[email protected] NORTH Shore rugby players are putting on quite a show this summer, from youth squads winning national titles all the way up to senior stars gunning for World Cup spots.
Close to home, the B.C. U16 provincial team scored a national title last weekend at Rugby Canada's National Championship Festival held at the University of British Columbia. The North Shore's Andrew Jones, Jackson Claridge, Nick Frost, Elias Ergas, Jake Musgrove, Liam Doll and Liam Mahon all suited up for Team B.C. 1 (Yellow) as they stormed their way to the championship final where they blasted team Ontario 50-0. The win was made that much sweeter because it came in front of home fans, said Doll, a 16-year-old heading into his Grade 11 year at Carson Graham secondary.
"Not a lot of kids get the chance to have their families come see them in a provincial uniform, see them playing for that crest on their heart," he said, adding that winning gold made all the work the players put in this summer worthwhile. "It's a sport that I love to play. All the guys there, they love to play rugby. That's why they chose to try to make that team and hopefully win a medal for our province. It's a rewarding way to spend your summer when you get that result with all of the friends you've fought with, all the coaches."
The squad's biggest scare came in the first game in the tournament when a tough Alberta team came at them hard.
"They really surprised us - they stuck to the fight, they really showed us what it was like to play in that tournament and what we needed to bring our level to," said Doll. The locals eventually took the lead and held on for a 12-0 win. From there B.C. cranked it up, winning all of their remaining matches by no fewer than 22 points, including a 25-3 win over that same Alberta team in the semifinals.
In the championship game B.C. took control early and never looked back. "(Ontario) came out really hard in the final," said Doll. "They had a lot of swagger, they really wanted to push us. We managed to have a really good first 10 minutes. They fought but we managed to open the floodgates there and started to get the points in. We were really confident by the end of the game and able to run everything we wanted to do from the beginning of training camp. It was a great result."
The squad was dominant because it was a team full of leaders hand-picked from schools and clubs across the country, said Doll, himself the captain of the regional U16 team that took home provincial gold earlier this summer.
"Everybody could lead," he said. "We had a great captain in Josh (Thiel) but everybody, if it was the time and point, we could all step up and make a play. We really believed in each other, we were able to do things that we wouldn't have with our club teams or our school teams because we knew that guy had our back. We knew he'd catch us or make that tackle beside us if we failed. We weren't afraid to make mistakes, we trained like that and the coaches instilled that in us. We had a great group of coaches."
This is the second national win for Doll as he helped the U14 provincial team win gold a couple of years ago. This group of players has something special, he said.
"I think we can be a special team for the future if we keep playing," he said. "The coaches really instilled a mindset in us that everybody was coming out to beat us and we just had to play rugby, not to worry about that.. .. Everybody wants to beat B.C. after what we do to them in our games. You could see it - those teams would come on and they'd give us a really hard fight all the time, no matter what the score was. They'd never lie down."
In other action at the festival Isabel Schlyecher of Carson Graham helped the B.C. U18 women's team earn silver, losing to Ontario 25-5 in the championship final. The U18 men also took silver behind Ontario, losing a tight final 29-21. The North Shore's Ben Bethune, Jonas Blomberg, Tom Kanwischer and Jack Rainer suited up for that squad.
Further afield, Capilano Rugby Club players Andrea Burk and Hilary Leith helped Canada's women's national team to a historic win, claiming the IRB Nations Cup title for the first time in team history last weekend in Denver.
The Canadians battled to the final of the four-team tournament - the United States, South Africa and England are the other three participants - where they defeated England 27-13 to take the title.
"Every win over a team like England is an enormous accomplishment, and this is a victory that should live long in the memory for Canada fans," head coach Francois Ratier said in a Rugby Canada release. "This is a win that the whole country can take pride in."
The victory comes less than a month after Canada's U20 women's team - led by Carson Graham grad Jess Neilson - won the Junior Nations Cup for the first time in team history.
The senior men's national team will try to keep the good times rolling when they take on the United States in a crucial homeand-home World Cup qualifier Aug. 17 and Aug. 24.
West Vancouver's Harry Jones and Ryan Hamilton, North Vancouver's Jason Marshall and former Capilano player Jamie Cudmore will all suit up for the national squad as they begin qualification for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.
The series starts Aug. 17 in Charleston, South Carolina with a 3:30 p.m. Pacific time kickoff and then returns to Canada Aug. 24 for a 1p.m. Pacific start at Toronto's BMO Field. Both games will be shown live on TSN2.
Photo Andrew Smith / NORTH Shore U16 rugby players Liam Mahon (with ball) and Jake Musgrove make a charge while playing for Team B.C. 1 at the National Championships Festival held last weekend at UBC. The home team took the title with a 50-0 blowout of Ontario in the final on Sunday.; Photo Al Milligan / CAPILANO Rugby Club member Hilary Leith fights off a tackler during Canada's win over England in the final of the Nations Cup.;
