{"id":7495,"date":"2014-07-23T12:07:15","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T16:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7495"},"modified":"2014-07-30T15:44:51","modified_gmt":"2014-07-30T19:44:51","slug":"barbarians-u18-club-splits-doubleheader-with-english-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/barbarians-u18-club-splits-doubleheader-with-english-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbarians U18 club splits doubleheader with English squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Aurora Barbarians U18 men\u2019s team played host to some special visitors Tuesday night from across the pond.<\/p>\n

The double-header took place at St. Maximilian Kolbe CHS, as the Barbarians welcomed Gravesend Grammar School from England.<\/p>\n

Gravesend certainly had the advantage in experience, as the grammar school had a long rugby history spanning over a century. As for the Barbs, this season marked the first to have enough players registered to field both an \u2018A\u2019 team and \u2018B\u2019 team. However, Gravesend coach Emlyn said his team would not take the Canadians lightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really interesting to play in a country where rugby\u2019s up-and-coming and just starting to grow,\u201d said Emlyn. \u201cSo I think the boys find it really interesting to play people who are different sizes, who come from different backgrounds, and especially from different sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first match saw the Barbs \u2018B\u2019 squad match up against Gravesend\u2019s U17. Barbarian Aidan Brown said that while team strategy remained similar against their experienced overseas opponent, they had to take advantage of their opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch what their mistakes are,\u201d said Brown. \u201cAnd if they keep repeating them, we have to pounce on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown had three tries in what would be a 35 \u2013 14 victory for the Barbarians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see how they play, having played together for years,\u201d said Brown. \u201cThese guys are so far ahead of Canada in rugby, and for us to win against a team like this shows we\u2019re improving.\u201d
\nThe Barbarian \u2018A\u2019 squad took on the Gravesend U18 team in the second match of the evening.<\/p>\n

Although the Barbs dropped the match 5 \u2013 42, head coach Sandy Townsend said he sees value in the experience his players had.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to provide our players with the highest opportunity we can to challenge them,\u201d said Townsend. \u201cWe want to present them with a chance to show what they can do against some of the best, whether in Ontario or overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n

As much of the U18 team graduated at the end of last season, Townsend called this a \u201creloading year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that next year looks really good,\u201d said Townsend. \u201cNot that I\u2019m writing off this year. We\u2019ve had two U16 teams for the last two years, so it\u2019s nice to see those kids graduate and stay with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trip was Gravesend Grammar School\u2019s third to Canada, having also visited South Africa twice and both Los Angeles and New Zealand once since 1999.<\/p>\n

So what makes Canada and Aurora worth three visits? The answer should not come as a surprise.
\n\u201cThe hospitality,\u201d said Emlyn. \u201cThe people we\u2019ve met along the way have been fantastic. The welcoming we receive, the people that we meet, the rugby that we play, has always been in good spirits. It just keeps us coming back for more.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the Aurora Barbarians Rugby Football Club, visit aurorabarbarians.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Aurora Barbarians U18 men\u2019s team played host to some special visitors Tuesday night from across the pond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/2014-07-24-06.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1WT","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-26 09:58:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}