A fired up host Brantford Harlequins team edged Irish Canadians 17-12 to win the Brantford Tournament in perfect conditions on Saturday.

With three games on the slate and lots of players playing new positions, the Irish and Quin's staged a pretty good tussle in the final, Quin's backs moving the ball well and the Irish forwards looking strong.

With regulars Jon Ashley, Peter Smith, Ramzi Azar, Istvan Mozes and Jay Verstraten missing, the Irish gained a final berth by defeating a strong Markham team 29-7; tries from Bruce Maxwell (2), Mark Thompson, and newcomers Brad Boss and Dan Hinton. The Irish looked quick and agile against a big Markham team.

Next up were an obviously rebuilding Fergus side, and with de-powered scrums from the start and an obvious lack of interest from both, the game got ugly early. Len Jean Pierre scored a first half hat trick of tries; Mark Thompson opened the second half with a rendition of the Coalition armies advance on Baghdad, catching the kick-off and racing the length of the park with only light and sporadic opposition. Oren Smith, Mike Brown, James Berry and Ryan Ellement added singles to end the 40 minute game at 44-0.

In the final (see Doug Crosse report on www.canadianrugbynews.com), Brantford took a 7-0 lead on some excellent back movement; added to that lead after Irish rammed a Quins scrum backwards, only to have the ball pop out to the number 8, who was wheeled into scoring position;
and finally establishing some rhythm, the Irish scored twice from pressure in the Quin's end (Maxwell and Jean Pierre) sandwiched around a Quin's breakaway try for the 17-12 final margin after 40 minutes.

"Brantford just wanted it more at the start," noted Irish assistant coach Gareth Pettigrew.

"All in all, a very positive day," said Irish coach Mark Winokur. "We obviously have some work to do, but with many regulars returning soon, and the knowledge that our pattern can be successful, we have something to build on."

The development side, obviously suffering from the players missing at the top of the pyramid, lost to Quins II and Scottish I, but they will be hugely impacted by the return of veteran players next week.

The firsts now travel to Ottawa to face the Harlequins of the Super League at 3 pm Saturday, while the development side faces Ottawa Indians I at 1:30