University Rugby Sevens: The boys are back...

Brothers in arms. Christian (left) and Jonathan

 View University Sevens Championship Photos

About 16 years ago, my oldest son Jonathan - about five years old at the time - was playing with his younger brother, Christian, two years his junior. I watched from an upper room in our Edmonton home as the two played a nice game of Sonic Hedgehog, or some variance thereof.

Jonathan beckoned Christian to go to the house and fetch him a particular toy. A moment of familiar servitude that those who did not fall in the proper birth order, are destined to live with for perpetuity. Christian scurried to the house and within minutes came out proudly displaying Jonathan’s requested item.

“You idiot!” Jonathan sensitively exclaimed to his impressionable younger brother. “You brought the wrong toy! Do I have to do everything myself?”



And so began the relationship of two brothers, who like most siblings, had moments of great love and comradery, to wanting to put a pillow over the other one’s face when they were sleeping.  But through it all, they always had an unwritten code of loyalty and support for each other.

Now standing 6ft. 5in., 230 lbs, one is not as quick to boss Christian around, but Jonathan will still get his shots in - mostly of the verbal variety (he’s university educated, so he’s not that stupid...)

Although they both have played elite, competitive sports over the years, their age difference never allowed them to compete with or against each another. So it was with keen anticipation that both took the field last month to participate in the inaugural University Sevens Rugby Championship - and a real possibility that they for the first time, might compete against each other (in a sanctioned and officiated capacity, anyway).

Jonathan, a seasoned veteran of his UBC Varsity team, was one of only a handful chosen to represent UBC Vancouver, while Christian was part of a hastily assembled UBC Okanagan sqaud, loosly resembling the cast of The Bad News Bears.

Now Rugby Sevens is a different animal - the way the game should be played at all levels. It is fast, hard hitting, skillful and intense. And with only seven bodies on a massive field, everyone is accountable and essential to the team effort - unlike the 15 man version of the game, which sees about five players actually doing anything productive and the balance either looking like they should be picking flowers like a mini-mite soccer game, or have their heads wedged in someone else’s rear end.

This of course from someone who has barely picked up a rugby ball (although my father played at an elite level and captained back in England), but the 15 man game is antiquated in its mission to attract young athletes to a sport where they might literally do nothing but run up and down the field for about 90 minutes, not once touching the ball. Fun.

When I become the exalted leader of the Rugby Universe, this will all change (that and kicking the damn ball out of bounds every two minutes). Yes, all change...

Jonathan’s team played pretty much up to expectations, finishing third in the tournament, but the surprise of the weekend event was the play of the UBCO team, that slowly found their stride and confidence, culminating in a near Miracle On Turf scenario where the upstart group from the interior - never once playing or practicing together as a team previously, were within a minute of upsetting top ranked Western University. A team months in the making.

Chritian scored what would have been the game winning try, but with one last gasp of desperation - most likely driven by each player envisioning having to hitchhike back east on their own as the school would have rendered the program “obsolete” after the humiliation - McMaster made a spirited run to go up by only a couple with about 64 seconds left.

Unlike its American cousin, football, 64 seconds does not last 45 minutes, but more accurately about 15 seconds of actual playing time as the clock stops for no one.

The upset was not to be. Both boys had a good tournament, with Jonathan also scoring a try, but never did meet on the field of competition, although there is rumor that Jonathan did bark out an order for Christian to “get me a beer” during the post tourney party. No word on if he got it right this time...