Head coach Andy Enns and his troupe of rugby fifteens travelled to Kamloops last Friday and Saturday to take part in one of the province’s biggest high school rugby tournaments.
The 2015 Kamloops Rugby Fest took over the city with 34 teams from around B.C., Alberta and even Washington taking part in the rucking and blitzing. With three divisions split into girls, junior boys and senior boys, there was enough action for every fan and player.
“This is our first time going,” said Enns, whose team played three games in two days.
“We had lots and lots of positive feedback from the event organizers and from other coaches on how well we played and our commitment to the game. They were excited to see such good ball was being played up north.”
The Charles Hays Secondary (CHSS) Hurricanes took on fellow northern school Houston Senior Secondary in a 2 p.m. match on Friday for their first game and ended up outplaying their brethren, 29-5.
In that match, scrum-half Cody Schaeffer ran in four tries and the Hurricanes used three subs that they picked up from Terrace on the way to the tournament. Later, a few members of the Hurricanes lent themselves to Houston for a game their divisional rivals needed to play a couple hours later with very few substitutes.
“We gave them about eight guys,” said Enns.
After day one of the event, a full day of rugby was on schedule for Saturday. First up for CHSS was Maple Ridge’s senior boys. The Charles Hays crew, with the help of some Houston players while resting a few Hurricanes, ended up defeating the Lower Mainland side 7-5, but the game wasn’t as close as the final score made it out to be. Connor Taylor, a Terrace addition, scored CHSS’ try.
“We outplayed them in every effort. We outrucked them, we outran them, we outscrummed them, we stole balls repeatedly. There was just miscommunication in the back-line stuff that had to be cleaned up, and advantage wasn’t taken when it was available, unfortunately,” said the coach.
“We carried the play in that game, we just didn’t end up scoring.”
Barely an hour after their win over Maple Ridge, the team was back at it at noon for a draw against Salmon Arm.
The squad knew Salmon Arm boasted large, powerful and physically-dominant players. To beat them would take some casualties and CHSS endured them in stride en route to a 17-7 loss.
“Cody got a little damaged in that first game, so he sat off the first half ... so it changes the face of the game and how we play,” said Enns.
“We got into a little bit of penalty trouble and they ended up coming across the line a couple of times, so at the half, it was 12-0. Then we rearranged our players a bit and put Cody back in. He promptly scored a try and we converted it to make it 12-7.”
But the fatigue factor was starting to hit the Hurricanes. They were playing two men down from a lack of substitutions and Salmon Arm scored on their last play for the 17-7 victory. Injuries caught up to the club as well when captain Tanner Pretulac sprained his ankle and Daelan Calder took a hit on the chin that knocked him out of the game.
Mathis Chaniol filled in admirably in a number of roles including back-line duties, playing scrum-half and in the forward pack.
Overall, the team is extremely pleased with their 2-1 record, especially after the lengthy road trip and previous inexperience against Lower Mainland teams.
“We wanted to win against Houston because they’re our division rivals and not hurt them, because we wanted to use them as substitutes for at least one of our games ... and then we wanted to win one, if not two, of our following games and we did that.”
The next action for the Hurricanes fifteens are play days in Smithers on May 9 – 10.