One of the great sports secrets of Yellowknife is that there is an actual rugby club.
They're known as the Yellowknife Exiles and while small in nature, they always manage to make it out of town for an annual adventure known as the Stampede Sevens in Calgary.
They did that again earlier this month as the Exiles made their appearance in the tournament on July 6 and 7 and very nearly went to the top of the mountain in the men's social division, losing in the final to the Calgary Canucks.
Greg Hamann, the team's co-captain, said it was at least the 15th time the team had travelled to Calgary for the tournament over the years.
"We sent down a team of 10 players with three former Exiles joining us down there," he said.
Rugby sevens differs somewhat from rugby union with the obvious difference being that it's seven-a-side as opposed to 15-a-side in rugby union. Instead of 40-minute halves, each half in rugby sevens is seven minutes long with a one-minute halftime, meaning a game is 15 minutes long. Because games are short, it's not uncommon to have a tournament completed in just two days.
The scoring is the same with five points for a try (major score), two points for a conversion and three points for a penalty kick or drop-goal.
The Exiles started in the round-robin and dominated in their first two games, winning both handily by scores of 34-5 and 42-0 respectively. Their final round-robin game was a tougher slog against the Foothills Lions of Calgary but they pulled through victorious, 24-12.
Because they went undefeated and had a generous plus-minus point total, the Exiles advanced to the semifinal to take on the CK Rugby Football Club from Calgary. They gave up the first try but it was merely a blip on the radar as they scored 35 unanswered points to win out, 35-7, and advance to the final.
The Calgary Canucks were the opposition for the Exiles in the final and they turned out to be the one team that gave Yellowknife all sorts of trouble.
Hamann said they were a young, speedy side made up of B players from their top team and they dominated from start to finish.
But the result was nothing to sneeze at, he added.
"(We) finished second in the social division in a long five-game, one-day tournament in 30 C weather," he said.
The team had plenty of help in the sponsors department with Black Knight, Corothers Home Building Centre and Adlair Aviation pitching in to get the team to Calgary.