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January 29, 2009

Our hearts go out to the Geach family at this time. Nigel Geach passed away this week after his courageous battle. Nigel is a long time supporter of our rugby club and is even bigger in the way he gave, unselfishly, to our community in many ways. We will miss him dearly.

Games the weekend

Lots of Rugby stuff happening around the league and at home here in Cowichan.

First off we have our first games of the 2010 this weekend.

Saturday, January 30

Premier Men/1st Div Men: Cowichan vs Nanaimo at May Bennett Park in Nanaimo KO @ 1:00pm (Exhibition)

NOTE FOR SATURDAY
  • * There will be a training session for the Senior Men at the club grounds @ 10:00 am prior to leaving for Nanaimo. All be there.
  • * The bus will leave the club for Nanaimo at 11:15am for the 45min drive to May Bennett Park
Sunday, January 31

3rd Div Men: Cowichan vs Powell River @ Powell River KO @ 1:00pm (League Game)

WELCOME NEW PLAYERS

I want to welcome two new players to Cowichan. Both arrived yesterday from Brantford, Ontario. The boys both play for the Brantford Harlequins (Aaron Carpenter's home club) and are very excited to be at Cowichan.

Adam Shouten. Scrum Half, 6'-1" 195 LBS Adam played for the Ontario Blues ARC team and Canada vs Argentina this past summer. He also played for Canada East in the NA4.
Steve "Chunk" Young, Loose head Prop, 6'-2", 310 lbs. Steve also played for the Ontario Blues and in the Canada vs Argentina game this past summer.

Both players are young, enthusiastic and look forward to some robust Piggie Rugby this Spring season.

TRAINING THURSDAY NIGHT

That's better...45 male players out and 20 female players tonight. I wasn't at training but from what I heard it was an excellent session with everyone fitting in nicely.

TID BITS

-The vote goes ahead Sunday for the league restructure. I am/was leaning towards a yes, which is a nod for relegation, but after some passionate pleas from a couple of Vancouver Clubs, I/we will be re-evaluating our position on this. Apparently some of the Vancouver clubs are in a state that if they do not qualify this year, they may have trouble operating. Our club fundamentally is against relegation so we'll see after Saturday where we sit. We hold 14 votes.

-Simon Smolden from Burnaby RFC called me today hoping we would vote "no" for the proposed league structure which includes relegation. We had a great talk about it and he had some good points. Key of which being a worry about relegated clubs being in a spot where they may never be able to recover. (Urban clubs)

-If the vote is a "yes", and the league is restructured there will be 9 teams for the Spring 2011 season. 3 of the 12 from this season will be dropped. Reality could see 5 Premier teams on the Island and 4 Premier Teams on the mainland. If the standings are anything like last Springs where we came 9th....the 3 Vancouver teams below us (Burnaby RFC, Vancouver Rowing Club and UBC Old Boys Ravens) would be relegated.

-Cowichan Junior player. Dustin Dobravsky, who is in Grade 12 at Shawnigan Lake School has been selected to the Canada 7's squad this Spring. He will be part of the team that will go to the upcoming IRB tournaments in Wellington, New Zealand, and Las Vegas, Nevada! What an honor for this young fellow. Great to see the RC Website has listed him as from Cowichan RFC!

-Hubert Buydens is back playing rugby on the Island. He will be suiting up for CW this Spring. Hubert was a great footballer at the U of Sask and was drafted into the CFL..

-Robbie Robson is once again suiting up for JBAA. Robson had taken the fall of to rest his achy body. He will be a spirited player for JBAA this Spring.

-Velox have a back row player this year that played in the Super 14 this past fall. We play them later on at home so keep your eye on this chap.

-Port Alberni hosts Richmond this Saturday in the League opener. Go Black Sheep...They're always tough at home.

-The BC Wide League and the NVIRU 3rd Div, Leagues open this weekend.

-Nanaimo RFC has to travel to Seattle and Kelowna this Spring 4 other times to the mainland....oh fun!

-I missed out mentioning one of all around key players last week when I was going through the roster of returnees...Kim Anderton... is back! In shape and ready to go! Kim, as always, was called on lots last fall to fill in at Prop on the #1 team and held his own every game. The club looks forward to this rangy character once again plying his rugby at the Dome.

-Canada U-17 squad takes on the Fraser Valley All stars this weekend on the mainland. Our Gary Dukelow is with the Canadian boys helping out with the forwards.

-All the Fijian players that played for Bayside RFC last Spring now play for Burnaby RFC....so we'll see these chaps next week as we host Burnaby a week Saturday.

-There will be close scrutiny of teams that try to play more Imports than the rules allow this season. (3 allowed on a roster of 22) On every roster now an Import has to be marked with an "I". Not that this will identify those that wish to play below the radar, but the BCRU will be more firm in their enforcement of the rules this Spring. Apparently there has been problems on the mainland........

-JBAA via Phil Myer will be putting forth a motion at the Emergency BCRU AGM to have the BCRU endorse a "Pacific Pride" style team in the Premier League next year. There's still a lot of "hair on fire" in Victoria over the "Carded" players going to Wales....I think it's great...our member...Doug Wooldridge is having a good time in Wales and sees this as a great opportunity for his rugby to improve. We support Doug and his mates over there.....

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." (unknown source)

The Chief Scribe, JJ