Tsunami Canadian Misfits won the HS Boys Premier division with a 19-12 win over Upright Rugby Rogues.
The all-Canadian final came courtesy of a total-seeding plan which re-seeded all teams rather than having Pool A #1 vs Pool B #2, and Pool B #1 vs Pool A #2. That's not to say Upright wouldn't have made the final, as the mostly-Ontario-based outfit showed well beating Barrie 35-7, Junior Jacks Blue 38-14, and, in the semi, Greenwich Rugby 35-5 But Next Phase Rugby pushed Tsunami twice during the day, tying the Misfits in the opening game and running out to a 12-0 lead in the semifinal before being overhauled 26-12 by the eventual champions.
In the final Charles Squires of the Misfits was named MVP of the tournament. Rugby Quebec beat Barrie 34-19 to take the Plate.
The final itself was quite astonishing. Tsunami did well to steal ball and then retain it, but couldn't break through the excellent Upright defense. Upright was pinged with two yellow cards early, one for an intentional knock-on and one for a high tackle, and defended their line with five players. During that time their work rate on defense was truly excellent, while Tsunami did a poor job of finding the open man. The thing that helped Tsunami was that they were able to keep the play going, which meant when the second yellow had expired, Upright couldn't get their player back on the field.
Squires then unleashed a nasty spin move to run in for the opening try just before halftime. Off the beginning of the second half Upright retained the ball and worked it nicely sideline-to-sideline before bulling over. With the conversion the game was now tied 7-7.
But the effort expended defending in the first half caught up with the Rogues as a missed tackle allowed a long-range try and another break around the outside made it 19-7. Upright needed two scores, and by then time was not on their side. They scored right off the restart but the game was over after that, 19-12 for the Misfits.
