Lt. Governor Barbara O'Brien was on hand to present the Colorado Youth Rugby awards, including Player of the Year(Alex Nittoli of ThunderRidge High School) and Coach of the Year (Chancy Cunningham of Ridgeview Academy). The 2008 Team Sportsmanship Award was presented to the Cherry Creek Rugby Football Club. For information about Colorado Youth Rugby, click this link to find a coach: http://www.errfu.org/template.php?sid=89#245

The Championship Match was played in the true spirit of rugby with both teams providing the spectators with a "nail biting" encounter. A battle of attrition between the two spirited sides where the principles of rugby were bought to the fore - strong tackling, heavily contested lineout's, scrums and rucks with some enterprising running, passing and kicking by both forwards and backs.

Every time Denver East scored Colorado Springs remained composed and dug deeper to soon equalize the scores. For the majority of the game it was a very evenly contested game however Colorado Springs lifted the tempo in the last 10 minutes of the 2nd half. Retaining most of the ball and field possession they placed increased pressure on Denver East. Multiple forwards attacks advanced the team to where they crossed Denver East's goal line twice, only to he held up in goal on both occasions.

With equal points at full time Colorado Springs - 17 Denver East - 17 the teams then moved into overtime where the first scorer would take the Championship.

Colorado Springs kicked to Denver East - deep and mid field. Their backs together with the loose forward trio placed strong pressure on Denver East. Several powerful and controlled rucks by Colorado Springs produced good clean ball which was passed out the back line to Centre - Jacob Gogan, who beat his opposition man, to secure the winning try.

Whilst their were some good individual performances in the Colorado Springs team, their ultimate success eventually came from the sound characteristics of this great game - Communication, team work, support play, pressure and the passion and will power to contest until the final whistle!

3 Points ~Penalty Goal - (Fly Half No.10 )Jake Divich
5 Points ~Try - (Inside Centre No 12) Chris Franquemont
2 Points ~Conversion - (Fly Half No.10) Jake Divich
5 points ~Try - ( Flanker No. 6) Bryant Curdy
2 Points ~Conversion - (Fly Half No.10) Jake Divich
5 Points ~Try - (Centre No.13) Jacob Gogan

In the Consolation match (3rd place), last year's State Champions, Regis Jesuit, matched up against Aurora Saracens. After losing their Semi-Final match to Colorado Springs a week before by 1 pt at full time, Aurora bounced back to defeat Regis Jesuit 12-5 to finish 3rd in state. Aurora scored first when fly-half Jack White kicked a high up and under that was fielded by outside center Matt Markovetz who beat the first defender, drew in the 2nd tackler and passed to speedster fullback Dantier Gordon for the try. Greg Grow was successful with the conversion and the Saracens were up by 7.

The second try of the half came off a quick line out throw to White, who passed to Gordon, who made the pass to 2nd row Charles McCain who made an unbelievable catch storming forward for 20 meters coming up just short of the try zone. Great rucking left the ball for rookie sophomore, Dennis PaPike, who picked it up and was pushed over by hooker Aaron Vega and #7 Aaron Gallagherin a true team effort. The referee did not allow Grow to replace the ball that fell off the tee preventing the Saracens from converting their second try. With less than a minute to go in the first half, the Regis forwards commandeered their own line out inside the Aurora 10 meter line and drove their maul to the try line and scored, missing the conversion.

There was a lot of ball movement up and down the field by both teams in and action packed second half. An Aurora score was called back when the referee determined that an Aurora player obstructed a Regis tackler.

In the Plate Bracket Final (9th place match), Cherry Creek Rugby Club and the Glendale Raptors represented teams defeated in the first round of the playoffs (held at Dick's Sporting Good's Park on May 3rd) . Glendale Raptors beat Cherry Creek by a score of 26 - 17.