Floods and landslides weren’t the only effects of the recent bad weather in the Nelson area. The Grizzlies rugby team also felt the impact as they played in the regional tournament last Saturday.
“Three or four of our guys are firefighters and they are all starters,” said coach Scott Cormie. “Because of the recent lightning, we had about seven guys who were going to start that game pull out either that morning or on Friday,”
To fill the missing positions, Cormie said some players were in roles they didn’t typically play.
Cranbrook also came out strong, taking advantage of a weaker Grizzlies team.
“They played really well,” said Cormie. “Even if we had a full line-up it would have been close. I can’t say for sure that we would have won, but leading up to that game I thought we would have won that game easy. But they had some of their veteran guys come out and had a good line-up.”
Cormie said if the Grizzlies had been able to play the regional game at home, they would have had the numbers they needed to put up a good fight.
The final score was 55-5 for Cranbrook who are now headed off to the provincial tournament in September.
“We are building a stronger team every year,” said Cormie.
“We have a lot of younger players who have joined the team. We have to keep getting those numbers coming out. We put a lot of effort into the game but I think the psychological blow of having so many guys out took its toll.”