A flawless season has ended with a provincial championship for the L.V. Rogers senior boys rugby team.
The Bombers eked out a 13-12 win against Robert Bateman Secondary to win the AA Tier 2 title Saturday in Abbotsford.
Bombers coach Mike Joyce said his team were overjoyed to win the season with a trophy in hand.
“They’re elated,” said Joyce. “Tears on the field.”
Martin Mendez scored a first-half try for the Bombers, who led 8-0 at halftime. Chase Gilbertson followed with another try in the second half, which featured L.V. Rogers holding off a comeback by Robert Bateman.
A potential game-winning convert by the opposition in the dying moments went wide, giving the Bombers the title.
“Our defence is what did it for us,” said Joyce. “We played hard, hard defence the whole weekend.”
L.V. Rogers, the top seed, started the tournament with a 41-14 rout of Langley’s D.W. Poppy before downing Richmond’s Hugh McRoberts 15-10 in the semifinal.
“Every team at that tier now is good,” said Joyce. “They’re all pretty evenly matched now, so the games are tight. Really the difference for us were our forwards and our defensive structure just holding teams back from scoring.
“We like to run and gun a lot at the post and a lot of those teams were fast-running teams. Our defence held really well the entire time. And our lineouts and set pieces were superior.”
The Bombers, who also took home a sportsmanship award, held a perfect 9-0 record entering the tournament.
