The Salmon Arm Secondary Junior Golds Rugby team won a close game against Clearwater on April 19.
The SAS team came out strong and fast. Trystan Kenoras scored in the first five minutes, running from the SAS 30-yard line to slice and dice through the Clearwater defence.
Scoring continued with a strong effort by Luke Simmonds for another five points.
Coach Greg Seed said the Golds’ back line, particularly Chase Henning and Brandon Pufferhill showed great speed and the forwards were solid up front.
The final score was 15 to 12 for the Golds.
The Junior Golds played PVSS on Tuesday after The Observer’s print deadline. They host a home game against Kelowna Secondary on Thursday, a game which Seed says could be a preview of the Okanagan Championship match in May.
Jewels
The Jewels Rugby Team is full of new players and having a tonne of fun.
Earlier in the season, the Jewels met a very experienced North Kamloops team that gave the Jewels no mercy.
Last week, with a little more experience under their belts, the Jewels were almost equal to South Kamloops in a game on April 19.
Esita Quiodravu opened the scoring from her own 22-yard line, and rounded the whole South Kam team to score in the far corner.
South Kam came back and answered Jewels try, only to be scored on again by Rachel Bootsma.
A huge effort in the pack by Jaelyn Spencer playing #8 for her first time playing rugby and Kelsi Phillips playing flanker made some show-stopping tackles.
Running out of time, the South Kam team managed to kick down field and pick up their own punt to score in the corner.
One more try was put over the line by the Jewels player Sage Lee.
The Jewels came close, losing 25-15.
The girls were back in action on the road against Mount Boucherie on Monday April 24.
Quiodravu scored all three of Salmon Arm’s tries on the way to a 17-17 tie. Rachel Bootsma successfully kicked one of the conversions.
Other key playmakers were Sarah Whitehead and Lea Labranche.
On Thursday, the Jewels host Penticton at the Shuswap Middle School field.
Senior Golds
The SAS Senior Boys are playing iron man rugby with only 17 or 18 players for each game, compared to the competition who are fielding a minimum of 25 or as many as 36 like Penticton did against the Golds on April 20.
“New SAS Rugby players are earning their caps with grit, finesse and strength like Bryant Cumming, Moheez Khan, Riley Chamiliar and Gage Oddy,” Seed said.
Coming off the mark from kickoff, the Golds hammered the Penticton Lakers, but each scoring attempt escaped the Golds inches away from the try line.
After an excellent team effort working down the field, Jacob Zyri took an eight-man pick going to the open side of the field for the try.
Another try came from a penalty that Zyri supported and handed off to Noah Dies and Hayden Henning.
The third try was from a tip off the lineout that Zyri picked up and went in to score. Alex Muir made one of the conversions. In the end, the 36-man rotation of Penticton wore out the Golds 37-15.
The Golds next game is the double header Junior and Senior vs KSS on Thursday April 27. The condition of the fields will determine whether the game takes place at SMS or Jackson.
