The Bayside Sharks U16 boys rugby team returned triumphant from the desert earlier this week, after picking up three wins – and nearly a fourth – at the Las Vegas Sevens Invitational tournament.
The team, with a roster of 28, was taking part in the prestigious event – run in conjunction with the USA Sevens international tournament – alongside nearly 400 other teams in varying divisions and age groups.
The U16 Sharks opened the tournament – just a few hours after touching down in Las Vegas – with a lopsided win over a team from the Las Vegas Rugby Academy, and followed that with a 41-5 win over a team from Utah made up largely – emphasis on the “large” – of Polynesian Islanders.
“These Samoan guys were humungous, and pretty intimidating for our players, I think,” said U16 coach Andy Blackburn. “They had some guys who were over 300 pounds, and we don’t have a single guy over 200, I don’t think. It was really men against boys – such a physical mismatch – but the boys really stepped up and played great.”
The next day, the Sharks played a game that Blackburn called “the real highlight of the tournament.” In that tilt — against a U18 team, Bellarmime, from San Jose – the Sharks edged their older opponents 21-19, thanks to a late-game try and conversion by Joey Meekley and Gavin Rowell, respectively.
On the play, Rowell kicked the ball downfield – “kicked it to nowhere,” Blackburn stressed – and it took a hard bounce off the ground, right into the hands of Meekley, who touched the ball down between the uprights for a try, which was followed by Rowell’s conversion to put the team ahead.
“I went from wanting to strangle him to wanting to hug him,” Blackburn laughed, when discussing Rowell’s initial kick. “It’s like we say in rugby – always chase down the kick.”
The Sharks nearly made it four wins in a row on the tournament’s final day, but they came up just short, 19-17, to a team from Snow Canyon, Utah.
“But we did have a try disallowed, and the ref later apologized for it,” Blackburn said.
“But by that game – we’d played four games in less than 48 hours – the boys were just really battered and bruised.”
The U16 crew were not the only locals taking part in the Vegas event. A number of Surrey players – Bobby Devaney, Robert Jones, Joey Kenville, Alex Klassen, Ian McMaster, Quinton Willms and Luke Zandbergen – were also members of Team BC squads in the U18 tournament.
B.C. fielded three teams in the event – two in the U18 elite division and another in the high school sevens tourney.