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By Alex Goff
The Gentlemen of Aspen went a long way to ensuring they are top in the West with a 45-14 defeat of Glendale in Glendale Saturday.
Aspen had been practicing the past few weeks in a horse barn, and had not seen grass for months. Head coach Freddy Waititi said he hadn't expected a polished performance, and while he didn't get one, he got a pretty polished second half.
"The result was much more than I had hoped for," Waititi said. "Given that we've had only two weeks of training and no scrum practice and no lineouts ... We were rusty in the first half, but the second half we put pressure on them and pressured them into a couple of mistakes."
Lock forwards Hayden Mexted and Matt Doubek led from the front and wing Merritt Johnson had a good day. But the performance of the afternoon belonged to Flyhalf Hayden Horsford. Having played the better part of five years with the club, mostly at hooker, Horsford has been converted to a #10.
"I have usually been playing flyhalf," said Waititi. "But I am too old. I knew he had the skills to play flyhalf, and he did an super job."
Also key for Aspen was the fact they started their trip to Glendale early Saturday morning, arriving in the Denver area early enough to spend about 90 minutes out on the grass, working on plays and reacquainting themselves with a rugby field.
"We just hung out on the field and got ourselves in the right frame of mind," Waititi said.
The game still started rusty for Aspen, and while they led at halftime, it was only 12-9. It wasn't until the second half that they really exploded.
"The boys started to loosen up," he said. "We had some goals we'd set forth for the game and we exceeded those goals. Glendale is a very good club. They've lost some players but we had to play really well to beat them. They are a formidable side."
Aspen is now 5-1 in the West DI West league, a full eight standings points ahead of 2nd-place Glendale. They have four games left in the ten-game league season, but are in a commanding position now.
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