It was a showcase of a national powerhouse against a team looking for recognition when the UNM men's rugby team took on number one ranked University of California at Berkeley Saturday.
Although the Lobos lost 43-3 to Cal, which has won 11 straight USA Rugby collegiate championships and 18 overall, they gained two important components they were looking for to help continue building the program - notoriety and experience.
"We played hard the whole game and that is all you can really ask for," UNM's Jimmy Mulloy said. "It was a great game for us, we learned a lot. We just take this as one step further for our program."
The program has already shown the potential to be a successful sport at UNM. The Lobos are ranked fourth in the western region and Saturday's game, which took place at the Santa Ana Championship Soccer Complex, showed many people that UNM can compete against the top teams in the country.
"They are the best in the nation so we did very well," head coach Shannon Robinson said. "They are very fit and very well organized. The great thing is that we learned a lot today. We saw what its like to play at a high level and we saw we can play with them."
About 300 people also saw UNM's hard-fought performance, one of the bigger crowds the Lobos have seen.
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Michael Benting, a New Mexico State University student, came up from Las Cruces to see the game and enjoyed what he saw.
"I think they showed a good performance and I think they have a lot of potential to get to a national championship team," he said.
Benting, a former Lobo player, said he noticed that there were many teams from the Rocky Mountain area in attendance, illustrating the popularity of the game.
Fans were treated to a physical, competitive game in the first half as the Lobos took an early 3-0 lead on a successful penalty kick. However, Cal started to dominate the latter part of the half and reeled off 15 straight points. The second half was a show of the Bears' skills as they scored 28 points while holding UNM scoreless.
Although his team won handily, California head coach Jack Clark was impressed with the Lobos hustle.
"They competed hard, they played hard," Clark said. "They obviously wanted to put in a good performance, and I hope it worked for them."
What has been working for the Lobos is the improvement in the athletes and the quality of play at UNM. Although rugby is a club sport at UNM and receives little attention, Robinson said the program has a national reputation, pointing to the opportunity to play California.
He hopes Saturday's performance and exposure will help bring more recruits.
"Little by little, when kids in New Mexico see that this is a game they can play and that they can play it at an excellent level, then I think that you will see more of these all state athletes coming in here wanting to play," Robinson said.
The Lobos have six players from the state and also have six former high school All-Americans. Marc West, who competed in football and shot-put at Artesia High School, said he hopes more people will be able to see why rugby is so intriguing.
"It's a fun sport; everyday is something different," he said. "It's not like a lot of other sports. In rugby, you have to be a complete athlete. You have to run, catch, pass, kick and tackle at all times. I just wanted to go for something challenging."
The challenging part seems to be over for the men's rugby team as they successfully continue to improve and Saturday's game was a showcase of that.
"(Saturday's) game says a lot about this program that we would even come out to play a team like this," Mulloy said. "They are a big team and they like to keep a strong competition and they chose to come out and play us. That shows that we are no joke; we are a good team, they noticed and they wanted to come out and play us. And we took advantage of the situation."
