An up and coming female rugby player from Gibsons cut her teeth on the weekend at the Japan Cup in Vancouver.
Claire Fearnley, 14, was the youngest member on a Vancouver team and played all weekend with the side in the girls U17 division at the tournament held at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
She played tight head prop and was in a lot of action as the side went 1-3 overall finishing in third spot.
Claire scored the only try for Vancouver in a 12-5 loss to Fraser Valley. Vancouver also lost 12-5 to North Island, 12-0 to Thompson/Okanagan and defeated Thompson 22-0.
The Japan Cup is a province-wide event with 73 games of rugby played over three days by four divisions of rep teams (U16 boys, U17 girls, U18 men and U19 women).
Claire has been travelling to Burnaby Lake Rugby Club twice a week the last month in order to practice with the Vancouver side. Claire is doing a great job bringing Coast rugby to the big city and has been asked by her coach, Steve Bennett, to join his Simon Fraser University (SFU) Second Division senior women's team in the fall.
"She played every minute of every game, which is great for such a young player," said dad Scott Fearnley, who also serves as president of the Gibsons Rugby Athletic Club. "It's tough for me to talk her up because I'm her father, but she's just doing so well. She's representing Gibsons and the Coast and she's getting some tremendous opportunities to play high calibre rugby."
Claire is going into Grade 10 in September at Elphinstone Secondary School. She plans to continue playing with the Gibsons Pigs with the prospects of playing for SFU.
"SFU is one of the schools she wants to attend, so things seem to be really falling into place for her," Scott added. "She was totally jacked to play in this tournament. The Japan Cup has a long and storied history. To play in the event is a huge honour."
