Delta Rugby News

On Saturday, the Rich-Lions were scheduled to play Langley in Richmond but the game was postponed until December 6th.

The Senior Men had an away  game against Chilliwack. It was a wet and windy day out at the Yarrow Sports field so a big thanks goes to Walter Johnstone for driving out to support the team.  For one reason or another we lost 4 players on Saturday morning which meant we had to play with the 15 players who made the trip. We remain by far the youngest team in the league this season. We had 9 players who were 19 or younger on the field on Saturday. The team put in some long practices this week to improve our defence after the loss to Richmond. We went toe to toe with the large Crusaders team. We had some poor calls against us in the first half that let the Wack team get up to a 27 to 0 lead at half time. The second half did not start well with us losing our young Kiwi, Braden to a head injury but we ground it out and knocked in a try scored by our young prop Harry, his first for the seniors (he very nearly had 2 more as well). We controlled the game in the second half, keeping the home team inside their 40m zone for most of the half. Unfortunately we had another injury to our new #9, Dhayib and while he was off getting treatment we were down to 12 men on the field. The home team took this advantage to run in a try to finish off the game. We lost the first half and tied the second. The team was a bit beat up playing without spares but we saw more improvement all around and believe our time is coming to get the first win of the season. The final score was 32 to 5 for the home team.

The U16 & U18 boys had quarter-final playoff games on Sunday. The U16 Lions played against Langley. The Langley team was much changed from the last game a few weeks ago. They had added some size to their team. The game was played 14 v 14 as we were short of players again. The U16 team started the game really well, they played with structure and jumped on the chances when they opened up. We got up to a 2 try lead but Langley came back to be only down by 4 points. Our Lions absorbed the Langley push back but when they started to tire our squad went up the gears and put the game away. We have some really talented boys in this age group. The final score was 45 to 22 for our Brit Lions.

The U18's played against Richmond. It was good to see a number of players in the Richmond team who played with us last season. We opened the scoring early but Richmond were up for the fight and countered us with their own scores in the first half. Our boys were missing their usual structured play in the first half, which was corrected at half time and this allowed the team to run in more tries in the second half. The try scoring was balanced through our backs and forwards, it's good to see so many threats around the field built around a strong defence. The final score was 65 to 15 for our Lions.

We haven't reported anything this season so far but our group of U16 girls who have been playing with Bayside had a good win on Sunday, they won against Abbotsford 38 to 30. 

Our Mini Lions had a jamboree at Capilano on Sunday. This was the last scheduled jamboree before Christmas. The Mini Lions will have their fall wrap up on Tuesday evening after practice. A good fall and hopefully we can grow the Pride for the Spring season. Word is the Pride will be getting new jerseys for the Spring so if anyone would like to sponsor our Minis please get in touch.

A big shout out goes to Alex Paddle who represented the Brit Lions when he played Rugby League with the Canadian National U19 team in Jamaica.

Finally, many thanks go out to Rick Bloomfield and Kevin Tarumoto who have donated the all sausages and buns to feed the Junior teams at our home games this season, the club and the players really appreciates your generosity. 

The Rich-Lions next game is against Kelowna at King George Park, Richmond at 11.15 on Saturday.

The Senior Men will play against the Meralomas at John Oliver Park at 12.45pm on Saturday.

The U16 Boys semi-final is against Capilano at John Oliver Park, 12.15pm on Sunday.

The U18 Boys semi-final will also be against Capilano at John Oliver Park, 1.30pm on Sunday.