Girls Rugby Provincials

We took a young, developing team to the BC Tournament in Abbotsford with no expectations except our 2017 mantra - get better every game. We thought it was important for all of the girls to play and Imisi A, our inspirational and selfless Captain, agreed. Our first game against Kamloops saw us score three tries in the first ten minutes as we were able to build off great kickoff receptions by Grade 10 prop Hayley F and use our speed to score out wide. Then, as young teams often do, the players relaxed a little and Kamloops battled back, using their powerful forwards to batter through our smaller pack. At the half we were tied and the message was clear that we had a tough fight on our hands. Unfortunately, we had lost our speedy Grade 9 fullback Trinity Z to injury in the first half and we missed her cover defence and attacking flair. A terrific start to the second half put us ahead again by a couple of tries but Kamloops wore us down and went up by two with minutes remaining. A brilliant run by Grade 9 winger Desola O seemed to give us the winning try at the final whistle, but the touch judge's flag was up as Desola had glanced the sideline on her route to glory. An unlucky postscript was that Brylee M had hit the upright on her last conversion when the referee, for some reason, did not allow her to move the ball ahead for the kick.  In the next two games we played everyone almost equal minutes, allowing the younger players to get some tough competition. We lost both games narrowly but saw great evidence of a fine team in the making. We are very excited about the 22 players who are returning and we hope to see further progress next year. They are an enthusiastic group to work with who have fallen in love with rugby, largely as a result of the inspirational coaching of Olympian and Canadian National Team Captain, Kelly Russell. We wish her success in the World Cup and thank her for her great contributions to the team. She will be missed but remembered with great fondness by all of us who had the privilege of working with her.  Mr Steve Cowie