The Barrie RFC U16 rugby team was schooled in the sport by a touring team from the United Kingdom last night, but afterwards it was all hugs and pats on the back from both sides following a pair of exhibition matches well played.
The King Edward's School players arrived in their former colony of Canada and hammered the Barrie development team, 67-5, in the first of two games at Jim Hamilton Field at the Barrie Community Sports Complex in Midhurst on Wednesday, July 3. They also beat Barrie RFC's competitive team in the second match, which was a little closer in the first half.
The British U16 team is currently on a tour of Ontario with stops at Balmy Beach, Oakville, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
The private day school, which was founded in 1552, is located in Bath, which is approximately 150 kilometres outside of London.
Wednesday night's games marked a rematch between the two teams, as the Barrie squad visited Europe in March and played the King Edward’s squad to a tie on their home pitch.
Barrie assistant coach Evan Stacey said he thought it was a good game, despite the lopsided scores.
“(There were) lots of hard-fought yards,” he told BarrieToday in between matches. “It wasn’t a game where they were running through (us) — they had to work for every try.”
The end result was not the way Barrie wanted it to turn out, “but if we had increased our work rate, we’d be right there with them,” the coach added.
Stacey said the British team is one that is “really organized and knows what they are doing.”
“They know how to spread the ball, they know what to do in every single situation on the field,” he said. “Hopefully we can take something from that game and say, ‘this is what it takes to play a team that knows what they are doing.’ If we can do that, we can be really successful.”
One of the Barrie coaches said imagine if you took some British hockey players and brought them to Canada and put them up against the Barrie AAA team. The same result is what would happen to those kids, as the Brits are smarter at the game as they’ve got a higher rugby IQ, and they play every day. Experience is everything.
Barrie’s Fergus Bowe, who played lock in the first game, said the U.K. team was simply better than them.
“For our B team, we haven’t had much of a challenge. We’ve won every game (so far) and are 4-0, so this is our first loss against a tougher opponent. But these kids have probably played rugby since the day they were born, and most of us have only been playing for a year or two, tops,” he said.
Another Barrie player, 14-year-old Ethan Schaurf, was standing on the sidelines after the first match with an ice pack on his forehead after cracking heads with an opponent. He admitted they need to work on their tackling, but also said he enjoyed the experience.
“It was a really good game and I like their attitude," Schaurf said.
Jason Bye, an assistant coach with King Edward’s School, said he thought the Barrie boys “contested really well, put us under a load of pressure and forced us to get our accuracy right.”
He described the difference between the Canadian game and the British one as more about “positional understanding and understanding where you are on the pitch and what to do next.”
The Barrie RFC U16 team will travel to Sunnybrook Park on Saturday to face the Toronto City Youth Lions. Their next home game is Saturday, July 13 at the Barrie Community Sports Complex, with the development team taking Balmy Beach Gold at 9:30 a.m., followed by the competitive team facing Balmy Beach Blue at 11 a.m.
