It was, in its own way, a positive start to the combined Timberline-Carihi Girls Rugby Junior Girls squad.
They regrouped from a 41-0 loss to Belmont on their first pool game and came back with a 25-0 win over Victoria Barbarians in their second match of the Colwood 7s Rugby Tournament, held Tuesday in Langford.
“The opening match score really doesn’t reflect on how the game went,” says coach Erin Young. “Our girls actually had the ball in hand equally as much time and made some hard runs with consecutive phases of play. But unfortunately in 7s rugby, one mistake can cause an instant turnover and speed kills - Belmont were an incredibly fast team.”
With one game now under their belts they came out charging against the Barbarians with five unanswered tries contributed by Nelly Heiland (2), Madison McCrory, Ashley Ellis, and Linnaea Crawshaw. The Cup Final resulted in a 20-0 win for the Campbell River side, as Belmont had to forfeit due to a lack of players. Crawshaw and Heiland were named tournament All-Stars and the entire team got to meet Rio Olympic Bronze Medalist for Women’s 7s Rugby Karen Paquin and hold her Olympic Medal as the closing of the tournament.
Out of the 12 Campbell River players, only three had ever played an actual game before as this winter saw many new players joining the team. The team hosts Nanaimo District Secondary School on March 29 at 4 p.m. at Timberline.