Four members of the Capilano Rugby Club helped British Columbia's Under-18 provincial team win the prestigious Standard Chartered Bank International Youth Sevens tournament held in Hong Kong March 27.
Cole Keffer, Liam Mahon, Ryan Gray and Elias Ergas made up onethird of the B.C. team that went undefeated in four games to claim the title for the third straight year.
The championship win came in dramatic fashion as the B.C. boys scored in double overtime against Hong Kong side DP Pirates to claim a 12-7 Cup Final victory.
The North Shore stars featured prominently as the team cruised through round robin play. Keffer, Ergas and Mahon all touched down for tries as B.C. beat the DHL Lions 49-0 in Game 1. In Game 2 Keffer, a Sutherland secondary student and the provincial team's captain, came to the forefront as he scored two tries in a 35-0 win over the DEA Tigers. Keffer again hit the scoresheet in Game 3 with a single try, as did Ergas, a Collingwood School student. Mahon, a West Vancouver secondary student, kicked two conversions in the 47-0 win over the Flying Kukris.
In the tense championships game B.C. finally gave up some points and actually fell behind, but got tries from Cloverdale's Joe Carter and South Surrey's Matt Gallagher to claim the title.
"The team came from behind in double overtime," team manager Doug Tate said in a B.C. Rugby press release. "The tournament chairman said it was the most exciting game he's seen here in the past three years."
The trip was the third annual tour to Hong Kong for the B.C. Elite Youth Sevens, a program
implemented to identify, train and develop athletes who can go on to represent British Columbia and Canada at elite competitions.
• • •
Capilano Rugby Club senior players also hit the field in Hong Kong with the Canadian national sevens teams.
Capilano's Mandy Marchak helped Canada's women's team win their second consecutive Hong Kong International Sevens Title as the team put together a perfect 4-0 record in the tournament.
The Canadians opened with a 19-5 win over Hong Kong and then pitched shutout ball the rest of the way, defeating Kazakhstan 33-0, Japan 38-0 and France 24-0 in the final. Marchak scored a pair of tries as the team marched to victory.
On the men's side West Vancouver's Harry Jones suited up as Canada's national sevens team battled to a seventh-place finish in Hong Kong.
The Canadians topped Portugal 35-7 on opening day and then split a pair of matches on Day 2, beating Argentina 14-7 but losing to England 14-12.
On the final day the Canadians lost a heartbreaker against Australia,
iving up the game-winning try in the final seconds. Jones scored one of Canada's tries in the 14-12 loss.
Canada then fell 31-14 to Wales, with Jones again scoring one of Canada's two tries.
The loss dropped Canada to seventh in the tournament but the team picked up enough IRB Sevens World Series points to move into seventh place in the overall world standings.
Rugby Sevens will make its Olympic debut in 2016 in Brazil. The Canadian women are ranked third in the world.
