An Estevan youth is making his presence known on two provincial under-16 rugby teams.
Daniel Wanner, a 16-year-old who plays rugby for the Notre Dame Hounds, made an impact for the provincial seven-man team at the Western Canada Games last week in Kamloops, B.C. Without a break to come home, he's now competing with the Saskatchewan U-16, 15-man team at the National Rugby Festival in Calgary, which opened this morning.
Though he's pretty new to the sport, Wanner has learned it quickly and shown he can play with the best in the country.
He spoke with The Mercury from Kamloops last week, before the semi-final game of the Western Canada Games against Alberta. Wanner scored three tries for Saskatchewan in the semi-final contest, leading the team to a 22-5 victory. They faced British Columbia in the gold-medal game on Sunday but lost 41-5, to win silver medals.
Wanner said the experience during the round robin was "amazing. I love it."
He was offered a spot on the sevens team because his coach at Notre Dame was selected to coach the provincial team. Because of the familiarity, Wanner got a spot on the roster.
"I guess that was good enough for him, because he had seen me play."
Wanner showed he belonged, scoring seven tries in seven games, throughout the tournament.
Now he's in Calgary to play for the province's 15-man squad. Saskatchewan plays their first round-robin game against Ontario 2 today. The tournament ends this Sunday.
Wanner has been at Notre Dame for the last two years, but just finished his first season playing rugby. Before that he played football in Estevan.
"I've played football, but I'd never played rugby," he said.
Being selected for the provincial team after only playing the sport for a year is quite the feat. Wanner called it "a dream come true."
The Estevan native was a little put off by the speed of a football, preferring the less regulated, more freewheeling game of rugby.
"It was more faster-paced than football. What I didn't like in football was that you'd go for 20, 30 seconds and then stop, but in rugby, it's always continuous go, go, go, you don't stop. I like the faster pace."
Not only does he like the faster pace, but he also is partial to the offensive aspects of the game
"I'm more of an offensive guy. I like to run and score and do all that stuff, but defence is part of the game, so I do what I can."
Wanner is a fullback when playing on the 15-man squad. That changes when playing seven-man.
"You don't really have my position when playing sevens. I just stay behind everyone and make sure no one gets past me, but in sevens rugby you rely on all your other teammates to help you out and make sure no one gets passed."
In some respects the Western Canada Games is a warm-up for the Rugby Festival, as that team is competing in Calgary as well, with a few more members to fill out the bigger squad. Wanner said the time in Kamloops was great to get some of the players used to playing together.
"It helps very much for bonding, getting to know everyone and getting to play with them so you know what they do and how they play. You just get used to them. They're a great group of guys."
He said playing with the sevens team has been easy to get comfortable with. The team got together near the start of July before heading to B.C. and have been practising together in Regina and Saskatoon during that time.
Heading into the national tournament, Wanner said the team's goals are to just play as hard as they can and "hope we make Saskatchewan proud."
