Red Mountain players showed their ability. Inside center Noah Kirk, the backs captain, is a hard-working player who plays good defense and makes good decisions with the ball in hand. Scrumhalf Tavita Shum has improved quite a bit over the offseason and kept the attack moving, even when ball was loose or scrappy. His older brother Brayden, the team captain, put in a ton of work at flanker to make sure they kept the continuity.

All of this opened up opportunities for the Red Mountain runners, notably No. 8 Zyon Leuluai, to gain momentum.

Off a lineout and possession that wasn't really doing anything, Leuluai burst through several Tempe defenders to score from long range and make it 12-7. Tempe responded with some good offloads and interplay, but Red Mountain's defense, led by Kirk and Brayden Shum, kept them away from the tryline.

Nice try for @RedMtnYouth No. 8 Zyon Leuluai. Nine guys have a chance to get him. Two sort of do, but it's too late by then. pic.twitter.com/IWVC2GnLug
— Alex Goff (@goffrugbyreport) January 24, 2024

Eventually the Red Mountain forwards worked well in support of a Tavita Shum run to score and it was 17-7 at halftime.

In the second half Red Mountain was in control for the first 20 minutes or so. Flyhalf Jahsiah Matua started to open up his game, calling his own number a little bit more. It was Matua who capped off a nice team movement to score Red Mountain's first try of the second half, and a dummy and long run put him through for the next one.

Finally Leuluai powered over for another try, and while Tempe did score twice late in the game—both nicely-executed tries—they had too far to climb.

Along with the players mentioned, Brock Jeffries and Tommy Willis were a hard-working combination at hooker. However, Leuluai, now free of football-related injuries and having hit a growth spurt, is a head-turner.

"We just teach the basic systems of offensive and defensive pods and try hard to get the basics right," said Assistant Coach Jeff McIntyre. "We try hard with fitness, although it’s early days. We tell the boys that Tempe have a lot of strong athletic players, we’d rather shine as a team. If we stay disciplined, and play our game, we will compensate for seemingly bigger, stronger players."

As with Tempe, Red Mountain works hard on the youth side of things and in fact their U16 team is looking quite good.

"We’ve been building the culture of the team gradually over multiple seasons, and that incremental effort in addition to some young new, former-player coaches joining our established, experienced coaching team has really combined to lift our season," said McIntrye. "We are also blessed with excellent team managers, booster president, and outstanding parental support."

All of that is very necessary because in Arizona top teams have to travel to find additional competition. They will be at the Puriri Memorial Invitational in St. George, Utah in February and will also play in Montana, Idaho, and Washington.

"We have a big season ahead," said McIntrye.

And this was a big start.

Red Mountain Wins Early Rivalry Game with Tempe

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