The girls rugby team at Vanier Secondary won its second straight B.C. championship last weekend in Shawnigan Lake, defeating North Kamloops in the final — the same team they beat in last year’s final in Williams Lake.
Ranked number one heading into the tourney, Vanier faced a surprisingly tough opponent in their opening match against Lillooet.
“They caught us off-guard for the first little bit,” Towhees coach Steve Fagan said. “They were a much stronger team than we thought, but we hunkered down and made out OK.”
The girls followed with a win over Langley to set up the championship final repeat.
“It was a much tougher game,” Fagan said of the final against NorKam Senior Secondary. “It was down and dirty. Conditions were wet, so we had to keep it tighter, closer. It was just a battle between both teams, a ground-and-pound all the way up and all the way down. Caught a couple of breaks, and we capitalized on those.”
The Towhees led 10-0 at the half, but NorKam scored a try early in the second to keep the game close at 10-5.
“Then we shut them down for the rest of the game, kept it in their end zone, but it was still a constant battle.”
The final score was 35-5 Vanier.
“Kamloops plays the same style as us,” Fagan said. “They were one of the most competitive teams that we played this year. Their team is a phenomenal group of girls.”
In the last 11 years, girls’ rugby teams at Vanier have placed no lower than fifth in the province. In the last six years, they have won gold four times and silver twice.
“I’m really excited for the upcoming years because we have a great core of new players who just joined up,” Fagan said.
The girls team from Isfeld placed sixth at the tourney.
Vanier’s senior and junior girls rugby teams were both undefeated during regular season play.
The Vanier boys rugby team competes at provincials this week in Abbotsford.
