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Grant tackles Gold sevens

Sevens is the name of the game for St. Albert rugby player Drew Grant after making the Edmonton Gold high school team for next month’s world invitational tournament in Las Vegas.

Sevens is the name of the game for St. Albert rugby player Drew Grant after making the Edmonton Gold high school team for next month’s world invitational tournament in Las Vegas.

“At first my main focus was rugby union 15s but since I made this team I’ve actually been focusing quite a lot more on my sevens game,” Grant said. “I’ve always been told that sevens is more my style. I’m on the faster side of rugby players so I guess you could say I got pushed towards it because of my speed.”

The Grade 11 Paul Kane High School student spent the past two years in England playing left wing and outside centre with the Doncaster Knights’ academy program and the South Yorkshire county representative team before returning home in September.

While with the Knights, Grant played in a sevens tournament and liked it so much he decided to try out for the Gold.

“It just kind of took off from there.”

He made the team’s long list of 17 prospects and was eventually selected to the 12-player roster for the largest sevens tournament in North America.

“It’s pretty exciting. It’s a big deal. I’m really excited for it,” said Grant, who turns 17 on Jan. 25. “It’s really going to help expand my rugby game personally from a 15s player to a sevens style. Canada is a lot better at the sevens than they are at the 15s so it opens up more opportunity, especially for the next Olympics in Rio in 2016. They’re putting sevens in that, and with it being four years away I will be at a prime athlete age to hopefully be in it.”

Grant expects to play the sweeper position with the Gold.

“Basically I run the width of the field more so than the up and down lanes and I use my fitness cardio to stay on top of the defence. I move across the width of the field in covering the defence and creating holes,” said the linebacker and special teams player for the Paul Kane football team in the metro Edmonton league’s Carr conference.

Matches are two lighting quick seven-minute halfs.

“It is very tiring. It feels as if you were out there for 80 (minutes). In a full 15s game you’re just kind of jogging around and you’ll have short sprints, but this is 14 minutes of flat out sprinting.”

The majority of the Gold players are affiliated with the Clansmen and Nor’Westers.

Chad Monai-Brophy of the St. Albert Rugby Football Club also made the Gold team. Last year the Austin O’Brien Crusaders’ football player played for the club’s U17 juniors, the Edmonton Rugby Union finalists, and the U16 provincial team that finished fifth at nationals.

The Gold head coach is Rick Stiles-Oldring of the Nor’Westers.

“We’ve got some really good players, and a couple of big guys for sevens as well, so to me it seems like we’re going to do really well,” Grant said. “I’m definitely confident about going down there and showing them what we’ve got.”

The Gold have ratcheted up the training session in preparation for the Feb. 6 to 10 tournament.

“We go twice a week right now for close to three hours. We do all of our rugby drills and then they decide to test our fitness and drive us into the ground.”

In addition to his British rugby background, Grant has club ties with St. Albert and the Clan. His father, Andy, a noted forward back in the day who also took a stab at coaching, has connections with both clubs and played for South Yorkshire as well.

“My dad was definitely my No. 1 supporter and my No. 1 coach throughout most of my rugby.”

SCRUM BALLS: The Gold is hosting a silent auction Wednesday, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Ellerslie Rugby Park, to help reduce the cost of the trip to Las Vegas. For more information, contact Stiles-Oldring at [email protected].

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