It’s been a busy week or so for Wando, as the South Carolina Boys HS program beat touring Bracebdge out of Ontario, won a league game, and then were upended in a close clash with visiting Georgetown Prep.

Wando beat Bracebridge 66-5 and then James Island 116-0, and would be forgiven for be supremely confident going into Saturday’s clash with Georgetown.

Georgetown was coming off a win over South Greenville, another team enjoying a solid season in South Carolina, and also tours of College of Charleston and Furman.

“Wando looked very strong in the backline and challenged us to make significant tactical adjustments,” said Georgetown Coach Pete Walson. “Coach Tod Shepard has his young men playing as a unit. I think we bested them most around the fringe of the tackle area.”

“The game was very close,” added Wando Coach Shepard. “We dominated the first 12 minutes, and had them pinned inside their 22.”

Wando had a try called back during that time and after that Georgetown relieved the pressure and exploited some penalties to get into Wando territory. Eventually Georgetown scored. Wando replied with a penalty to make it 5-3, but Georgetown found the tryline again just before halftime to lead 12-3.

Wando got their only try of the game to make it 12-8 and move within in a score, but Georgetown replied to make it 17-8, which is how the game ended.

“As were trailing by nine points for most of the second half, we chose to forego three easy penalty kicks in front of the posts, inside their 22,” said Shepard. “In hindsight, those kicks would have made a difference.”

Charlie Van Vliet is a good kicker for Wando and it would have been interesting to see if his boot could have closed the gap. It was interesting, also, to see how Georgetown replied to every Wando score (or disallowed score) with a try.

The Georgetown Prep players play touch on the beach during their tour of South Carolina.

Walton’s Georgetown squad also beat South Greenville 26-7, who are very athletic but relatively new to rugby.

“With some stiff competition this season to develop their rugby awareness they will definitely be strong contenders to challenge Wando,” said Walton. 

Georgetown’s success is centered around a group of players who have been in the PAC Youth Rugby program since they were five or six. The scrumhalf-flyhalf-center core of Rory Hodgson, James Lyons, and Jack Mortensen are experienced rugby players and have been playing together for years.

“Combine them with some fine athletes from other varsity programs at Georgetown Prep, and we have the firepower to accomplish our season goals and display quality rugby to our league,” said Walton. “We are really looking forward to the arrival of spring and being able practice outside on a full pitch!”