As part of the Rugbyfest tournament in Kamloops, the Junior Boys faced a strong Fleetwood team from Surrey April 23 that had some size.
The Jr. Golds had great success mauling the ball into the endzone to score one try. Connor Benson slotted the conversion easily for two points. As the Golds proceeded down the field, Clayton Leduc stormed the Fleetwood goal line only to come inches short. Fleetwood retaliated with two tries and a conversion making it 12 to 7. Again on the doorstep of the Fleetwood team, the Golds went to the blind side of the field with Chad Baker at scrum half and Brandt Adams on the wing who dodged to score in the corner for the tie. Because Golds scored first it is considered a win in tournament play.
The second game had try scoring action with Baker, Brandt (2), Jase Robert, and Benson all scoring for the Golds. Left with nothing, LV Rogers from Nelson learned from the Golds tutelage. The greatest success was moving the ball beyond the ruck creating a lot of opportunities for players to score.
Last game of the tournament was the Grand Forks grudge match for first place. It was a very physical game that caused a few Grand Forks players to be removed from the field. Luke Dufresne stole a lot of balls in the scrum but the backs found it difficult to score.
Jewels
The Jewels faced Seaquam on Friday afternoon and put Seaquam in shock after scoring four quick tries in 20 minutes.
Coach Carmen Faulkner shuffled her line to create more ball movement and learning opportunities for a lot of rookies. Laurel Poloway got stuck into one tackle and pushed the opposite player back five yards but unfortunately took herself out of the game due to a slight injury.
Breaking the white try line was made easy by Skyla Eberle, Brooke Miller and Marin Faulkner. Superb tackling by the Jewels stopped Seaquam from getting anywhere near the Jewels 22-yard line.
Game two was vs Surrey’s Queen Elizabeth, who were blanked on the score sheet with seven tries by Beth Lucier, Avia Latosky, Sam Bergman, Trice Tuati, Marissa Latosky and Faulkner (2).
The final game vs Prince George was fun because more Jewels touched the ball to help it get to the end zone. Gracie Rempel almost went end-to-end on a breakaway to score, while Miller had two tries. Breaking off from the bottom of a ruck, Julie McClean picked up the ball and dove over the try line.
