Right off the kick-off on May 26, the Manthers North Okanagan Rugby team caught the ball at pace by Tyrone McCabe running it right back at the Merritt Mountain Men. Crashing through a few rookies on their team, he offloaded it to Jonah Spoolmak, who made a brilliant pass to ‘Young Gun’ the 19-year-old winger who still looks like he is in middle school, to score in the corner. Applying more pressure in the Merritt 22 zone, called for a #8 pick-up by Dan ‘Freight Train’ Gawley, who is unstoppable one on one. Score 12-0.
Time went on and so did the rain. This didn’t stop the Manthers, who poured in the tries, another by Gawley, McCabe and James Cookson. Between McCabe and Cookson another pass was made to Sterling Gathergood who smashed and bashed his way into the end zone.
An impressive french style of play came from Thomas Batty at flank who broke through the lineout tackle and put on a little chip kick through the backline. Old man Greg Seed made the chase down to tackle the Merritt man on the two-yard line, just enough time to elapse for Batty to come and collect his kick and score the try. Final score 48-17.
Next game is in Vernon, the Manthers are still looking for an enthusiastic and maybe-not-as-fit-as-they-used-to-be rugby player.
Junior boys
The Salmon Arm Secondary Junior Boys rugby team were in the quarter finals of the Okanagan Championships which began at South Kamloops Secondary.
Kicking into the wind caused South Kam to loft the ball high with the Golds missing the catch.
Bouncing down to the 30-yard line, South Kam pressured the Golds in their own 22. Unfortunately the Golds tried running the ball from their 10-yard line and got trapped.
The ball popped out of the side of the ruck, and was scooped up by a South Kam player who scored.
With the wind, the Golds’ counterattack led by Colin Pringle at fullback and Clark Bibby on the wing gained great yardage.
From the South Kam 30-yard line Cameron Hansen was boosted high above the South Kam opposition by Cameron Roberts and Josh Cline.
Jordan Hislop, playing scrum half, spun the ball out to Jase Robert and Devon Roper in the backline who broke through one tackle to offload to Brandt Adams.
He was nearing the South Kam try line only to be stopped a little short.
Scrum on the South Kam five-yard line, Hislop and Brayden McCarthy went blindside to be stopped just short.
South Kam kicked out of their end to be caught by Clayton Leduc who ran it back in, just missing a flying elbow from the bumble bee South Kam prop.
Unfortunately, the time ran out and SAS did not find the end zone.
A tough end to a great season of improvement by all players. Coaches Danger Dave, Adam Lauze and Greg Seed thought it was a huge accomplishment to have such a steep learning curve yet do as well as they did. Overall, the Golds had a lot of fun playing.