They say you can’t win ‘em all. And unfortunately, this saying rang true when the Terrace Northmen Rugby Club travelled to Prince George two weekends ago for a couple of games against their eastern rivals.
“We ended up dropping both games,” said team member Adam Linteris. “It was a fun day of rugby but things didn’t really work out as we’d anticipated.”
The Northmen, who have been having an excellent season, fell 33 - 12 in the first game and 28 - 17 in the second game, both against the Prince George Gnats.
“Prince George is a really experienced team full of really big, hard-hitting forwards and some slick backs, so we definitely have our work cut out for us,” he said.
Some other northwest teams, like Vernon and Williams Lake, were supposed to round out the tournament, but had to cancel their trips because they didn’t have enough players. Not having a full roster affected the Northmen and the team from Prince Rupert, as well. The two teams joined forces to form a full side because key players from both teams couldn’t attend. They played one game as the Northmen and one game as Prince Rupert.
“Injuries and work basically kill our team around this point in the year,” said Linteris. “It would have been cool to see how our full squad would have done against a full or close to full ‘PG’ team. Would have been a great game.”
Prince George actually had more players out than they normally see, a testament to the good weather and home field advantage.
“Playing with Prince Rupert was definitely a good time for us,” said Linteris, noting that they didn’t have the chemistry that a group that has practised together all year would have. “They’re a good group of players and always play as hard as they possibly can, so what our team lacked in chemistry we made up for by playing hard.”
In the first game, as the Northmen, top marks went to Jarryd Kurisu and Evan van Dyk. In the second game, as Prince Rupert, Josh Pottle and Steven Drozd won the Man of the Match awards.
Next up, the rugby club will host their annual sevens tournament during Riverboat Days where the winning team will take home $1,000.