Going into Sunday’s game, we knew it be tough go as Kelowna also played their best when we were in town. In order to change things up, Coach Peewee skipped the traditional 2-hour breakfast in Merritt and gave the team the opportunity to dine at Tim Horton’s or MacDonald’s in John Rambo’s hometown, Hope. Getting breakfast out of the way, we proceeded onto K-town and held our annual Kangaroo Court. Accusations were flying left and right, but the honourable Judge Ray kept the court in order. Former Judge Chuck’s presence was not felt as he was still recovering from holding court in New Orleans. We arrived in Kelowna under sunny skies at 11:00 a.m. for a 12:30 p.m. kick off. We had 26 Twits ready to go while Vicars countered with 26 of their own.
We kicked off under ideal conditions to start the game and the Vicars displayed their prowess by putting several phases together. They controlled the flow of the game and attacked our purple short winger, Jack, early on. Instead of stopping the play, their man punted the ball over Jack’s head which allowed them to recover the ball inside our 10 m line. This led to the first try of the game. (Not to worry, his own team awarded him “Dick of the Game” for kicking the ball over a purple short.) The Vicars made very few mistakes but solid tackles by Luke and Jeke kept them at bay. They eventually knocked the ball on and off the ensuing scrum, Jeke scored on a magnificent run from 40 m out. This tied the score at one, but the Vicars continued to press. They kicked to touch and had a lineout from our 5 m line. On the ensuing play they scored again to go up one at the end of the quarter. Vicars 2 and Twits 1
Although the Vicars did not have many players with breakaway speed, they continued their solid play with sound tackling and timely off loads. Jeke was the recipient of their punishing tackles but we did not back down. Jacques scored an amazing 60 m try when he out ran their entire team to tie the score. Unfortunately, during the run, he re-aggravated his hamstring and was hobbled for the rest of the game. The tie did not last long, the Vicars once again put several phases together and scored to go up one. Moments later, they again kicked to touch and on the following line out, they worked the ball over our goal line to go up two. Unfortunately, our injury list began to grow. Moose was out of the game with a slight concussion and Luke also had to leave because of hamstring issues. Score at the end of the first half saw us trailing by a score of 4-2
The beginning of the second half saw the Vicars kicking to touch once more and scoring off a lineout. This made the score, Vicars 5 and Twits 2. We never gave up and hung in there to create a scrum and off that set play, Lance sprinted into the endzone from 40 out to bring us a little closer. The theme of the day up to this point seems to be the Vicars kicking to touch and winning all the line outs. This scenario happened again and again and the Vicars took full advantage of them by scoring twice more. Despite being down 4, we knew we had the potential to score quickly and we did. Jamie L. faked a pitch off a ruck and darted to his way into the endzone. Our final try of the game came when Lolly made a courageous run through the pack and off loaded the ball to Dustin, who ran down the wing to score from 50 m out. The final score was Vicars 7 and Twits 5.
Overall, everyone gave it their best shot. Coach Peewee was pleased with the effort and our play. We were able to score from anywhere on the field, but the Vicars solid play with their timely offloads and dominant line outs ruled the day. Congratulations to both teams. The Twit MoM honours went to Jamie Levchuk and although Lance was selected by the Vicars as their MoM, Lance 2.0, Jeke, accepted the honour on his behalf.