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HERRIMAN — Growing up in St. George and starring for the Snow Canyon High School club rugby team, Chad Gough could've never imagined playing professional rugby in his home state.
It's not that he didn't have goals to play rugby; it's just that back then, the only opportunity for a career was to play overseas.
Even less, Gough never thought he'd score a try in front of a rabid home fanbase.
The 6-foot, 245-pound hooker achieved both goals in his final home match Saturday afternoon, scoring the Utah Warriors' second try of the game in a 39-32 loss to the Western Conference-leading LA Giltinis (11-4).
It hasn't been the season anyone wanted with the Warriors (4-11). But the past two years have exceeded all of Gough's expectations as he prepared for retirement from the sport at the end of the 2022 Major League Rugby season.
"I wouldn't trade it for the world," said Gough, who signed a one-year contract to play for the Warriors in 2021 before re-upping for another season. "I've known a lot of these guys from way back when, and to finally play with them was amazing to come back and see all the boys again."
His final try at home in front of a near-sellout crowed at the 5,000-seat Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman was everything he dreamed it might be.
It was an emotional match for Gough, from the pre-match ceremony honoring his professional career to the 21-second moment of silence dedicated to the 19 children and two teachers tragically killed in the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas this past week.
This afternoon's game against @utwarriorsrugby was played in honor of the 21 victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, TX on Tuesday.
— LA Giltinis (@Giltinis) May 28, 2022
Our hearts are with the victims' families and the entire community of Uvalde. pic.twitter.com/Njh7Qw5MpC
Scoring a try means little in the scope of a career or a national tragedy. But for Gough, the moment was special.
And it may have been foreknown, too.
Before the match, Utah flanker Lance Williams told Gough that the forwards were "going to get you a try," and told him to follow him. So there were the two in the 25th minute, inside the three-meter line, with the forwards lined up to push Gough over the line for a score that gave Utah its first lead of the day 12-10.
"We planned out that maul, and I told him, we're going to maul it," Williams recalled. "I'll transfer it to you, and he'll score on that maul. We kicked to the corner, he rushed to the maul, grabbed the ball behind me, and we scored that try. Unbelievable try by him."
Like he has for much of his career, Gough gave all the credit for the score to the big guys in front of him, though.
"It felt great," he said. "First thing Lance Williams told me was to get that ball early and I'd score it. I owe it all to him and that forward pack for doing all the work. My main job was to throw it in straight, I did that, and the big guys up front did the rest. I can't really take much credit for the mauls; all I do is follow the pack and hold onto the ball.
"But it felt amazing to score in my last home game."
Rugby has ingrained itself in Gough's blood since his youth. The 30-year-old hooker was a three-sport athlete at Snow College, graduating in 2010 after a career that also featured football and wrestling. After a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Philadelphia, he married his wife Aubrey and enrolled at the University of Utah, where he starred in both sevens and 15s for the school's club team from 2014-18 while earning a degree in sports and exercise.
A college All-American, Gough went on to play for the USA Club Rugby Sevens national championship with Rugby Utah in 2017, and signed a contract with the now-defunct Glendale Raptors ahead of the club's first season in Major League Rugby.
After two years with the club and with expansion rolling through the league, his rights were transferred to the Dallas Jackals before the 2021 season. But when the Jackals postponed their league entry until 2022, Gough entered the league's supplemental draft, went unsigned, and eventually returned home to Utah on a one-year deal with the Warriors in 2021.
The final home match of an otherwise rough season — one where Utah will finish behind every team in the seven-member Western Conference other than Dallas, the club's finale opponent next Saturday — has been a struggle.
But Gough's try in his final home match was a treat for the retiring pitch man, the Utah native's wife and family that accompanied him in a special pre-match celebration, and the fans that flooded the stadium one last time in 2022.
"I'm so proud of our fans for coming out and supporting, especially with Chaddie and his last home game of the season," Williams said. "We just kept grinding. The men on the team stuck with it for the whole eight weeks, we dug ourselves in a hole, and the boys are still good. They grinded out the whole season, and I'm proud of them."
And for Gough, who told his teammates just a few weeks ago that he was retiring and will soon look for a job outside the sport he has loved his whole life, the ending was as emotional — if not perfect — as he could've imagined it.
"Being from Utah, I had a lot of family here and that was the most important part for me," he said. "Seeing the stands completely filled out; that's amazing. We always have a great fanbase, and they're always behind us, always with us. And they're just amazing fans."
