Top teams battle it out at Snow Canyon Invitational rugby tournament

Written by Bob Hudson
February 27, 2016
Snow Canyon vs. Olympus, Rugby, Snow Canyon Invitational, St George, Utah, Feb. 26, 2016, | Photo by Kevin Luthy, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Snow Canyon shook off a slow start and rolled over Olympus 26­-10 in its opener of its own invitational rugby tournament on Friday. The round­robin affair features the Warriors and Titans along with the Orcas from Thousand Oaks, Calif., Red Mountain from Mesa, Ariz., Kahuku, Hawaii, and United from Alpine, Utah.

scrugSaturday’s action begins at 10 a.m. But Snow Canyon’s games are at noon and 3 p.m.

Snow Canyon vs. Olympus, Rugby, Snow Canyon Invitational, St George, Utah, Feb. 26, 2016, | Photo by Kevin Luthy, St. George News
Snow Canyon vs. Olympus, Rugby, Snow Canyon Invitational, St George, Utah, Feb. 26, 2016, | Photo by Kevin Luthy, St. George News

Dillon Parry got the Warriors started with a try at the 10:23 mark of the first half. Oly’s Jack Anderson tied things with a try just before halftime.

“On a scale of one to 10, I would grade this game about a seven,” said Snow Canyon coach Mike Puriri. “We made some mistakes. The second half (we) got a little bit better.”

Tommy Paulsen’s try with 18:35 left in the game gave Olympus a 10-­5 lead. Both teams missed their first conversion attempts.

Caden Boren’s try with 13:37 remaining enabled the Warriors to tie the game at 10-­10 and Parry’s conversion gave them the lead at 12-­10.

“We had some good reserves going in the second half,” Puriri said. “Guys like Caden Boren lifted the rest of the team.”

Casey Jacobsen scored and Parry added the conversion kick with 11:03 left and Parry added a try and conversion with 5:06 to complete the scoring.

“That was one of the first games we played where they think they’re fit,” Puriri said of the Warriors. “Olympus played really good rugby. It was a little scary out there.”

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Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bob Hudson is a graduate of Brigham Young University. He has been a sportswriter in central and southern Utah and Southeast Idaho. He has also worked as a news editor and managing editor. He has lived in St. George since 2000.

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