King's-Edgehill School and Avon View High School, which have a friendly but notorious cross-town rivalry, will be facing off May 18 to determine who gets the privilege.
“It's great to have so much rugby (in the Valley) first of all. It's a sport that we definitely need to try and continue to grow but to have two such strong teams in the one town it's brilliant. It really is,” said David Foley, the KES girls' head coach.
KES will visit Avon View for their final Valley High School Rugby League game May 18, around 5 p.m. Foley said the winner of that game will host the regional final on May 25 while the losing side will host a regional semi-final on May 23.
Leading up to the May 18 game, KES had a strong showing against Bridgewater's Park View Education Centre. They played the team twice – May 9 and May 11 – and didn't allow them to accumulate any tries. The VHSRL lists blowouts as 30-0 on the official game sheet.
The King's-Edgehill School's girls' rugby team showed their might May 11 at home, thoroughly thumping the visitors.
“We beat them on Tuesday and it was very important – and I tried to get across to the girls – that it's going to be a brand new team, they're going to come with a different attitude, it's better (playing) conditions because Tuesday was so wet,” said Foley of the Thursday match up.
“It took five, almost 10 minutes, for our girls to actually wake up to that. They were a little bit complacent because they had just beaten them.”
But once they got the first try, thanks to Amanda Whelan, they didn't look back.
“Any mistakes that the girls made, they realized them and fixed them. The next time around, they didn't happen again. It's great to see that,” said Foley.
On May 9, Avon View also won their game against West Kings, with a league score of 30-0.
The Division 1 teams are tied for first place in the VHSRL.
