Rugby ace reflects on Canada Games

Peter LeMessurier was at his old stomping grounds Thursday, watching his alma mater, PACI, in a Fort Carlton Six-Man Football League game against Wakaw.

Though he was checking out the high school action from the stands, LeMessurier was front and centre last month as part of Saskatchewan's rugby entry at the Canada Summer Games.

During the week-long tournament in Prince Edward Island, Team Saskatchewan lost just once in 10 games.

"It was lots of fun," said LeMessurier, who graduated from PACI in June.

"We played well overall, (but) we feel we could have done better. It was just the way that it was set up, I guess."

Despite posting a glittering 9-1 record, Saskatchewan had to settle for fifth place.

"It was kind of weird," LeMessurier said. "The game that we lost was a quarter-final. The team we lost to (Newfoundland) ended up placing third, so we lost to a decent team, at least."

Newfoundland defeated Saskatchewan 24-13 in their critical playoff meeting. Otherwise, the Saskatchewan boys were perfect, going 4-0 in the preliminary round-robin and 5-0 in the consolation round-robin.

After all that rugby in a six-day span, LeMessurier and his teammates were "a little worn out," he said. "We were pretty tired."

As their record indicates, they didn't give up after falling out of medal contention.

"We wanted to play decently," said LeMessurier, who turns 18 in October. "We still played hard after the (quarter-final) loss, to try to win the rest of our games. We ended up doing that, so it was all right."

LeMessurier's teammates included fellow Prince Albertan Dylan Boleski and Jon Bati of Birch Hills. All three were teammates with the Saskatchewan Rivers Dragons last spring during the high school season. Boleski is in his senior year with the Carlton Crusaders football team, which includes LeMessurier's younger brother, Ross.

The success of the 18-and-under Saskatchewan rugby team at the Canada Games didn't surprise LeMessurier, who was the starting scrum-half for the first five games and played wing the rest of the way.

"We had really good chemistry," he said. "The team has been together for, like, three years now, so everybody kind of knew each other's tendencies a bit. That helped a lot.

"We went to Brandon for exhibition (play in July). We played Team Manitoba twice, just to get our team working, and to get games in before the Canada Games."

LeMessurier, five-foot-10 and 155 pounds, has already played competitive rugby among men. This past summer, he dressed with the Saskatoon Wild Oats team that's bound for the provincial final this weekend.

LeMessurier plans to wait until next year before enrolling in university. For now, "I'm just working and making some money."

Appropriately, he's working at a sports store. During his break Thursday, he watched his former school lose 63-22 to Wakaw.

LeMessurier played three years with the PACI football team, which misses his talent this season. PACI has a 1-3 record, while Wakaw is at 2-1.

jmacneil@paherald.sk.ca