The U16 and U18 provincial boys and girls rugby teams were in Dauphin, Saturday, to prepare for the Western Canadian Championships, Aug. 3 to 6 in Calgary.
Each of the teams were to have played an exhibition match against the Saskatchewan provincial teams, but they ended up cancelling.
To help fill in for the missing Saskatchewan clubs, local high school players were recruited to practice with the provincial teams.
“Just to come out and join and get the boots back on, get engaged again, just act as basically a filler so we could have some opposition and be able to run against each other. And just keep working on our strategy and working on our system,” said U18 girls coach Shawn Sarkonak.
The teams will practice in Winnipeg, July 29, where they will once again working on their skills and drills, tweaking everything prior to leaving for Calgary. The four provincial teams feature 22 players from the Parkland.
Sarkonak feels this year’s provincial team is ahead of where it has been in the past, because the team has had more time to run together.
“It’s not been the way we’ve historically ran it, where we would have the Man-Sask regionals, where you’d have your regional teams playing and that’s where you’re making your selections to fill 24 spots for Team Manitoba,” he said. “We’re a little ahead of that curve where we were running as a long list Team Manitoba when we went to the Alberta Regional Championships. They were able to run together and then we were able to trim that down to 24.”
As a result, the team has already had five games together. Previously, the team wouldn’t play its first game until Westerns.
“So I feel that we are more on the front foot, because, as the tournament goes on and we literally get to the last game, that’s really when you see the girls gelling and you just wish that was the start of the tournament,” Sarkonak said. “So that was the aim this year. So when we get to Calgary, we feel that we’re going to be running as a team and we’re going to be really gelled and we’re looking for good things to happen.”
Faith Burtnyk from Brandon, Bree Walker from Ste. Rose and Dauphin’s Emma Fox were selected to the top 55 players for U18 Canada West.
“They will be trimming it down based on performance at Westerns in Calgary. They’re going to be having a top 40 camp in Shawnigan Lake, Aug. 14 to 20 and then from there, they’re going to pick a Canada West team that will compete at the NA4A competition, I believe, it’s at Christmas time, down and around San Francisco or San Diego,” Sarkonak said.
The competition will feature four teams - Canada West, Canada East, USA West and USA East.
