The Herriman HS Gold team has won the first two tournaments of the Utah Youth Rugby 7s series, setting themselves up nicely for the next two events.

In the 1st leg, Herriman Gold started somewhat shakily against the East Side Barbarians, led by Ezequiel Garcia, but they held on to win. After that, Herriman hit their stride. They handed Kau Toa a 34-7 loss, and then beat United (playing a little shorthanded as it was Homecoming) 54-5. 

Taysan Hammer was Herriman’s leading scorer and impressive in all aspects of play. Gabe Mahuinga, Zak Barker, Dalton Saunders and Jackson Blank also shined. In addition, two transfers have bolstered the Herriman ranks. Sione Mahe, who played with Herriman for two years before attending a different school last year, is now back and on very good form, and Ethan Burrows, who started for the Lions Academy last year and changed schools during the summer. 

Then this past Saturday, despite not having Barker or Mahuinga for most of the day, Herriman struck gold again. They beat the East Side Barbarians 29-5, Idaho 31-5, and Wasatch 36-12. That set up a game against United, at full strength this time around, in the semis. But Herriman was on a roll and won 26-7.

In the final, they met Kau Toa, led by the impressive Nolan Tuamoheloa. Kau Toa led 7-5 early, but Herriman exploded for six tries to lead 41-5 before Kau Toa scored two late. Final score 41-21. Jackson Blank was outstanding on the day and was selected as Herriman’s player of the tournament, while Hammer and Saunders featured heavily on the scoresheet. Captain Caden Simmons played hard through a rib injury.

Herriman fielded five sides in both of the tournaments.

“The turnout has been amazing,” said Herriman Coach Jeff Wilson. “We have 64 players out for the fall, which of course does not include our 40 or so who are playing football this fall. All of our other teams have over 50% of their players seeing their first-ever rugby action." 

The 2nd side, the Red team, were beaten by Wasatch and Kau Toa in the 1st leg, but went on to beat the Barbarians. Eric Borba and Jake Barker played well. In the 2nd led, they showed improvement, but ended up losing to Wasatch in the Plate Final to take 6th.

The other three Herriman teams played in the JV Division, with the Blue going 3-0, White going 2-1, and Black 1-2.

“I was pleased to see continued improvement from these sides, which are made up almost exclusively of new players, most of them 9th- and 10th- graders,” said Wilson. “We love 7s and we compete hard and want to be successful, but that is all secondary. The primary goal we have in the fall is to develop for the Spring, and we accomplished that very well.”

Wilson also was able to bring in English referee Tim Miller, who was in Utah on the invitation of Rugby Utah's Ken Rivera, on a training trip, to work with the players.

“Since most infringements occur at the breakdown, that is where he spent most of the time,” said Wilson. “It was a wonderful session for our boys, old and new alike, and we were so grateful that he would spend some of his time here working with our boys.”