NO REGRETS

The contest was played under sun and blue skies, but field conditions weren’t ideal. A number of large puddles formed in the middle of the field and saw no shortage of players falling.

Glace Bay dominated the game from start to finish, scoring early in the contest and controlling the ball for the better half of the game, leading to the lopsided victory.

Robinson led the offense for the Panthers with three tries, while Darcy O’Brien added two tries. Matthew McCarthy, Connor Baxter, Noah Vater, Jordan Chaput and Ian Claseman chipped in with single tries for the Glace Bay school.

Glace Bay and Sydney Academy were the only two schools in the Cape BretonVictoria Regional Centre for Education boundary to field boys teams this season. Riverview and Memorial High School were unable to participate due to the lack of player interest.

“Without them (Sydney Academy) we wouldn’t have been able to have a season,” said Robinson. “They’ve been nothing but respectful for the whole season and it’s been a great year playing them.”

Earlier this season, the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation announced they’d be removing high school rugby from their schedule, forcing a number of games to be cancelled midway through the season.

After discussions with the provincial government and Rugby Nova Scotia, the high school program resumed play on May 7 and teams were able to finish their final two weeks of the regular season and playoffs.

The provincial championships, which will be run by Rugby Nova Scotia and not the NSSAF, were originally scheduled for May 31 to June 1.

However, teams have not yet been given official dates or the location for the provincial tournament as of Wednesday evening, but that won’t stop the Glace Bay squad from preparing.

Panthers head coach Wayne Jenkins said the team will hold a number of practices before the provincials and confirmed he doesn’t know much about the other clubs participating in the event.

“We’re going to play our same style, we have a lot of things that we have to tighten up and get the guys to commit to the system of play, but we haven’t seen the style of the mainland teams,” said Jenkins.

“Over the years, I have seen the way teams on the mainland play and they play the same type of hard-nose rugby as us, but we’ll wait and see.”

As for Robinson, win, lose or draw at the provincial tournament, he’s already considering the season a success.

“I couldn’t ask for a better grad year,” said Robinson. “We have a good group of guys and we’ll be ready to play.”