Westlake Ruggers Help Texas All-Star Team

Take Second in National Tournament

Paul Brown, Connor McNally & Evan Von Zur Muehlen

Denver, CO. June 15, 2009 - After the end of the Westlake’s inaugural rugby season, three of its players, Paul Brown, Evan Von Zur Muehlen, and Connor McNally, were selected to play this summer with the Texas Under-17 High Performance Team.  After a series of weekend practices in different parts of the state, the squad traveled to Denver last weekend for the Ninth Annual Rocky Mountain Rugby Challenge All-Star Tournament and took second place after two days of intense rugby. 

The Texas team cruised to the top of its tournament bracket after crushing its opposition on Saturday.  As scrum half, McNally directed the Texan’s attack that kept their opponents (from Colorado and Louisiana) on the defensive. Paul Brown played inside center and excited the crowd with a series of breakaway runs throughout the tournament.  His try against Louisiana helped the Texans’ seal the lopsided win.  And Von Zur Muehlen played brilliantly as flanker throughout the tournament.  His try and series of conversion and penalty kicks against Eastern Colorado helped earn him “most valuable player” honors in that match and his consistently aggressive play landed him on the consensus all-tournament team.

Although the Texas Under-17 squad ultimately fell to a powerful Wisconsin team in the finals, the Westlake ruggers were thrilled with the opportunity to play rugby at such a high level and look forward to the beginning of Westlake’s second rugby season.

Charles Vermont