In the second game of the Kootenay Rugby Union regular season, the Trail Colonials took on heated rival Rogues in Cranbrook Saturday.
The teams battled each other in the KRU finals the last two years with Trail taking the most recent title. But with revenge on their minds, the Rogues rolled to a 26-17 victory.
“It was disappointing in that we gave up more than we needed to,” said Colonial captain Bryan Lauzon.
Both teams played shorthanded but the Rogues put up an early try and sunk the convert to go up 7-0. The Colonials responded with a try by Kyle Hohert off a penalty set-piece and a botched field goal attempt by Lauzon. Play got off to a chippy start with both teams conceding unnecessary penalties at times.
Cranbrook added another converted try taking a 14-5 lead into the second.
The half got off to a bad start for the Colonials, as broken plays resulted in two quick Cranbrook trys. However, the Colonials answered with strong territorial play for the remainder of the game.
Rookie centre John Foley broke the Cranbrook line and touched down the first of two trys by the Trail backs. The Colonials came close once more on a broken play that nearly went end to end but was stopped by a desperate shirt tackle by the Cranbrook scrumhalf.
A few mistakes nullified good play by the Colonials and it may come back to haunt them later in the season.
The match was scrum captain Kyle Hohert’s last as a Colonial. This is Hohert’s third season with the Colonials.
“He’s going to be tough to replace,”said Lauzon, “Some of the other guys are going to need to step up now that he’s leaving.”