Bermuda Rugby U16 Tour of Ontario
[Written by Ian Henderson] The Bermuda Rugby Football Union (BRFU) has selected a representative team for a National Under 14 Tour of Ontario against a number of the top Ontario rugby schools, including Trinity College School, in the middle of April.
This comes at the end of another successful season of rugby for this age-group, which was only started last year to close the gap from Under 14’s to Under 19’s. Selection for these representative teams is not an easy task but we are delighted that we are able to take 30 of our Under 16s players away to Ontario.
The tour will leave Bermuda on the Air Canada flight on April 14th, and includes a match against Trinity College School and taking part in their school rugby tournament against other local schools.
The tour and the program is about much more than winning a rugby match – it’s about bringing kids from different family backgrounds, different schools, different economic backgrounds together in a situation where they would not otherwise find themselves and working together with people with whom they perhaps would not interact with in their normal day-to-day lives.
The 30 players represent 7 different schools on the island, being Berkeley (4), Cedarbridge (4), Warwick (5), Somersfield (5), Saltus (6), BHS (2), MSA (1), as well 2 kids who are educated in the UK and one kid who is home schooled in Bermuda. Friendships made in rugby are long-lasting, and it starts from an early age. Rugby is very much an inclusive team sport and we have made it a priority not to leave anyone behind for financial reasons.
Whilst we are keen to ensure everyone travels and we leave no one behind for financial reasons, we have asked that the kids take an active part in training sessions and fundraising as after all it is their tour. The boys will be training 3 days a week leading up to the tour. They will need to play at the highest level to compete against the well drilled Ontario school teams.
Our fund-raising (and team building) efforts have now started in earnest and we had great fun doing a KBB clean-up at Rocky Hill Park in St Georges on March 19th – between them, the boys managed to collect over 65 bags of rubbish and a number of bulky items including a boat!
The 30 Players selected are as follows:
- 1. Nikye Atherden
- 2. Matthew Blee
- 3. Graham Cooke
- 4. Joshua Deallie
- 5. Jahsh Durrant
- 6. Stephen Edwards
- 7. James Grearson
- 8. Adrian Hassell
- 9. Darien Hewey
- 10. Karl Kane-Collery
- 11. Emerson Krebs
- 12. James Lorimer-Turner
- 13. Iain MacVicar
- 14. Ethan Martens
- 15. Jeremiah Monk
- 16. Liam Nash
- 17. Gianni Nesbeth
- 18. Tadhg O’Shaughnessy
- 19. Micah Perozzi
- 20. Cody Powell
- 21. Marcus Ritchie
- 22. Ryan Robb
- 23. Seth Roberts-Furbert
- 24. Jordan Rowse
- 25. John Russell
- 26. Cadea Smith
- 27. Simon Thompson
- 28. Ndavyah Williams
- 29. Kalin Williams
- 30. Luke Williams
Go and show them what Bermuda is made of!