Under extremely ideal conditions, the icebreaker tournament at the SOB’s South Surrey Athletic Park took place. Eight teams agreed to participate and 4 teams played at noon, while the other four were scheduled to kick off at 1:40 p.m. The Twilighters came out in full force for the later game. We had over thirty players suited up for the match. The only problem was, the opposing team forfeited the match the night before. Instead of letting the team immediately head off to the beer garden, Andrew Harvey of the SOB’s organized a Barbarian team for us to play. Players from the earlier matches agreed to play our Twits. They had players from Abbotsford, SOB’s, Evergreen and a few other clubs. They had some pretty big boys and about half a dozen red and yellow shorts.
We received the opening kick off and controlled most of the play. The Barbarians used their red shorts wisely and were able to disrupt our flow. Despite their strategy, Anthony received the ball and was able to race down the sideline and scored our first try from 40 metres out. About ten minutes later Lance broke 3 tackles and scored our second try from 45 metres out. However, the Barbarians were here to play and their big back (6’4” 220 lbs) rumbled towards our goal line from mid field. Lance was able to run him down and tackled him on the 5 metre line. To their credit, the Barbarians were able to recover the ball when it came loose and scored their first try. The score at the end of the first period was 2-1.
The second period started more or less the same as the first. We controlled the ball quite well, even though our passes were not crisp as we would have liked. The big boys from Abbotsford began to take over the play. Several of them had some major runs and it looked like one of them broke through, but Jacques took him down to save the try. Not to be out done, Ted had a few impressive runs of his own. His quickness allowed him to bowl over two opposing players and head towards the promised land. Unfortunately, the promised land was 50 metres away and that was considered a pretty long run for our prop with no support. To his relief, the referee blew the whistle and signaled a tag by a red short. During the ensuing scrum Anthony punted the ball to himself and sprinted in to score his second try. Lance had the final try of the period when he stole the ball from a scrum and went 50 metres for his second try. The score at the end of the first period was 4-1.
The final period mirrored the first two. We penned them in their own end and Kory (Gooch) scored his first try after a mad scramble near their goal line. Lance scored his final try from 60 metres out and that’s when the referee decided to call the game. There was a bit of confusion on whether or not to play a fourth quarter, but everyone heard the beer garden calling and decided to end the game. Final score 6-1
In the postgame interview, Coach Peewee announced that everyone played well and the entire team gave 100%. Anthony was named Man of the Match by the Twits for his hard-nosed running. The hit of the game belonged to Lolly. When she tackled their red short (female player) she must have knocked her back 3 metres. Their player was more surprised than hurt. Other players that performed well were Dirk, Rick S. Ted, and Gooch. It wasn’t our best game, but it was a great beginning.
The beer garden the SOB’s set up was amazing. They had beer, hamburgers and hot dogs. What more could you ask for? It was a great day for rugby.

