{"id":381223,"date":"2022-12-08T06:02:29","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T20:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=381223"},"modified":"2022-12-08T06:02:29","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T20:02:29","slug":"marianas-rugby-club-guam-hold-friendly-matches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/marianas-rugby-club-guam-hold-friendly-matches\/","title":{"rendered":"Marianas Rugby Club, Guam hold friendly matches"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Marianas Rugby Club\u2019s Jason Limes tackles a Guam rugby player during one their friendly matches last Saturday at the Oleai Sports Complex field. (LEIGH GASES)
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Tackles were made left and right when a Guam rugby team came out to play a series of friendly matches against the Marianas Rugby Club on a blazing hot but windy Saturday at the Oleai Sports Complex field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The friendly roundup of watches were MRC Team B vs. Guam, MRC Team A vs. MRC Team B, and MRC Team A vs. Guam. For the women\u2019s matches, since there were no Guam women\u2019s rugby team present, it was the MRC red team vs. MRC blue team. The Guam team pummeled MRC in the first match, 26-7.<\/p>\n

With rugby in the CNMI not as big as it is in Guam, according to Neemia Vaiagae from the MRC, these matches exposed the team to competition, with hopes to have more matches like these in the future. Occasionally, said Vaiagae, MRC flies to Guam for rugby matches.<\/p>\n

Vaiagae said that about 99% of the rugby players in the team are young and are first-time players but that they are \u201cvery interested\u201d in the sport. He said he hopes to expose it to the youth first. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do\u2014bring rugby here\u2026 there are lots of other sports here but there are some kids that are interested in [rugby].\u201d
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<\/a>
Guam\u2019s Mariana Crisostomo, who joined the Marianas Rugby Club\u2019s blue team, tackles a Marianas Rugby Club red team player during one of their friendly matches last Saturday at the Oleai Sports Complex field. (LEIGH GASES)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

The men\u2019s MRC team consists of Oscar Setefano, Koji Taisakan, Jason Limes, Dino Taitano, Cain Castro, Jose Itibus, Rj Mendiola, Greg Sablan, Trey Aiken, Matthew Reyes, Frank Baza Jr., Chase Tenorio, Andy Magofna, Javen Montenegro, Jesse Olopai, Daniel Taisakan, Darien Quitugua, Jeffrey Quitugua Jr., Neil Skerei, Alvin Takai, Brandon Benavente, and Semisi Betevua.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s MRC red team includes Tahira Setefano, Yuriko Castro, Maria Castro, Richelle Ramon, Jenny Lee, and Jemalei Mori.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s MRC blue team includes Vivalyn Yangirelit, Davian Atalig, Marley Castro, Jahsmin Ramon, Kailani Laniyo, Tarshia Olopai, Devine Sablan, with one Guam rugby player, Mariana Piper Crisostomo.<\/p>\n

The Guam rugby team that came out were Justin Tanguileg, Afari \u201cAJ\u201d Patterson, Jedi Tuli, Seta Suguturaga, Taylor Taitague, Manny Cruz, Niko Castro, Frank Arceo, Brandon Burgos, Brad Fritz, Troy Fritz, Jayven Mendiola, Richard Smalls, Davy Degracia, Keenan Quinata, and Paul Estaquio. These rugby players were from different rugby teams in Guam including South Side and Lattestoners, but the majority of them are from the Guam Rugby Club.<\/p>\n

Justin Tanguileg, a 26-year-old Guam rugby player said after the matches that \u201cit\u2019s a lot of competition\u2014the competition is a lot better. I would like to say, hands down, the community\u2019s always welcoming. It\u2019s always a great experience to always come back out here for any sports\u2014for rugby most especially, and for football too. They come to Guam too and we always welcome them with open arms\u2026 which is a really good thing and I love how we keep on pushing us further and further into being more competitive. And that\u2019s what we need to do as brother and sister islands\u2013 and it feels great to see that COVID is dying down\u2026 and we get to see everyone back out again and doing what we love to do. We\u2019re doing what we love to do honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to Saipan and the whole community for making this happen. If it wasn\u2019t for you, we wouldn\u2019t be doing what we love,\u201d said Tanguileg.<\/p>\n

\u201cA huge shout out to those who came out today to show love to both MRC and Guam rugby! Your presence and support is very much appreciated! Thank you to our Guam rugby family for giving us the experience needed to grow as a team and individually. We hope to see you all soon on the field again,\u201d said the MRC Facebook page after the event.<\/p>\n

Lady of the match, most tries, and most tackles went to Kailani Laniyo, Yuriko Kawakami Castro, Jemalei Mori, and Marley Castro, respectively.<\/p>\n

MRC invites those interested in trying a new sport, with MRC practices on Tuesday and Thursday from 5pm to 7pm at the Oleai Sports Complex Field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contact northernmarianasrugbyclub@outlook.com or Oscar Setefano at (670) 287-6752.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tackles were made left and right when a Guam rugby team came out to play…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":381212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-381223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-guam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}