Oak Bay rugby players Brennig Prevost, Brandon Schellenberger, Brayden Tate and Jonah Hall gained some success at the Heidelberg Junior International Sevens, a competition featuring representation from Europe, Africa and North America.
They are among the dozen players in the BC Elite Youth Sevens provincial rugby program that finished fifth in a European competition that featured sides from France, Netherlands, Monaco and Kenya.
“Our players were pushed to another level and it was an important tour for them to be able to experience that,” said Shane Thompson, B.C. head coach. “The quarterfinals was where you could see the players realize they could play against the competition we were up against, and we only lost by two points.”
The U16s went 2-2 on the opening day of competition defeating German provincial teams Bayern and NRJ, before falling to Dutch Academy side Zuid-West and French Academy reps AD-Alpes Maritimes.
B.C. advanced to the quarterfinals losing 19-17 to a French Academy side from the Toulon region. B.C. went on to defeat German rugby reps LBW-Rugby 35-0 in the Plate semi-finals before downing French region Lorraine 29-5 in the final.
“We don’t always get to play top quality teams in North America, so this was a good test to see where our program is at,” added Thompson. “Our guys weren’t used to working that hard in all their matches and it’s great for them to test themselves against players from other countries.”
The players will now go back to their regions and compete in the U16 age grade at the Victoria International Sevens. After the summer season, the players will be eligible for the BC U17-U18 Sevens teams that travel to Las Vegas and Hong Kong in 2015.
The Victoria International Sevens is scheduled for July 11-12 at the University of Victoria. The competition will feature age grade competitions beginning in U14 boys through U18 men and women.