Nighthawks boys squad off to solid start
John Rushton didn’t come right out and say it, but the boys rugby team at Northumberland Regional High School has a plan for the 2018 rugby season: to get as far as they can go.
“The goal for this team is the same as the last few years – to try to improve every game,” said Rushton, who coaches the Nighthawks along with Bryan Campbell.
“And, we want to compete with the best teams in the province.”
The Nighthawks improved their league record to 3-0-1 on Tuesday, with a 42-0 drubbing of the visiting Hants East Tigers, a team that had played NRHS to a 10-10 draw earlier in the spring.
The Nighthawks, who reached the semifinals at the 2017 Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation rugby championships — a tournament they hosted in Alma — saw a number of integral players graduate a year ago: Reed MacDonald, Bryden Hawes, Tyler MacLennan and Maynard Wilson among them.
“We lost a lot of key players from last year,” Rushton said. “And some of them, you can’t replace.”
While they are a smaller team, they make up for that with speed, which had the coaches making adjustments that would fit their players’ skill-set.
“We don’t have a lot of size (this season), so we kind of changed our structure a little bit — we play more of a speed-based structure this year.”
Rushton said the defence is a work in progress but “we’re making some strides back there,” adding that they’re trying to get off the defensive line quicker so they can better attack opposition ballcarriers “and force them to make mistakes.”
Justin MacLennan is a Nighthawks co-captain, along with Cole MacIsaac.
While MacLennan believes the Nighthawks can get back to the NSSAF championship tournament this season, the team hasn’t put a lot of thought into that so far.
“I think we’ve got a good shot at winning provincials this year, but we don’t really talk about that right now,” said the Scotsburn resident.
“We have a tournament coming up this weekend that we’re focused on.”
NRHS will join the other local high school rugby squads for the annual Three Oaks Tournament on P.E.I. this weekend, where the Hawks will be looking to defend the title they won in 2017.