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Gents rugby holds off Water Dogs to move to 2-0 in RMR Premiership play

A Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club player, left, fights off a tackle attempt by the Denver Water Dogs on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, at Wagner Park in downtown Aspen. The Gents won, 59-52, in RMR Premiership play.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

The visiting Denver Water Dogs were expected to provide a much stronger test for the Gentlemen of Aspen Rugby Club in Week 2 of the fall Rocky Mountain Rugby Premiership season on Saturday.

And that’s exactly what happened, although the home side was still able to hold on for a 59-52 win at Wagner Park.

“From that side of things, we are really happy,” Gents player and coach Ben Mitchell said of getting another win. “But there are still a lot of improvements we can make. We didn’t actually close that game out very well. We kind of let it get into a back-and-forth game rather than actually controlling the game and keeping more scores behind us.”

Aspen had a slight edge over the Water Dogs at halftime and pulled away a bit midway through the second half. But some sloppy play over the final minutes led to a couple of quick Denver tries that closed the gap on the scoreboard, only to have time run out on the Water Dogs.

“You have to learn it at some stage. It’s nice that we learnt it, and we still ended up winning the game,” Mitchell said of the Gents’ lackadaisical finish. “They are dangerous. They are really good at moving the ball and spreading the ball and playing wide, expansive rugby. When you mix that with our ill discipline, the game can open up very quickly.”

Saturday’s contest was much closer than the one Aspen played a week prior against visiting Boulder, the Gents winning that game 83-28 to open RMR play. This fall marks Aspen’s return to the region’s highest level of rugby in a dozen years. The Gents claim nine national championships through its history and are trying to get back to that level.

The Water Dogs, which formerly went by the Misfits, provided a good litmus test for the Gents.

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“They’ve got players,” Mitchell said. “They are a young club, but they are developing quite nicely, and they are super competitive every time we play with them. We’ve had some losses against them, as well, in the last few years.”

Now 2-0 in RMR play, the Gents will now put that on hold to focus on its 56th annual Ruggerfest tournament, which begins on Thursday and goes through Sunday in Aspen.

The Gents will return to premiership action on Sept. 28 with their first road game at Utah’s Haggis RFC, followed by a trip to the Denver Barbos on Oct. 5.

acolbert@aspentimes.com

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